Entries Tagged 'Economy' ↓
March 14th, 2008 — Economy, Fair Trade, 2008 Battle, The Repugs, The Dems
Americas Program, Center for International Policy (CIP)
There is little difference between Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama on international trade issues, although neither has provided much detail and both have shown some ambivalence in their views.
Both candidates have said that the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) is “flawed” and that it “lacks labor standards and environmental standards” and that it has hurt the United States. Obama states that the agreement has “helped Wall Street but hurt Main Street” and Clinton asserts that we need to do more to “protect our workers.”
Both candidates believe NAFTA should be renegotiated, in Clinton’s words “on terms favorable to all of America.” The candidates cite the negative impact of NAFTA on labor and believe that the agreement must be amended to discourage factory closures and include more retraining and transition programs. The senators often cite the thousands of jobs that have been lost in the United States due to NAFTA, especially when campaigning in the states that have been hardest hit by the agreement, notably Ohio and Pennsylvania. Continue reading →
March 11th, 2008 — Healthcare, Economy, War and Peace
By Norman Solomon, a SpidelBlog contributor.
It’s kind of logical. In a pathological way.
A country that devotes a vast array of resources to killing capabilities will steadily undermine its potential for healing. For social justice. For healthcare as a human right.
Martin Luther King Jr. described the horrific trendline four decades ago: “A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
If a society keeps approaching spiritual death, it’s apt to arrive. Here’s an indicator: Nearly one in six Americans has no health insurance, and tens of millions of others are badly under-insured. Here’s another: The United States, the world’s preeminent warfare state, now spends about $2 billion per day on military pursuits. Continue reading →
January 23rd, 2008 — Economy, The Dems
(Download original letter here)
The Honorable Nancy Pelosi
Speaker
U.S. House of Representatives H-232
Dear Madame Speaker,
We commend your leadership in confronting this country’s economic crisis and your efforts to craft an economi~ stimulus package that will provide an effective and timely response. After seven years ofthe Bush Administration’s economic policies, median family income remains 1.7%, about $1000, below its 2000 peak. Unemployment has risen to 5 percent, and is much higher in some areas ofthe country and among people of color. Home foreclosures, health care costs, and energy prices are also up, putting enormous strains on family incomes and many state budgets. The current Administration’s economic policies have left the bulk of the American people behind, while they have squandered a record $5.6 trillion surplus, led to an estimated $9 trillion national debt, and brought us to the brink of recession.
Continue reading →
January 3rd, 2008 — Economy, 2008 Battle
November 18th, 2007 — Economy, Fair Trade, 2008 Battle, The Dems
