Politics is often beyond parody.
On Sunday, House Speaker Newt Gingrich declared on "Meet the Press"
that unless
Congress approves "fast track," it will "send a signal to the world
that is devastating."
"(T)he world," said Newt, "is looking for us to take leadership."
What does Newt mean by "leadership"? Well, since fast track means
congressional
surrender of all rights to amend trade treaties, Newt is saying the
world cannot have
confidence in America unless Republicans get out of the way and
give Bill Clinton a
blank check to negotiate NAFTA II. Only if Congress votes itself
into irrelevancy, the
speaker is saying, can America lead the world.
Thus, a GOP Congress elected to put a conservative stamp on
Clinton's policies will
this week vote, 2 to 1, to put a rubber stamp on whatever trade
deal Clinton brings
home. Clay, Webster, Calhoun -- thou shouldst be living at this
hour!
What is it in their philosophy that causes good Republicans to
sacrifice everything --
including congressional authority over trade specifically granted
in the Constitution --
to the Global Economy? True, the Global Economy has brought a
cornucopia of
consumer goods. From shirts to shoes to autos to electronics, the
abundance and
variety of consumer goods in showrooms and on store shelves is like
nothing we have
ever known. But for all these material things, which we could make
ourselves, we are
selling out our country.
Consider the costs of the Global Economy: manufacturing jobs lost
by the millions,
real wages below 1973 levels, a median family income $1,000 below
1989 levels,
U.S. merchandise trade deficits now crossing the $200 billion mark.
Beyond this,
U.S. sovereignty is being surrendered to a World Trade Organization
that will soon
declare U.S. sanctions on Iran, Libya and Castro's Cuba illegal.
Moreover, the
economic independence the founding fathers thought vital to
political independence is
being lost as our dependency on foreign trade goes from 10 percent
of gross national
product in 1970 to 25 percent today.
Republicans celebrate the sleek U.S. companies that dominate world
trade. But have
they taken a hard look at how those companies got that way? They
did so by laying
off U.S. employees and workers, siting new plants in foreign lands
and declaring to
their new hosts that they no longer want to be seen as American
companies but as
"global companies." The way American companies get fabulously rich
these days is
by becoming less and less American.
Last week, we discovered another cost of the Global Economy:
endless bailouts of
incompetent and corrupt Third World regimes. In 1995, Mexico's
bailout cost $50
billion; this fall, Thailand's bailout cost $17 billion. Treasury
Secretary Robert Rubin
has now announced a $23 billion bailout of an Indonesian regime we
only lately
sanctioned for persecuting Catholics on East Timor. Some $3 billion
will be put up by
the U.S. Treasury. Whatever James Riady and his old man did for
Bill Clinton, they
are sure getting their money's worth.
Why does Gen. Suharto need $23 billion pronto? To pay back
terrified U.S.
investors and banks that turned their backs on America to go
buck-raking in the Far
East. Once again, the rich will be rescued, U.S. taxpayers will be
put on the hook,
and American workers will pay in lost jobs -- as Indonesia exports
massively to the
United States to raise the cash to pay back the International
Monetary Fund and Bob
Rubin.
If the Global Economy is such a glorious triumph of the free
market, why can't we let
the free market work in Indonesia?
The truth: The Global Economy is a global racket. Its purpose: to
loot America of her
wealth, her manufacturing base and her jobs to enrich a
transnational elite that is
without loyalty to this nation or to the American people.
Not long ago, Republicans were the party of Middle America. They
reflected the
values of working America and sought to defend its interests. Whose
interests are
today's GOP leaders advancing by standing tall for Bill Clinton and
fast track? CEOs
who abhor social conservatives, who would die for a dinner invite
from Hillary and
who behaved like Madonna groupies in the presence of Jiang Zemin.
Why do we continue to haul water for this crowd?
In the vote on fast track, we may see the outlines of a new
realignment: Beltway
Republicans standing with Clinton, Al Gore, Strobe Talbott and the
Trilateral
Commission, while conservative and populist Republicans will find
themselves voting
with the Reform Party and labor Democrats. With the struggle
between communism
and freedom ended, the new world struggle will be between amoral
capitalists who
put the Global Economy ahead of the nation-state -- and patriots in
every nation who
put their own country first.
