US Taxpayers Are Doing What?

Each year since 2008, the U.S. has given $147.3 million to cotton farmers–in Brazil.

Shifting US tax dollars to foreign nations is one example of some of the consequences of free trade policies that redistribute income.

In 2008, Brazil argued before the World Trade Organization (WTO) that U.S. agriculture subsidies to cotton producers violated WTO agreements. Following the WTO’s secret tribunal ruling, instead of ending the subsidies or saying to hell with the WTO, Congress and the Administration agreed to pay the Brazilian cotton industry $147.3 million a year – the amount determined as the losses Brazilians incur as a result of U.S. cotton subsidies.

Now, not only are U.S. cotton farmers receiving millions in subsidies, but we are paying a $147.3 million fine to Brazil every year, year after year, instead of fixing the problem! It’s like choosing to pay a $150 parking ticket every day for your car to sit in front of a fire hydrant rather than in your own driveway.

$147.3 million is not going to solve the debt crisis, but we have better uses for this money here at home instead of Brazil. $147.3 million could be used to:

1 Reduce the deficit
2 Fund Meals on Wheels to deliver approximately 21 million meals to seniors who are struggling with mobility
3 Send up to 20,000 kids to Head Start for a year
4 Provide 26,000 Pell grants to students

The US government has been overwhelmed by a tidal wave of corruption and greed unleashed during the Reagan years. And so nothing will be done to end US taxpayer support of Brazilian cotton growers. That’s because in the corrupt climate of Washington D.C. profits are more important than people, even if such a thing isn’t in the US Constitution.

The US Constitution requires 2/3s of the US Senate vote for any treaty to become law. However, something called an Congressional-Executive Agreement has been made up and become some weird kind of “make believe” treaty. This Anti-Constitution agreement only requires majority yes votes from both houses of congress for the make believe to take effect, like the effects of a narcotic. The Congressional-Executive Agreements is clearly in violation of the US Constitution, although the Koch Brothers/Corporate wing of the US Supreme Court disagrees with this.

The secret tribunals in these treaties are also unconstitutional.

Article III Section 1. states, The judicial Power of the united States shall be vested in one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish. Section 2 continues, “The judicial Power shall extend to all Cases, in Law and Equity, arising under this Constitution, the Laws of the United States and Treaties made, or which shall be made under their Authority….

In other words, only US courts can decide the legal issues that arise from treaties. And no free trade treaty has been passed with two-thirds votes of the US senate.

That suggests free trade treaties and their secret tribunals are illegal devices to subvert the will of 99 percent of US citizens and are used to redistribute their tax dollars, their incomes, and their political rights granted under the Constitution to the 1 percent.

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The lies about why the Pathetic US Economy Grows At Slower Pace Than Expected in Second Quarter

The Guardian of the UK, normally a straight forward and honest broker of news and commentary, has bought into the lying bull shit of the US corporate press. Some Guardian idiot named Larry Elliot wrote,

“America’s growth figures have come as a nasty shock to Wall Street. For nine months the stock market had been rising on hopes that the world’s biggest economy was on the mend. But the latest data suggests the US recovery is still very much work in progress.”

No, no, no, the stock market was rising because corporate profits are at record levels! Apparently, Elliot doesn’t seem to understand the connection (simple cause and effect) between stock prices and corporate earnings. He’s too dense to understand that the only way those earnings can grow in the face of worldwide declining demand is by redistributing income from the 99 to the 1 percent. Shipping jobs overseas is the easy way to push stock prices up because the difference between the old wages here and the new lower wages overseas increases corporate profits year after year. Studies by the Federal Reserve show that between 1.2 to 2.4 million jobs are shipped from the US to elsewhere every year.

It’s easy to predict slower growth in the US because the demand for goods and services has been redistributed into the fat wallets of the super wealthy. They’ve used their control of the US government to pass legislation that does this. They now take home over 31 percent of total income produced in the US, compared to about 8 percent thirty-three years ago. That leaves the rest of us with little or no money to buy goods and services to the point where economic growth can be vibrant, like it used to be. Meanwhile, the rich invest in things like politicians and derivatives, which does nothing to create demand, but does everything to destroy it. The redistribution process is growing. That means the economy will continuously weaken, although it is possible there might be occasional and abnormal historically weak growth spurts.

