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What Others Think About Globalization: 2008 U.S. Presidential Candidates (Democrats) |
| Published On: 09-16-2007 |
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The following are quotes and portions of speeches, given by U.S, presidential candidates from the Democratic Party, on globalization, outsourcing, and trade.
Senator Joseph Biden
On Outsourcing
…the bottom line here is that eliminating the tax breaks is not going to keep jobs here in America. We’ve got to make it more attractive to have jobs here in America and for corporations to be here.
You’ve got to take the burden off the corporations with a health care system that’s universal, so we’re not at a competitive disadvantage. You’ve got to have a better education system to provide for the highest-tech jobs that we educate our folks for, so we’re not importing 400,000 computer engineers to work in Silicon Valley. And you’ve got to deal with the innovation and infrastructure needs in this country -- tunnels, bridges, et cetera -- which we haven’t done to make us more competitive.
Source: Third Democratic 2008 presidential primary debate (June 28, 2007)
http://www.speculativebubble.com/politics/joe-biden.php
Senator Hillary Clinton
Remarks at The Economic Club of Chicago’s 78th Annual Dinner Meeting, April 11th, 2006
Well, today we have no choice about whether or not to embrace globalization. It is happening.… But as in earlier times, we do have a choice about how we deal with globalization and the competitive threat that it poses. We can choose to unleash the power of innovation and enterprise in ways that promote our economic growth and our values so that all Americans share in the prosperity. We can choose to think hard about the long-term implications of the physical path we're on as a nation. And we can choose to chart a wiser course.
To do that we start from the principles that have inspired Americans from the beginning: sticking with fiscal discipline, rewarding hard work, investing in our people, growing a strong middle class by giving everyone a chance to succeed. If we lead with those values, we can once again compete and win in the global economy. I know we can do this…
… We can invest in infrastructure, research and education, jump start a smarter energy future, promote manufacturing, rein in healthcare costs. And we can do it in ways that renew the basic bargain with America's middle class…
Now, we may all be global citizens and global competitors now. But the bottom line of our economic health still begins in the places where we live and work, right here in America. And it is here that our government is missing opportunities to help provide the best environment for businesses to start and grow. Our global competitors, on the other hand, are making strategic choices for their own futures. We need to do the same.
We can start by asking how we're going to meet the coming challenges when skyrocketing deficits are closing off options. Tax cuts alone can't secure the middle class. They are not the cure all for everything that ails the American economy. It takes the right tax system and the right investments, including infrastructure. And right now we don't have either. We need investments, decisions and policies that only all of us acting together through our government can make to set the stage for future prosperity.
Now I would start, for example, by updating both our virtual and our physical infrastructure. I think that it's imperative that we look at how we've been living off the investments of decades ago, people who build the interstate highway system, the bridges, the tunnels, the rail systems and so much else…
The American Society of Civil Engineers says we would need $1.6 trillion in the next five years just to keep our existing infrastructure up and running. I'd like to see us pick up the innovative recommendation of a recent bipartisan report by Felix Rohatyn and Senator Warren Rudman to create a national investment authority to help finance accelerated commitment to rebuilding our national infrastructure…
We need a drive for smart energy that starts right now. The way to reduce our oil addiction is through technology, and we need a much more aggressive strategy. We have a National Institutes of Health. Why don't we have a National Institute of Energy?…
If we had a major energy research program, it would create a portfolio of cutting edge energy research technologies that would reduce our oil dependence, increase our efficiency and reduce green house gas emissions. Innovation through energy policy as both Corning and Cummins have proven is one of the best ways to create the next generation of good paying jobs.
The United Kingdom is creating new jobs by investing in alternative smart energy. They signed onto Kyoto, and it has served as a great organizing principle. And they now have not only reached their earliest Kyoto targets to reduce green house gas emissions and, therefore, help us in this very real problem of global warming, but they are creating jobs. And these are good jobs. They have the same low unemployment rate we do. But they actually have wages increasing, something we don't yet have….
…I will be introducing legislation that will require the International Trade Commission to report to Congress on the actual effects of every trade agreement we sign; the good, the bad and the ugly. And they should do it after two years, after five years and then every five years after it goes into effect. Then we can make hard choices based on facts, not on ideology or theory
Senator Chris Dodd
On Outsourcing
The fact of the matter is we’re exporting a lot of valuable jobs in this country and we shouldn’t be doing it. I offered legislation that was passed that prohibited the Defense Department for outsourcing contracts, going off our shores here when many hard-working Americans ought to be allowed to do those jobs.
