North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) essentially eliminates the
majority of trade tariffs on goods sold and purchased between the United
States, Canada and Mexico and in theory should have made trade "cheaper"
for the consumer by eliminating the import/export tariffs. However, NAFTA has
been nothing but a disaster for the US worker, consumer and tax payer and must
be repealed immediately. In addition to the financial burden NAFTA has created,
it also places the national sovereignty of the United States in jeopardy
as it allows corporations and individuals in any of these nations to sue
the government for compensation if and when the government passes international
law that effects the investments of the corporation or individual. NAFTA
essentially makes our government accountable to foreign based corporations
and individuals, not the tax paying citizens of the United States. NAFTA has
not made imported products cheaper for the consumer, it has not saved the US
tax payer money, and in fact at the end of the day, NAFTA costs the tax-payer
more money because corporations no longer as expected to pay their share
of tariffs and also can sue the government, which means our tax money is
spent on a trial, and in paying compensation. NAFTA is not to the benefit
of "we the people".
Loss of manufacturing jobs
The creation of NAFTA is directly associated with the loss of over 3 million
manufacturing jobs here in the United States according to the U.S. Bureau of
Labor Statistics. Proponents of NAFTA point to the creation of hundreds of
thousands of non-manufacturing jobs in the place of these manufacturing job
but fail to comprehend that the 3 million plus factory workers remain out
of work as they are not necessarily qualified for non-manufacturing jobs.
Additionally, proponents of NAFTA promote the creation of jobs but also
fail to indicate how many of the new tech jobs have been filled by guest
workers here on foreign visas or simply new tech jobs that have been outsourced
to other nations. By repealing NAFTA, it will once again be more beneficial
for US corporations to employ American workers and produce goods here in the
United States. Repealing NAFTA and bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US
means that other nations will be forced to purchase goods Made in the USA and
thus spur demand for the US dollar, helping to improve our
economy here at home and creating jobs for the millions of out work Americans.
NAFTA is bad for the US job market, bad for the US consumer, bad for the US
tax payer and this is another area where Frank Pallone "votes" right,
however I must ask, aside from "voting against NAFTA", what has Frank
actually done to correct this problem? Frank has been in office for 20 years
and he was in office in 92 when NAFTA went into effect and has had 16 years,
including time with a democrat president and a democrat congress, to
get NAFTA repealed and he has failed to draw enough attention to NAFTA to get
the problem fixed. Despite what Frank "votes", he doesn't seem very dedicated
to getting rid of NAFTA because he certainly has had plenty of time to work
on this issue. I'm not trying to blame the Ds and claim the Rs are not also
responsible, I'm blaming OUR representative, Frank Pallone, as an individual
for failing to get the job done despite having both the opportunity and
means to get the job done. Unfortunately, despite what Frank projects, he
clearly doesn't have the motivation to actually more forward and get
NAFTA repealed.