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On November 6, 2006, Democrats took control of Congress. Many
new Congressman campaigned on the fact that the current trade agenda is
harming our country. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid nonetheless
helped the passage of two trade agreements in December 2006 before the
new Congress took over.
In the new Congress, Pelosi and
Charlie Rangel initially tried to get a Democratic caucus deal for new
trade agreements. They crafted an oral agreement with President
Bush to include labor and environmental protections in new trade
deals. Barney Frank (D MA) was reported to be working to get a
health care deal with multinational business in return for new trade
agreements. Robert Rubin was called in to talk to the Democratic
caucus. But the rank and file Dems balked.
Betty Sutton (D
OH) and others told Rangel that if they are forced to vote for Fast
Track or another trade agreement, they simply will not be re-elected.
Hence the message - voters are taking control. The Dems seem to be getting the message.
In a NY Times article today,
the Dem presidential candidates are portrayed as much more skeptical
about globalization. Here are some quotes used by the authors to
illustrate the point.
“People were told, you’ve got to be trained for high-tech jobs,”
Mr. Obama said, “and then it turned out that some of those high-tech
jobs were being outsourced. And people were told, now you need to train
for service jobs. And then it turned out the call centers were moving
overseas.”
Former Senator John Edwards, another Democratic candidate, staked
out similar positions months ago and regularly notes that in the last
20 years, “about half of America’s economic growth has gone to the top
1 percent.”
Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, calls it “trickle-down economics without the trickle.”
Actions speak louder than words, and Dem candidates may merely be
tacking left during the primary season before the general election
campaign. But this is truly movement. Party leadership may be getting
the message.
In the House, Representative Barney Frank, the Massachusetts
Democrat who is chairman of the Financial Services Committee, convened
party leaders and economists for a searching discussion of
“globalization, outsourcing and the American worker — what should
government do?”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to do trade agreements, immigration
reforms or any of these other kinds of reforms,” Ms. Pelosi said,
“until we present a positive, aggressive economic agenda to the
American people — until they know where they stand, now and in the
future.”
Representative George Miller, the California Democrat who is
chairman of the Committee on Education and Labor, said, “Trade may not
be the reason, or the number one reason, they’re losing their jobs, but
they think it is.” The shift is reluctant among party leaders, and the risk is drying
up Wall Street money for donations. But right now there is
overwhelming agreement on the streets that trade just does not work,
and the Dems are in the lead on money. The funding punishment has not
yet come.
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