February 19, 2019

All the Pro-Trade Democrats Go Missing

Does anyone know where all those free trade Democrats went?

Does anyone know where all those free trade Democrats went?

Since Donald Trump burst onto the scene, liberal policy wonks and their Democratic allies have had a field day torching him for his tariff policies. Last year when I testified before the Senate on auto tariffs, nearly every Democrat on the committee, including Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, spoke derisively of what they called Trump’s “dangerous,” “destructive” and “mindless” trade restrictions. They protested that protectionism was harming our relations with our friends and raising prices on our consumers and could thrust the economy into recession.

They all sounded like Milton Friedman and Adam Smith proteges. Democrats were defending the virtues of global capitalism and international commerce and stiff-arming the Trumpian “America first” nationalist theme. Wall Street and Silicon Valley started steering even more of their campaign cash to reward these pro-business Democrats.

What happened?

Now President Trump has renegotiated a new North American free trade deal — with some impressive improvements, including greater protections of American drug patents and a reduction in Canadian agricultural tariffs. Yes, there are some dubious protectionist policies, too, such as requiring that Mexican autoworkers get paid $16 an hour. Despite these flaws, the overriding value is it preserves the free trade architecture of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Just six months ago, it looked as if free trade among Canada, the United States and Mexico was going to blow up into a mutually destructive trade war.

Now this new deal, the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, is grounded in Congress. Will those virtuous free trade Democrats put up or shut up? So far, they aren’t showing up at all. Every vote count analysis finds that support from Democrats is nowhere near where it must be to secure ratification through the House.

The born-again free trade Democrats are inventing every possible excuse for stonewalling. They are saying that it lacks protections for American workers from low-priced Mexican labor and plant closings. This is a farcical argument. In addition to the minimum wage requirement, Mexico must enact a host of workplace measures that support and protect women, unions and migrant workers. There are also new “made in America” domestic content requirements for manufacturing. These sops to the unions are the very reason some free trade Republicans are legitimately worried about the deal.

But the GOPers will be fine. The fate of the USMCA rests in the lap of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Will she free up her caucus to provide the votes to approve a Trump initiative that would be good for all three nations? Or will she ramrod Democrats back into their safe space of resistance to anything Trump is for — even if it would advance the interests of Democratic constituents and the nation as a whole?

Even the liberal intellectuals who were ringing the bells for free trade internationalism are now stoically silent on the USCMA. These free trade hypocrites are apparently for every trade deal — unless it is negotiated by Donald Trump.

What is worse, killing the USMCA would hurt the voters and hometown businesses in the districts the Democrats represent. A pro-trade group called the Metropolitan Policy Program reports that major cities — including New York, Houston, St. Louis, Chicago, Austin and even Detroit — have become major export centers, with tens of billions of dollars of goods and services shipped abroad. Urban areas are now major trade centers, and free trade is imperative to their prosperity.

Since 1994, when Ronald Reagan’s vision and Bill Clinton’s new Democratic promise to sign NAFTA was delivered, trade across borders in North America almost quadrupled, from roughly $290 billion in 1993 to more than $1.1 trillion in 2016, according to the Council on Foreign Relations. This has been one of the great bipartisan economic successes of modern times.

Voting down the USMCA would weaken the entire North American continent as we compete for continued supremacy against the European Union and the Asian Tigers. Democrats must get on board.

Trump has threatened that if they won’t, he will rescind NAFTA and reinstall the high-tariff policies of the previous era. But it would be better policy and politics to keep NAFTA in place and blame Nancy Pelosi and the other fake free trade Democrats for preventing an even better deal for American businesses and workers.

COPYRIGHT 2019 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.