The Circus in Washington is such a ridiculous show these day and while it isn’t as exciting as the new Harry Potter movie, there are plenty of warlocks, witches, and trolls present – and many fairy tales are told. And still no settlement on the real important issues!! Debt Ceiling, no problem, let’s wait until there is no pay for air traffic controllers, our troops overseas and the host of other sectors that would shut down in a couple of weeks without action. Ah yes, then there is that pesky batch of Free Trade Agreements that are still not being acted on. Mixing Politics and Economics is going to bring the USA to it’s knees if they continue the games that they are playing up there.
“Economics will remain a discipline that forgets most of what it once knew and allows itself to be continually distracted, confused, and in denial.”
Approval of the free-trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, reached under President George W. Bush, stalled last month after Republicans opposed linking them to an aid program for workers hurt by global competition, called Trade Adjustment Assistance.
“At this time, we are still in active discussions with Congress regarding the process for proceeding with the three FTAs and TAA as soon as possible,” Matthew Vogel, a White House spokesman, said today, without discussing a delay.
Read the entire Bloomberg Article here
Approve the free-trade agreements by John D. Negroponte, Mack McLarty, Jim Jones and Robert Mosbacher Jr.
The U.S. economy needs swift approval of the pending free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea. Yet a week after the release of a disappointing employment report, procedural disagreement over a program that has provided benefits to American workers for almost 50 years is stalling the entire trade agenda.
Deficit reduction is an urgent task requiring intense scrutiny of spending measures. But it is counterproductive to delay long-overdue trade agreements that finally have a chance of passing over a relatively inexpensive assistance program designed to smooth out the rougher edges of the global economy.