Press release:
Guest Blogger: Rep. Schock (R-IL):Free Trade Will Boost Jobs
Posted By Rep. Aaron Schock On December 3, 2009 @ 9:15 am In Enterprise and Free MarketsToday, President Obama is hosting a jobs summit at the White House with union bosses and corporate CEOs to discuss ways to accelerate job creation in the US. Noticeably absent are any representatives from the Chamber of Commerce or the National Federation of Independent Businesses, who represent most of the employers throughout the country.
While not receiving invitations from the President might not stop everyone from attending events at the White House, the absence of the Chamber and NFIB reveal this summit for what it really is: just another PR stunt. If the President was serious about creating jobs, he’d immediately submit the three pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama and South Korea.
For months, House Republicans have been asking “Where are the jobs?” as the Democrats ignore the rising unemployment rate and instead pass a cap and tax bill that, according to independent estimates, will cost us between 2.3 and 2.7 million jobs each year for twenty years and a health care bill that President Obama’s own economic advisor estimated would cost as many as 5.5 million jobs.
This is the height of foolishness. As of October 30th, the Administration says $214.5 billion of the “so-called” stimulus has been spent thus far and this spending has “saved or created 640,000 jobs.” In other words, according to the numbers provided by the White House, these jobs have come at a cost to the American taxpayer over $335,000 PER JOB.
There is a better way to create jobs and there is a way we can create these jobs at no cost to the American taxpayer. By passing these free trade agreements, which won’t require a tax increase, add to our national deficit or hurt our small businesses, we can create good paying American jobs in sectors of our economy such as manufacturing and agriculture.
Surprisingly, even President Obama agrees with me. He recently stated that increasing US exports by just one percent would create over 250,000 American jobs. According to the International Trade Commission, passage of the Colombia, Panama and South Korea free trade agreements would increase our exports by more than one percent. The inaction on these trade agreements is preventing the creation of a quarter million American jobs.
While some may prefer summits and speeches to action, I believe we should immediately implement these free trade agreements to ensure the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs. Free trade equals free jobs.
Article printed from The Foundry: http://blog.heritage.org
URL to article: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/12/03/guest-blogger-rep-schock-r-ilfree-trade-will-boost-jobs/
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Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
Ask Schock to visit Galesburg where under NAFTA Maytag closed it’s doors and left 100s without jobs so they could move to Mexico. Now Schock wants us to believe that CAFTA won’t do the same to the American worker?
Emtronics,
Let me educate you with some history…
Maytag’s product quality then sales declined, and with it too much capacity, so they made the decision to move some production to an existing plant at Reynosa, Mexico. The transition was completed in 2004. Then a year or so after Whirlpool acquired Maytag, the decision was made to close its Reynosa, Mexico plant and move some production to where? Fort Smith, Arkansas, which last I checked was not in Mexico but the United States. A better-run corporation with a quality product found it better to produce something in the United States rather than Mexico. So much for NAFTA being at fault.
The reasons for factory closings and the shift of production to low-cost countries such as Mexico is due to rising business costs from increasing regulation and taxes. And as long as you keep voting for big-spending, energy tax-loving politicians, you will continue to see factory closings and the shift of production to low-cost countries such as Mexico.
The Boy Wonder is an idiot. Period. You can’t run an economy selling products made in other countries on prison and slave wages. We are slowly cashing in the last of an American heritage that took over two centuries to build … just like the old family farms that are subdivided to provide income to the last inheritors. We have allowed our jobs to be stripped from our country and you can’t replace them on the government dole.
Michael,
Do you favor cap-and-tax legislation, along with new taxes on “the rich?”
Speaking of farms and free trade – it’s hardly free trade when the government subsidizes U.S. farms and then dumps (literal interpretation: selling the product at less than its cost) its corn and rice over in Mexico and Haiti, destroying farmers in those countries. I’m not opposed to free trade – but the game can’t be fixed.
David, I’d probably favor a carbon tax over the cap and trade – either way, something needs to be done – and it will be expensive. There will never be the “right” time…China and India have to be on board – but they can’t be held to the same standard. Just like “fixing the game”, we can’t elevate our countries and then pull the ladder up before others can catch up.
No carbon tax…no cap and trade. Forget it – “global warming” is a hoax. Just like the “new ice age” fears of 30 years ago. Don’t convert to the left-wing, fundamentalist green religion!
Get educated, THEN form an opinion, please. The evidence for climate change is staggering.
Let’s have it then.
David, are you one of those who thinks evolution is a “hoax”, too? Did dinosaurs exist and run around on the planet hundreds of millions of years ago, or is the earth only about 10,000 years old?
Evolution is a theory. Unfortunately, it’s taught as fact.
Getting back to the issue at hand, I’m surprised I haven’t gotten a response from Emtronics or Michael Legel.
That’s an argument? Gravity is a theory, too. Are you anti-gravity as well?
Postsimian,
You know better than that
David: Look around. Check out the economy. It’s from 8 years of Bush’s policies. War spending etc etc. Iraq. Whatever. You just can’t fix stupid so why argue with you?
Emtronics,
What do you think “war spending” is? Dropping a bag of money into the Iraqi desert from a helicopter? I bet you supported Obama’s $787 billion “stimulus” package. If you did support that, but not “war spending” then you are peddling a double standard.