CAFTA passes: collective anmesia

There was appparently more arm-twisting than a night at the WWE, but in the end, the odious Central American Free Trade Agreement passed the House by two votes last night. Or one vote, if you believe Republican Rep. Charles Taylor's story that he actually voted no and the House clerk didn't record it.

It stuns me, the level of collective amnesia our "leaders" in Congress seem to have. NAFTA passed over a decade ago, and literally NOTHING that was promised about it has come true. It has not raised wages in Mexico, causing the so-called "rising tide" that would lift all boats. It did not improve trade for the United States, now running at all-time high trade deficits. It has not stemmed the tide of illegal immigration in the least, as Mexican workers still desire to travel to the US in search of livable wages. It has destroyed the US manufacturing sector, cost hundreds of thousands of American workers their jobs, and singlehandedly ruined entire industries.

And CAFTA will do all that and more. Without global labor and environmental standards, we all lose.

I'll have more on this in a minute...