At least Elliot did get something right, although not completely:

“The even worse news is that the US economy may slow down in the second quarter. Not only will activity be impeded – perhaps severely – by cuts in federal programs, but consumers are unlikely to continue running down their savings to finance their spending in the way they did in the first three months of the year.”

What he doesn’t say is that consumers are unlikely to continue running down their savings” or use their credit cards when their income is continuously being redistributed to the 1 percent by their government.

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Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke lies under oath again

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke lies under oath again

And all of those billions of dollars of federal reserve subsidies, which is money that is simply printed on demand, are redistributed to the 1 percent via higher profits, dividends and share prices than would otherwise be the case, making it easier for them to buy and control politicians of the federal government, as well as state and local governments. They use that power via their subsidies to redistribute income and wealth from the 99 to the 1 percent via legislation such as free trade treaties and privatization scams.

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Hundreds of U.S. Organizations Urge Congress to Replace Fast Track

Troubled by continued secrecy in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Free Trade Agreement , over 400 civil society organizations representing more than 15 million Americans have written to Congress urging that Fast…

Click the link below for the full story.

Hundreds of US Organizations Urge Congress To Replace Fast Track–Citizens Trade Campaign

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Five Graphs And a Video That Will Make Your Blood Boil: Lies of the US Propaganda Media, The US Jobs Crisis! The Mystery is Solved

Look at the graph below. Almost 30 million US jobs have been shipped away since the signing of NAFTA, according to the Federal Reserve. That’s your tax base for schools, police and other government services. That’s why classes are overcrowded and school district’s are finding it difficult to keep up with constantly rising prices.

The total number of jobs exported since Nafta was enacted into law in 1994.

When jobs are shipped overseas, the difference between the old higher wages and the new lower wages are redistributed into the pockets of rich corporate shareholders via rising corporate earnings, soaring share prices and skyrocketing dividend payments. That means the wages of nearly 30 million jobs and the tax base these jobs used to support have been redistributed into the pockets of the 1 percent. That’s precisely why CEO pay has gone up and up since Nafta and other free trade treaties have been enacted. Check out the graph below. Notice that the massive rise in CEO pay began in 1994.

It should also be pointed out that free trade treaties not only pave the way to redistribute your child’s education to the .01 percent richest of Americans, these income redistribution treaties also pave the way for US companies to create jobs overseas, rather than here, where they belong.

The US propaganda media tells us that the jobs are going away because of automation. This is a lie because nobody would have a job nowadays since automation has been occurring since the industrial revolution began, and for the most part, more jobs are always created by new technologies and automation. Think about computers. They replaced typewriters. Computers support far more jobs and job creation than typewriters ever did. Where do you think all that software comes from? The Internet wouldn’t exist without computers. So why is there a jobs crisis? Check out the graph below. According to the Federal Reserve, every year one to two million jobs are shipped away. That doesn’t count the jobs US corporations create overseas, rather than here, due to free trade treaties.

US corporations continue to ship millions of jobs overseas, and they continue to create them overseas due to free income redistribution trade treaties. Almost three million jobs were shipped away in 2009 and 2010. Probably another two million were shipped away in 2011, and even more in 2012. Did automation do that? I don’t think so. Did automation sign a free trade treaty so that US corporations could create jobs overseas rather than here? I doubt it.

Look at the graph of the Dow Jones Industrial Average below. Notice that when NAFTA was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in January 1994, the Dow took off, from just under 4,000 to up and up. Opening Mexico to free trade allowed US corporations to move production there and redistribute massive amounts of income from working people to the 1 percent in the process. It also paved the way for US corporations that produced goods in extremely low paying places like China to ship those items to Mexico, and in the process, this crushed Mexican production in such things as shoe manufacturing, but it was profitable for American companies, and the 1 percent. Record corporate earnings, due to redistributing income from working Americans to the 1 percent, has pushed the Dow Jones to record levels.

