[Vision2020] Politicians Taking Heat on Trade Laws in NC

[Donovan Arnold]

Bush Jr. is only a one term president. He is gone. There is no way he can 
win Florida again. He can't get 270 electoral votes.

Donovan J Arnold

>From: Tim Lohrmann <timlohr@yahoo.com>
>To: vision2020@moscow.com
>Subject: [Vision2020] Politicians Taking Heat on Trade Laws in NC
>Date: Mon, 25 Aug 2003 21:09:29 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Looks like GOP'ers and Demos alike are finally going
>to face the music for this so-called "Free" trade
>globaloney.
>At least in the Carolinas.
>    TL
>
>
>
>CHARLOTTE OBSERVER.COM
> > Posted on Mon, Aug. 25, 2003
> >
> > Politicians taking heat on trade laws
> > Workers, execs criticize Bush, lawmakers over loss
> > of factory jobs
> > JIM MORRILL & RONNIE GLASSBERG
> > Staff Writers
> >
> > Days after the collapse of Pillowtex, Republican
> > U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes
> > walked into a Kannapolis auditorium to meet with
> > former workers.
> >
> > "Thanks for sending the jobs overseas, Robin!"
> > shouted Brenda Miller, a
> > longtime worker at the textile giant's Salisbury
> > plant.
> >
> > Her taunt was part of a loud, growing backlash
> > against politicians who
> > supported trade policies largely blamed for the loss
> > of more than
> > 180,000 Carolinas manufacturing jobs since January
> > 2001, when President
> > Bush took office.
> >
> > As unemployment rises in both states, newly militant
> > executives are
> > criticizing Bush and planning unprecedented
> > education and voter drives,
> > promising to make sure workers know who's on their
> > side and who's not.
> >
> > "We're seeing a new dynamic where the executives and
> > employees are both
> > beginning to see a real threat to their interests,"
> > says Fred Reese,
> > president of Western N.C. Industries, an employer
> > association. "You're
> > going to see people who traditionally voted
> > Republican switch over."
> >
> > Jobs, or the lack of them, are an issue across the
> > country. Democrats
> > are hoping that 2004 becomes a repeat of 1992, when
> > Bill Clinton's
> > intense focus on the sour economy helped unseat the
> > first President Bush.
> >
> > In 2000, the Carolinas were George W. Bush country:
> > he won more than 56
> > percent of the vote in each state. But mounting job
> > losses have taken
> > their toll on the president, an unabashed
> > free-trader, and threaten
> > other trade supporters, particularly in the South.
> >
> > Andy Warlick, CEO of Parkdale Mills in Gaston
> > County, voted for Bush in
> > 2000. Next year, he says, he doubts he will.
> >
> > "He made a lot of promises and he hasn't delivered
> > on any of them,"
> > Warlick says. "I've had some first-hand experience
> > of him sending down
> > trade and commerce officials ... but they're just
> > photo ops. ... It's
> > empty rhetoric."
> >
> > One of the top reasons for the dismal Carolinas
> > economy: foreign trade.
> >
> > Since 1993, when Congress passed the Clinton-backed
> > North American Free
> > Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, jobs in many industries
> > have fled overseas.
> > For example, about half the textile and apparel jobs
> > that existed in
> > 1994 are gone. Critics say "fast-track" trade
> > authority and other trade
> > measures President Bush pushed through with Vietnam
> > and other countries
> > can potentially add to the losses.
> >
> > Experts say the end to quotas on Chinese imports,
> > scheduled to expire at
> > the end of 2004, could cost 127,000 more textile
> > jobs over the next
> > three years in the Carolinas alone.
> >
> > "They're sending all our jobs overseas," says Leslie
> > Barrett, one of
> > nearly 5,000 Pillowtex workers who lost their jobs
> > in the state's
> > largest layoff. "There are not enough jobs here, and
> > then there are all
> > these foreign people here."
> >
> > Not satisfied
> >
> > In December 2001 Hayes, of Concord, cast the
> > tie-breaking vote for
> > fast-track. At the time he said he won promises from
> > the Bush
> > administration that it would more strictly enforce
