March 4, 2015
Page 7
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O PINION
Greasing the Skids to Deeper Economic Distress
‘Free Trade’ and
growing
inequality
E DITH R ASELL
Just as the coun-
try is finally begin-
ning to recover from the Great
Recession, Congress is set to
deliver another blow to the
economy. Over the past 20 years,
so-called “free trade” agreements
have sent hundreds of thousands
of jobs overseas, harmed work-
ers in the United States and around
the world, weakened protective
regulations, and exacerbated in-
equality.
But despite this history of de-
struction, Congress will soon
consider two more free trade
agreement: the 12-nation Trans-
Pacific Partnership and the Trans-
BY
Atlantic Trade and Investment
Partnership with the European
Union. These agreements
cannot be passed unless Con-
gress first adopts special
“Fast Track” procedures to
grease the process. Fast
Track legislation must be
stopped.
Our recent economic history
is a tragic story of deepening
poverty, erosion of the middle
class, and fabulous income
growth at the highest reaches
of the economic ladder. Many
experts who acknowledge these
trends claim they are the inevi-
table result of economic forces
beyond our control.
In other words, there is noth-
ing we can do about it. But this
claim of impotence is false. Solid
research shows that rising in-
equality is, in fact, the direct
result of policy choices made
by politicians (federal, state, and
local) on behalf of corporate
interests and people with wealth
and political power.
Which brings us back to “free
trade” agreements. Economists
identify these agreements as one
important cause of the growth
in inequality.
In the last 20 years, Congress
has passed a series of trade
agreements, each modeled on
the 1994 North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
These pacts have not only been
detrimental to the common good
in the United States, they have
also harmed our trading part-
ners.
For example, corporations’
global search for the cheapest
workers has forced developing
nations to compete against each
other for the lowest wages. Our
government-subsidized agricul-
tural output has put poor,
unsubsidized farmers in other
countries out of business. Pro-
hibitions on a small country’s
ability to control money flows
across its borders has led to
financial instability and eco-
nomic crises. In short, free trade
agreements have benefited cor-
porations around the world,
harmed workers and the envi-
ronment, boosted inequality in
the U. S. and many other coun-
tries, and brought greater eco-
nomic instability.
Before Congress considers
these proposed trade agree-
ments they will first seek to
pass Fast Track legislation to
markedly curtail the usual over-
sight process and ease passage.
Under Fast Track, Congress
would have just 90 days to study
and vote on the hundreds of
pages of the proposed trade
agreements. Policy makers
could spend no more than 20
hours debating the legislation,
would not be allowed to hold
hearings to learn the opinions of
experts, and would be prohib-
ited from amending the pro-
posed agreements. Just when
careful scrutiny of proposed
legislation would be especially
important, Fast Track would
severely constrain this process.
The proposed free trade agree-
ments would impact millions of
people around the world and the
environment. Previous similar
agreements have harmed, not pro-
moted, the common good. Con-
gress must thoroughly and care-
fully evaluate these agreements.
Congress must not pass Fast
Track.
Edith Rasell is the Minister for
Economic Justice for the United
Church of Christ.
Giuliani's Words Do More than Hurt - They Divide
A horrible thing
to say on many
levels
B Y M ARC H.
M ORIAL
After the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist at-
tacks in New York
City, I brought a del-
egation of mayors to meet with
the city’s then-mayor, Rudolph
Giuliani. The delegation’s goal
was to help restore confidence in
the still-traumatized city and help
rebuild what had been so inhu-
manly destroyed.
At the time, I was mayor of
New Orleans and President of
the U.S. Conference of May-
ors, and Giuliani – widely ac-
knowledged and praised for his
leadership after the attacks –
catapulted onto the national stage
to become “America’s Mayor.”
How times have changed.
During a private New York
fundraising dinner for Republi-
can presidential candidate Wis-
consin Gov. Scott Walker last
month, Giuliani popped onto the
national stage yet again – not
for the qualities he displayed as
“America’s Mayor,” but for the
unfounded accusation that
President Obama does not love
America.
“I do not believe, and I know
this is a horrible thing to say,
but I do not believe that the
president loves America,”
Giuliani said in response
to a question about the
president’s foreign policy
and counter-terrorism
strategies. He added, “He
doesn’t love you. And he
doesn’t love me. He
wasn’t brought up the way
you were brought up and I was
brought up, through love of this
country.”
Speaking in front of a 2016
Republican presidential con-
tender and a mixed crowd of
conservatives and business ex-
ecutives, Giuliani – who failed
to win the 2008 GOP presiden-
tial nomination – attacked the
patriotism of our nation’s presi-
dent, a man whose grandfather
served in World War II, whose
grand-uncle helped liberate the
Nazi death camp at Buchenwald
and who was the chief execu-
tive behind the operation to kill
9/11’s mastermind, Osama Bin
Laden.
Questioning the president's
patriotism isn't just inappropri-
ate; it demonstrates a complete
lack of respect. It begs the
question that as Giuliani contin-
ues to seek a prominent role on
the national political stage, will
he choose to rehearse only in
the Theater of the Absurd?
Giuliani’s response was nei-
ther an honest critique of the
president’s foreign policy, nor
was it a considered analysis of
our nation’s ongoing discus-
sion on how to combat terror-
ism.
It was, however, a veiled at-
tack on the character of our
president. It was a better-left-
buried relic from 2008 when
candidates – including Giuliani
– purposely appealed to a par-
ticular strain of the GOP base
who viewed Obama, the
Harvard-educated black man
raised by his white family in
Hawaii, as “the other” and “not
like us.” It was a rehearsal of
the kind of divisive rhetoric that
has no place in the 2016 race
for the White House.
I am the first to assert that
honest critiques of any presi-
dent, administration and its poli-
cies are critical in a functioning
democracy. But in this case,
there is nothing constructive or
relevant in maligning a man be-
cause of the way he was raised.
Further, Giuliani has yet to ex-
plain how the president’s upbring-
ing jeopardizes the national secu-
rity of our nation. How can
personal attacks ever have a con-
structive place in our conversa-
tions about degrading and ulti-
mately destroying ISIL or creat-
ing jobs or energy independence?
White House spokesman Josh
Earnest said, “It is sad to see
when somebody who has attained
a certain level of public stature
and even admiration tarnishes that
legacy so thoroughly.”
Without hesitation, I can say
that the Giuliani I met with that
mayors’ delegation in the smol-
dering aftermath of the terror
attacks – a bridge-builder, a rec-
onciler and a healer – was not
the Giuliani I heard last week. It
is quite unfortunate that his re-
appearance on the national stage
recasts and squanders that
legacy for a new one that limits
him to catering to groups ani-
mated by the rhetoric of divi-
sion at best, and veiled hate-
mongering at worst.
If I agreed with anything in
Giuliani’s statement, it is that,
yes, it was a horrible thing to
say on many levels. I would
add, in a word of advice to the
former mayor of New York,
that whenever you feel com-
pelled to preface a comment
with “I know this is a horrible
thing to say,” it is likely a com-
ment better left unsaid.
Marc H. Morial is president
and chief executive officer of
the National Urban League.
THE LAW OFFICES OF
Patrick John Sweeney, P.C.
Patrick John Sweeney
Attorney at Law
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Portland, Oregon
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