The Dow is over 14,000 nowadays. One reason is because of record corporate profits. How can that be since we have a weak economy? The world economy is also weak. So what can possibly explain the rise in the Dow? Since the demand for goods and services are historically pathetic, the only way for corporations to bid up their share prices has been to ship jobs overseas, and that means millions of them.

The result of free trade income treaties have been a financial miracle for the top 1 percent, and especially so for the top .1 percent. Those are the people who own the federal government, sheep dogs like Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden. Notice that a massive shift in income going to the 1 percent began, oh, judging by the graph, about January 1994, when Nafta was signed into law. That’s the result of your free trade treaties.

The rest of us are being driven into banana republic status since our income is being redistributed to the 1 percent.

One other point needs to be made. The graph below only goes to 2007. Since then the 1 percent has been stealing well over 88 percent of all income growth. That means the 1 percent are now stealing over 30 percent of all the income earned in the USA.

This is why free trade treaties are so popular among the 1 percent. This is why their propaganda machines, like Fox News, MSNBC, the Oregonian newspaper, the New York Post and the New York Times and all the major and cable propaganda networks love free trade treaties and why they lie to us by telling us that automation is the great job destroyer.

So we know free trade is the great job destroyer, the primary vehicle of income redistribution, and the great conduit of wealth redistribution.

More income means more wealth. So the 1 percent now own over 40 percent of all wealth in the US compared to 8 percent forty-five years ago. Take a look at the video below to get a good idea about the actual distribution of wealth, which are assets. The US is the 75th most unequal nation in terms wealth inequality in the world, and that was several years ago. It’s gotten much worse since then. And it’s getting worse. Want to reverse this trend? Take action. Get involved. Stop the newest trade treaty that’s being negotiated; the Trans Pacific Partnership. The Guardian newspaper calls it “NAFTA on Steroids.”

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Does Obama’a Secret Negotiations Aim to Destroy the Constitution and Redistribute Income and Wealth From the 99 to the 1 Percent

Obama’s plan

Labor, trade, health and environmental Advocates are urging open negotiations, protections for American workers as the Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Deal is being negotiated. The Guardian newspaper calls the trade pact the largest in history, “Nafta on Steroids” and “an end run around the US Constitution.”

On the eve of his fifth State of The Union Address, President Barack Obama was urged by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) and a broad coalition of progressive organizations to ensure that strong, enforceable labor, health and environmental protections are included as part of the largest “free” trade agreement ever negotiated by the U.S. The president most likely doesn’t care about these issues since the current negotiations will likely send 200,000 low paying textile jobs in El Salvador to lower paying Vietnam. This will cause tens of thousands of US textile workers to lose their jobs since many US textile workers manufacture thread, fabric and yarn and export them to El Salvador. About 2 percent of all US manufacturing exports are textiles. Vietnamese textile firms, on the other hand, get their thread, fabric and yarn from Chinese businesses. So Chinese workers will likely get American jobs, while Vietnamese workers get the jobs of 200,000 people in El Salvador. Good job President Obama! The difference between the old wages in El Salvador and the new lower wages in Vietnam will go into the pockets of rich shareholders. The same holds true of the US jobs that will be lost to China. In other words, the TPP is another income redistribution scam, just like all the rest.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership currently is being negotiated in secret among the United States, Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Roughly 600 corporate lobbyists have access to the negotiations and nobody else does, not even Wall Street Senator Ron Wyden, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Trade, and one of Wall Street’s fiercest warriors in their financial plundering and rape of the middle class.

“Unless President Obama insists on strict standards of openness and iron-clad protections for American workers, the TPP will likely become the biggest and most destructive free trade agreement we’ve ever seen,” said CWA Chief of Staff Ron Collins. “This agreement will provide even more incentives for corporations to off-shore U.S. manufacturing and service jobs to countries like Vietnam which pay extremely low wages and suppress workers’ rights. Also, it could lead to lower wages and benefits in the U.S. as the remaining U.S. employers are forced to compete with these low wage countries. These same incentives will further erode labor rights, health and environmental protections among all participants. It would be part of a global race to the bottom that only benefits multi-national corporations.”