I talked earlier about providing tax incentives. When you have people literally driving to the international airports to fly to some country to provide some funding for a local project in those nations, bypassing the very communities that could very well use those kind of jobs and economic growth, that is wrong. I will continue to do what I can to see to it that we limit outsourcing American jobs.
Source: Third Democratic 2008 presidential primary debate (June 28, 2007)
http://www.speculativebubble.com/politics/christopher-dodd.php
John Edwards
Speech on Trade Policy, August 6, 2007
…We can and we must change this. I believe we need to follow three principles to make sure globalization works for everyone.
First, trade deals must benefit workers, not just big multinational corporations. Today, our trade agreements are negotiated behind closed doors. The multinationals get their say, but when one goes to Congress it gets an up or down vote - no amendments are allowed. No wonder that corporations get unique protections, while workers don't benefit. That's wrong.
Imagine trade policies that actually put American workers first. We need fair rules for workers, and we need strong protections for labor and the environment and against currency manipulation. If a deal is good for middle-class families, it's good for America; if it's not, it's not.
Second, our trade policies should also lift up workers around the world. This struggle over fair trade is about more that just what's at stake for America's workers - it's also about what's at stake for workers in every country. Making sure that workers around the globe are treated fairly and share in trade gains is the right thing to do morally, it's the right thing to do economically, and it will make us much safer and more secure. That's what strong labor standards are all about. Making sure that workers have the right to organize and earn a fair wage will not only prevent a "race to the bottom" on labor rights - it will also help build a global middle class that shares in the gains from trade and creates markets for U.S. exports.
Third, we need to address more than just our trade policies in order to restore fairness and opportunity to workers. I talked earlier about some of the adverse effects of globalization - stagnant wages and rising inequality. To help regular Americans get ahead and stay ahead, we need to make sure our children get a quality education and have the chance to go to college. We need to raise the minimum wage, strengthen unions, and help families build assets. And the most important thing we can do to provide security to our workers is to guarantee universal health care in this country. I am proud to be the first major candidate to come out with a plan for universal health care.
We also need to invest resources to ensure that our country keeps its competitive edge in the world. We need to create the jobs of the future right here in America and make sure our workers have the skills they need to fill them. We need to make the Research and Experimentation Tax Credit permanent, invest in life sciences and biomedical research, strengthen math and science education, and create a new energy economy…
In my first year in office, I will spend time working with Congress to get our trade policies straight -- policies which ensure that Americans workers finally begin to see benefits from the global economy. And then, when we negotiate new trade deals it won't just be big multinational corporations whose interests are served - it will also be the interests of American workers, America's communities, and our global environment.
First, I will be a tough negotiator on new trade deals…My main measure is just this one - after considering the impact on jobs, wages and prices, will most families be better off?
When I'm president, our trade agreements will give workers fair and level playing fields. All our trade partners must meet basic labor standards, such as prohibiting sweatshops and child labor and protecting the right of workers to join unions. These conditions should be the floor, not the ceiling. And they should not be in side agreements, but at the core of the agreements. I will tie unilateral trade preferences and bilateral trade agreements to progress on labor rights. As president, I will also push the World Trade Organization to begin to address labor standards. And I will build on the precedent of the Cambodia textiles agreement, which rewarded progress on labor rights with greater market access.
New trade agreements must also include strong rules on environmental protection and against currency manipulation. As the world's biggest customer, our trade deals can be vital tools to ensure that progress is made in stopping global warming. They can also be tools to ensure that poor environmental practices do not create unfair competitive advantages.
Second, I will insist that our trade deals be fairly and fully administered. For free trade to be fair, it must be based on rules, and then those rules must be followed. But right now, many major U.S. trading partners are breaking the rules without any consequences…
Right now, China, India and certain other nations are each, to one degree or another, combining miserably low wages and poor environmental practices with tax breaks, subsidies, tariffs, low-cost loans, and currency manipulation to advance their trade at the expense of ours. All of this is costing Americans high-quality jobs and threatening millions more.
When I am president, restoring fair and balanced trade with China will be a particular priority. Its massive manipulation of the yuan has continued for years, giving it an unfair advantage against U.S. manufacturers, and its labor and intellectual property protections are grossly inadequate. As a result of the massive trade deficits we run with China - the largest ever between any two countries, more than $230 billion last year alone - China now owns $1 trillion in U.S. assets, giving it great leverage over our economy and our security. This is not acceptable. We need to persuade China's authoritarian government to commit to the rules that govern the conduct of responsible nations. Our trade policies are a great opportunity for increased leverage over China. And, when I'm president I will make it crystal clear that doing business with China should not come at the expense of American jobs or our economy - there must and will be balance between our nations when we trade.
