More talking points for the Colombia FTA
Nancy Pelosi has announced plans to change the rules about the 90 day up-or-down vote on the Colombia FTA bill.
I laid out some of the key talking points on Tuesday, but this is crunch time and so I am providing some more. People, we need to pass this FTA:
--Because we might be able to sell more motor graders.
--Because changing the fast track rules is “unfair.” (look hurt while saying—wiping away a tear would also be effective)
And my personal favorite:
--Because otherwise you’re just like Herbert Hoover. Do you really want to be like Herbert Hoover? (maybe call the other person “punk” while saying)
But if for no other reason, do it for the children!
Update: a bonus talking point from Daniel Drezner: pass the FTA so that free trade can get locked in forever and ever, no matter what.
4 comments:
Here's a couple from the anti-trade crowd:
*Cheaper USA food for poor Colombians will be unfair to inefficient Colombian farmers!
*The amazing drop in unionist assasinations since Uribe took office means nothing because the perfect is the enemy of the merely awesome.
I suppose the amazing drop in prosecutions of the unionist assassinations also means nothing.
196 union members assasinated in Uribe's first year. 26 last year. Uribe deserves credit for that even though he hasn't transformed the country into the danger equivalent of small town Iowa in 6 years.
Greg, while the administration does engage in its usual hyperbole, the Dems and the likes of Lou Dobbs are really pushing the envelope with inane arguments.
i. "Merikun" workers will lose jobs... Ok. how will Medellin gain at the expense of Moline? THEY TAX OUR PRODUCTS!! WE DONT TAX THEIRS. deal calls for NO DUTIES FOR US GOODS.
ii. "Colombia is the most dangerous in the world to be a Union member". GMAB Colombia's murder rates has been among the worlds highest for 60 years - with a good % of all murders going unpunished. And since then, good part of the territory has had no state authority. WOLA -CIO continue to dishonestly use numbers going back decades for ANY union members who died VIOLENT deaths. Ok, That means not Julio the Union organizer bumped off by company-paid paras in is included, but also Jose - whacked by a jealous husband in 1993. Even those killed by FARC are included.
The campaign rhetoric and the unions blabbering is also creating resentment among Colombians. Bush has ticked off most of the region, now the other side seems to want to finish the job with what little pro-US sentiment there is.
Its been a while since I have seen, both this type of mainstream US media exposure, and the harsh words for a Latin American country coming from major figures.
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