21st century businesses, including small businesses, need to sell more American products overseas. Today, our businesses export more than ever, and exporters tend to pay their workers higher wages. But as we speak, China wants to write the rules for the world's fastest-growing region. That would put our workers and businesses at a disadvantage. Why would we let that happen? We should write those rules. We should level the playing field. That's why I'm asking both parties to give me trade promotion authority to protect American workers, with strong new trade deals from Asia to Europe that aren't just free, but fair.
(Obama was talking about the pending TPP and TAFTA trade agreements.)
The Huffington Post writes: "Two of these things are not like the others. Indeed, TPP and TAFTA would gut many of the most worthy goals included in Obama's SOTU address if the American public and Congress let them come to fruition."
Look, I'm the first one to admit that past trade deals haven't always lived up to the hype, and that's why we've gone after countries that break the rules at our expense. But ninety-five percent of the world's customers live outside our borders, and we can't close ourselves off from those opportunities. More than half of manufacturing executives have said they're actively looking at bringing jobs back from China. Let's give them one more reason to get it done.
(Then later in his speech he says...)
In the Asia Pacific, we are modernizing alliances while making sure that other nations play by the rules -- in how they trade, how they resolve maritime disputes, and how they participate in meeting common international challenges like nonproliferation and disaster relief.
Economy in Crisis writes: "This would have a devastating effect on the American economy; as with all previous “free trade” agreements, the promise of jobs will never be fulfilled. The TPP would have a disastrous effect on the economy, selling out America to multinational corporate interests that would ship jobs overseas."
So to recap the President's speech: He sold out current American workers, and he also sold out retired and disabled American workers.
In two years we’ll have another choice to make — someone like Hillary Clinton (who is far-right of Obama) or someone like Mitt Romney (who is far-right of Hillary). So if we can’t depend on a supposedly liberal/leftist/progressive/socialist president, then who in the Hell can we trust?
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