As for our good friend India, which has achieved remarkable economic growth in recent years, we still must work hard to get it to adhere to both the letter and the spirit of its trade agreements with the U.S. and to further achieve our shared values, while all the while improving the lives of its millions of citizens.
…In the Edwards Administration, the top prosecutors at the Department of Justice will be responsible for enforcing our trade agreements. Right now, the trade negotiators charged with enforcing agreements seem to think their job is done when an agreement is signed. Signing a trade deal should be the beginning of the process, not the end. And I will insist that we finally begin to prosecute illegal foreign subsidies, currency manipulation, and trade practices.
Fair terms of trade also mean fixing our own tax code so that corporations aren't rewarded for closing plants and shipping jobs to countries like China. Our government should be encouraging businesses to invest here. Yet, one of the starkest examples that our economy works best for big business instead of regular Americans is that we actually give tax incentives to companies to invest overseas. American companies setting up shop in tax havens often pay little or no U.S. tax. This is not only wrong, it's unpatriotic.
I will eliminate the tax incentives that encourage companies to invest overseas rather than here at home. These dollars, if invested in new facilities and in retraining workers and rebuilding devastated communities, can fuel a dramatic expansion of our own economy.
Third, we need much more investment in helping the workers and communities left behind. When we sign a trade deal, we know which industries and workers will likely be affected by greater competition. We need to restore some honesty to the trade debate and not claim, like too many presidents from both parties have done, that trade will help everyone. This is simply not true.
When I am president, every trade agreement will be subject to not only an economic assessment showing how imports and exports will be affected by the agreement, but also to a "community impact assessment." We need to make sure trade deals produce real benefits that are widely shared, and we need to get a head start on helping any workers and communities who will be hurt by increases in imports or by competition from other countries. Before I ask Congress to approve any new trade agreement, we will have an honest discussion about the real impact of that agreement on towns and communities and workers across our country.
Then we can go into dislocated communities - starting before the jobs are gone - and help them diversify their economies with initiatives modeled on the military base closing commissions, bringing local leaders, employers and unions together to rebuild local economies. We need to be much more aggressive about helping workers and affected communities.
Training is no substitute for good trade policies, but we must help workers gain new skills and get ahead. The problem is that, too often, training programs are completely disconnected from the job market. I will create a broad new Training Works program that ties retraining to real jobs. It will support on-the-job training programs through partnerships among businesses, unions and community colleges. Workers will be trained on-the-job to make sure the jobs actually exist. And to make it worth businesses' while - and to support high-wage jobs - we will pay part of workers' wages while they are being trained.
All types of workers are affected by globalization, and all types of workers should be eligible for help getting back on their feet. But Trade Adjustment Assistance, or TAA, now only helps manufacturing workers at plant closings.
Because most unemployed workers who lose their jobs aren't even covered by unemployment insurance, I will help states modernize their programs. This will give security to 500,000 more jobless workers a year, including more low-wage and part-time workers.
And, as we have seen over the last year, another dark side of trade is the concern over the safety of the foods we eat, the toys our children play with, and even the medicines we take.
Now more than ever, we need to make sure that our trade rules protect American consumers.Food imports have doubled in the past decade, and Americans now eat three-quarters of a pound of imported food every day. However, less than 1 percent of imported food is inspected.
As president, I will enforce mandatory "country of origin" labeling for food and other consumer products so that Americans will know who is making the products they are buying. The big meat packers have blocked this law for too long. I will give the FDA all the authority and resources it needs to keep tainted food and products out of our country and out of our homes.
We will strengthen enforcement to ensure that safety standards are being met, and we will enforce "zero tolerance" and immediately freeze the specific import of any food, toys, medicines, or other goods that threatens the health of our children and families. We will not let them in until we know they are safe, because the health and welfare of our children are more important than cheap toys.