> > existing trade
> > agreements and pressure foreign countries to open
> > their markets to U.S.
> > textiles."Are we ... pleased with the way they
> > responded? Absolutely,"
> > says Hayes. "Are we satisfied with where we are?
> > Absolutely not."
> >
> > In two years, U.S. Rep. Cass Ballenger's 10th
> > District has lost nearly
> > 40,000 jobs, primarily in the textile and furniture
> > industries. The
> > Hickory Republican voted for NAFTA and fast-track.
> >
> > "Certainly, there's a political cost to any
> > controversial vote no matter
> > which side you take," Ballenger says. "People are
> > casting stones, but
> > we're trying to pick them up and build something.
> > ... I don't spend much
> > time thinking about an election that's more than a
> > year away. My focus
> > is on helping the region recover."
> >
> > Hayes later voted against the final version of
> > fast-track. He and
> > Ballenger aren't the only ones who cast potentially
> > unpopular votes.
> >
> > Rep. John Spratt, a York, S.C., Democrat, voted for
> > NAFTA. Republican
> > U.S. Reps. Sue Myrick of Charlotte, Richard Burr of
> > Winston-Salem and
> > Jim DeMint of Greenville, S.C., voted for
> > fast-track. Both Burr and
> > DeMint are running for the Senate.
> >
> > U.S. Sen. John Edwards, a Democrat from North
> > Carolina, voted against
> > fast-track in 2002 after voting for an earlier
> > version. In 2000 he voted
> > for permanent normal trade relations with China.
> >
> > Edwards, however, has since attacked Bush's trade
> > policies and called
> > for fairer trade measures. Burr recently threatened
> > to introduce
> > legislation to eliminate the office of U.S. trade
> > representative. Hayes,
> > like Ballenger, has worked hard to get services to
> > displaced workers and
> > promote more development in his district.
> >
> > "Though he (Hayes) voted for fast-track, he is
> > really concerned about
> > the workers and their conditions in the state of
> > North Carolina," says
> > Robert Neal, vice president of the local chapter of
> > the Pillowtex
> > workers' union.
> >
> > Jennifer Duffy, an analyst for the Cook Political
> > Report, says
> > "Republicans all went to the `Robin Hayes school' in
> > terms of learning
> > how to address those (trade) votes.
> >
> > "Republicans have kind of figured out that for every
> > `bad' vote they
> > cast there are others they would use to show they
> > are fighting for the
> > state's industries."
> >
> > `A North Carolina problem'
> >
> > But Democrats already are pouncing.
> >
> > "A lot of these Republican candidates -- Richard
> > Burr in particular --
> > owe the White House and (political adviser) Karl
> > Rove for clearing the
> > field for him (Burr)," says Brad Woodhouse, a
> > spokesman for the
> > Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "And he's
> > (Burr) going to be
> > expected to continue to support the president."
> >
> > "It's unfortunate that the Democrats want to start
> > early pointing
> > fingers and starting the traditional blame game,"
> > says Burr spokesman
> > Paul Shumaker. "It's not a Democrat problem. It's
> > not a Republican
> > problem. It's a North Carolina problem."
> >
> > Reese, of the employers association, is organizing
> > 1,500 manufacturing
> > companies across North Carolina in an effort to
> > leverage what he calls a
> > new voting bloc. In South Carolina, voter drives are
> > planned for the
> > first time at Milliken & Co., which has about 30
> > plants in the state.
> > Mount Vernon Mills of Greenville, S.C., is forming a
> > political action
> > committee.
> >
> > Company President Roger Chastain, a one-time Bush
> > voter, doesn't expect
> > to support the president or Jim DeMint.
> >
> > "We're basically liquidating our whole middle class,
> > polarizing people
> > on the two extremes, have and have-nots," he says.
> > "We'll be a Third
> > World country." -- STAFF WRITER JAIME LEVY
> > CONTRIBUTED.
> >
> > -- JIM MORRILL: (704) 358-5059;
> > JMORRILL@CHARLOTTEOBSERVER.COM.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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