I Thought I Was Joking, or After CAFTA

A couple days ago I discussed the new split in labor. While labor leaders may have different approaches, I didn't think it would make much difference to American politics. (Even though SEUI President Andrew Stern is aware of the new economy and has criticized Big Labor for being an "appendage of the Democratic Party.")

I somewhat jokingly said the Dems own the labor vote and the labor vote owns the Dems. Well, after the CAFTA vote, it's not a joke any more.

It wasn't that long ago the Democratic Leadership Council was modernizing their party. The Dems had certain weaknesses in the public's eye, including fiscal irresponsibility, and the DLC was gonna fix that. They got Clinton into the White House. And on perhaps his biggest economic initiative, NAFTA, he got 40% of the Dems in the House to go along.

This week, however, the Dems ran away from the Central America Free Trade Agreement. Only 7% in the House supported the bill, which passed, after a tremendous amount of behind-the-scenes work, 217-215.

What has happened to the Democrats? Why are they throwing away a strategy which seemed to work. Being pro-labor doesn't have to mean you should punish the economy.

I'm still amazed at how often I hear people condemn NAFTA, as if it were a failure. Taking effect in 1994, it provided a zone of free trade (or at least moved in that direction) between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Many predicted disaster, but let's look at the record.

The U.S. economy had been improving for about three years, and some thought it had peaked. Instead, we got 6 straight years of some of the strongest growth in our history. (And even today, after downturns, we still have one of the most resilient economies in the world.) Exports grew. Inflation stayed low. Earning increased. And millions of jobs were created--the unemployment rate went from a decent 6% to a great 4% (and has mostly stayed under 6% since.) The Mexican and Canadian economies improved as well. Meanwhile, more "protected" countries, such as in Europe, were relatively stagnant, creating almost no jobs.

While it's hard to isolate any single factor in a huge economy, it's also hard to claim NAFTA wasn't helpful, and certainly all the dire predictions didn't come true. (That giant sucking sound you hear is the foolishness of those who thought we could get richer by fighting free trade.)

So now we have a chance to do the same thing with Central America. I don't expect every Democrat to jump on board, but if we can't even get a decent level of support, how can we count on this party to run our economy?

Columbus Guy says: Can't run the war, can't run the economy, but they can run Oprah and Hillary will be president.