We must make sure that trade is not only smart and good for America's economy and workers, but safe for American families. Regular families - their safety and their best interests - should come before the interests of multinational corporations. That's what safe and smart trade is about…
…So today, I'm again calling on all federal officeholders and candidates from all political parties to join me in putting an end to the money game in Washington by simply refusing to accept any form of campaign donation from federal lobbyists going forward. It's really just that simple. We need to send a message to all of the lobbyists in Washington: Your money is no good here, and we're not going to take it anymore. We don't need you, we've got the American people on our side
Source: http://www.cfr.org/publication/13995/
john_edwards_speech_on_trade_policy.html
Mike Gravel
On Outsourcing
No, outsourcing is not the problem. What is the problem is our trade agreements that we have that benefit the management and, of course, the shareholders, and have neglected on either side of the issue, whether it’s in Mexico or in other countries or the United States. That’s the problem that must be addressed.
So, no, it’s not outsourcing. But I would add to it, it’s the way all of these people want to finance health care, on the backs of businesses, that make them uncompetitive in the world. That’s part of the problem. And our system of taxation is also part of the problem because it makes us uncompetitive in the world.
Source: Third Democratic 2008 presidential primary debate (June 28, 2007)
Representative Dennis Kucinich
On Outsourcing
One of my first acts in office will be to cancel NAFTA and the WTO and go back to trade conditions on workers’ rights, human rights and environmental quality principles. That’s what we must do. A Democratic administration started NAFTA. A Democratic administration will end it.
Source: First Democratic presidential primary debate (April 27 2007)
Senator Barak Obama
Why I oppose CAFTA by: Barack Obama, Junior Senator of Illinois
6/30/2005
…Globalization is not someone's political agenda. It is a technological revolution that is fundamentally changing the world's economy, producing winners and losers along the way. The question is not whether we can stop it, but how we respond to it. It's not whether we should protect our workers from competition, but what we can do to fully enable them to compete against workers all over the world.
So far, America has not effectively answered these questions and American workers are suffering as a result. I meet these workers all across Illinois, workers whose jobs moved to Mexico or China and are now competing with their own children for jobs that pay 7 bucks an hour. In town meetings and union halls, I've tried to tell these workers the truth--that these jobs aren't coming back, that globalization is here to stay and that they will have to train more and learn more to get the new jobs of tomorrow.
But when they wonder how they will get this training and this education, when they ask what they will do about their health-care bills and their lower wages and the general sense of financial insecurity that seems to grow with each passing day, I cannot look them in the eyes and tell them that their government is doing a single thing about these problems.
….But the larger problem is what's missing from our prevailing policy on trade and globalization--namely, meaningful assistance for those who are not reaping its benefits and a plan to equip American workers with the skills and support they need to succeed in a 21st Century economy.
So far, almost all of our energy and almost all of these trade agreements are about making life easier for the winners of globalization, while we do nothing as life gets harder for American workers. In 2004, nearly 150,000 workers were certified as having lost their jobs due to trade and were thus eligible for Trade Adjustment Assistance--and this number doesn't even count service workers like janitors and cafeteria employees.
But this is about more than displaced workers. Our failure to respond to globalization is causing a race to the bottom that means lower wages and stingier health and retiree benefits for all Americans. It's causing a squeeze on middle-class families who are working harder but making even less and struggling to stay afloat in this new economy…
If we are to promote free and fair trade--and we should--then we must make a national commitment to prepare every child in America with the education they need to compete in the new economy; to provide retraining and wage insurance so even if you lose your job you can train for another; to make sure worker retraining helps people without getting them caught in bureaucracy; that it helps service workers as well as manufacturing workers and encourages people to re-enter the workforce as soon as possible.
We also need to figure out a way to tell workers that no matter where you work or how many times you switch jobs, you can take your health care and pension with you always, so you have the flexibility to move to a better job or start a new business.
We cannot expect to insulate ourselves from all the dislocations brought about by free trade, and most of the workers I meet don't expect Washington to do so. But we need a national commitment.
In America, we have always furthered the idea that everybody has a stake in this country and that everyone deserves a shot at opportunity.
Source: http://www.truthabouttrade.org/article.asp?id=4072
Governor Bill Richardson
On Outsourcing
Outsourcing is a problem. Most outsourcing jobs are technical. We need to upgrade our science and math standards in our school. It’s education. And I would create 250 science and math academies to deal with that gap.
In addition to that, what we need is trade agreements, fair trade agreements where we say, no slave labor, no child labor; we’re not going to have -- we’re going to have environmental protection; we’re going to have to deal with wage disparity. And also, I would have a different attitude toward the private sector. I would say to the private sector, what is it going to take to keep you here?
I would have an industrial policy where we invest in high-growth industries, in health industries, in high-tech, in renewable energy, to keep those jobs here.
Source: Third Democratic 2008 presidential primary debate (June 28, 2007) |
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