CAFTA passed House by two
votes ...
At 12:03 AM this morning, the House passed CAFTA by two votes;
217 - 215 with 2 not voting. While the Bush Administration should
get an A+ on lobbying effort and capability to sway votes, both
Congress and the White House should get an F on representing the
citizens of the country they are sworn to represent.
A look at the vote on this issue by our Georgia delegation
shows why we are losing the Principles upon which our country was
founded. By Party the vote breaks down as follows:
| |
Yes |
NO |
| Republican |
6 |
1 |
| Democratic |
0 |
6 |
With the exception of Representative Norwood, our Republican
delegation is too cozy with the corporate interests that delight in
relocating factories to foreign countries. They know that the
Expensive Trade Agreements have hurt Georgians and that another will
only continue the trend of empty factories. But the siren call of
the corporations was just too much for them. If just one of these
six Republicans had represented the People of Georgia instead of
their corporate good buddies this bill would have failed.
The Democrats all voted against this bill, but are so far out
in left field that all they can catch are foul balls. They are not
opposing Free Trade Agreements to support the People, they are
opposed mostly because Bush was pushing it. Just as the Republicans
are swayed by the siren call of corporate greed, the Democrats can't
resist the siren call of political correctness.
With few exceptions we are faced in way too many elections
with a choice of which set of special interests you will in effect
vote for. The unholy influence of corporate special interests OR the
unholy influence of political correctness. That will basically
remain your choices since Georgia has not had an independent
candidate for Congress in decades due to your State government
restricting ballot access. In fact it is the toughest in the entire
country.
Well now we, the citizens get to live with this mess. Just as
NAFTA started the mass exodus of our manufacturing base to foreign
countries, CAFTA will only add to the out flow.
CAFTA just like NAFTA will SHAFTA!
But there are a few things to learn from this defeat:
- When the citizens lobby it does have some impact. I don't
know if it would have taken a few hundred or thousand more
letters, emails and phone calls to sway the vote needed to kill
this Expensive Trade Agreement. But across the country votes were
swayed and President Bush had to get the credit card with your
name on it out and charge a bunch of "pork" to get his votes. We
should continue to build the capability to stay informed and to
lobby. Next time lets have that extra hundred or thousand as the
case my be.
- Our elected officials count on you, the citizens forgetting
about votes like this. That is up to you, this recorded vote will
go into our candidate election process next year for our voter
guides.
How To Stay Informed
The following table is the recorded vote for CAFTA by the Georgia
Delegation.
|