Collins noted that CWA and the other organizations support fair trade, but not the giveaway of jobs that has been the outcome of previous agreements, particularly the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the entry of China into the World Trade Organization. The current TPP process has given corporate lobbyists access to all negotiating documents, while the public is shut out of any discussion.

“We will only support trade agreements that secure fundamental labor rights for workers and fundamental protections for our health and environment in America and abroad,” Collins said.

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The Great Government Scam in the War Against the Middle Class

The great American scam in the war against the middle class. What do Wall Street Senator’s Orrin Hatch and Ron Wyden and all of the Republican Party and 80 percent of the Democratic Party do for a living? They sponsor legislation that outsources and off shore American jobs, and the difference between the old higher wages and the new lower wages goes into the pockets of their masters, the 1 percent, via higher corporate profits, rising share prices and surging dividends.

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Obama and the Trans Pacific Partnership, the Middle Class Destroyer Free Trade Treaty

From Arthur Stamoulis of Fair Trade Campaign.

President Obama promoted the Trans-Pacific Partnership during his recent State of the Union address, saying that it will “boost American exports, support American jobs and level the playing field.” With that as the major public justification for the TPP, we need to arm ourselves with facts about the legacy of recent U.S. trade policy. Important talking points include that:

If you take oil out of the equation, the U.S. trade deficit in goods increased by six percent in 2012 to $628 billion. That’s the largest non-oil U.S. trade deficit since the financial crisis, and a clear sign that U.S. trade policy is not working as it should.

Nine months into the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement — the largest trade pact passed to date during the Obama presidency — exports to South Korea have dropped by 10 percent. This was a deal that had been promoted as job-creating, when in actuality it has led to further increase in the deficit and a net loss of U.S. jobs.

The overall track record for U.S. trade policy in recent decades further points to the need for change. The aggregate trade deficit with all U.S. FTA partners has increased by more that $144 billion since the FTAs were implemented.

To prevent more-of-the-same under the TPP, only a more-grandiose and more-damaging scale, we need Members of Congress to assert their constitutional trade policymaking authority and intervene in the negotiations. They absolutely must not approve “Fast Track” for the TPP. Here are some critical immediate steps for sending that message.

TOP PRIORITY: Organizational Sign-on Letter to Congress

Citizens Trade Campaign is currently soliciting organizations to join a letter to Congress on the TPP, US-EU Free Trade Agreement and Fast Track. This is an extremely important response to a push on the Hill by the Chamber of Commerce and others for Congress to pass Fast Track legislation for the TPP and other trade pacts. Please sign on any organization you have the authority to add, and please urge organizations you are affiliated with to join. The deadline is Sunday, March 3 — just prior to the Singapore Round of TPP negotiations. Instructions for how to join are included in the link above, or by writing to info@citizenstrade.org.

Current signers include Americans for Democratic Action, American Medical Student Association, Communications Workers of America, Friends of the Earth, Global Exchange, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, International Association of Boilermakers, International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, It’s Our Economy, National Farmers Union, National Family Farm Coalition, Progressive Democrats of America, Public Citizen, Rainforest Action Network, Sierra Club, United Steelworkers, Witness for Peace and many others. We need your local, state and national groups on as well!

Organizational Meetings with Member of Congress
Those who represent organizations should please contact Citizens Trade Campaign now at info@citizenstrade.org if you are willing to arrange a meeting with your Member of Congress for the upcoming spring Congressional recess in late March and early April (or any other time). We can provide talking points and timely asks, and potentially connect you with others in your area who may want to join you.

Online Action for Individuals (which Groups Can Also Promote!)
Individuals are encouraged to write to their Members of Congress about the TPP and Fast Track through this online action alert. Please also post the alert on Facebook, Twitter and other social media. Over 2,000 messages have been sent to Congress since the State of the Union, and want to make sure that every Member of Congress is hearing from multiple constituents about it.

Individuals can further voice their opinions about the TPP by writing a Letter to the Editor of their local newspaper using this online tool. A sample letter is provided, but the more you can personalize and localize your letter, the more likely it is to be published. Here’s one example of a letter that was published, provoking lots of positive responses in the paper’s comments section.

TPP Bird-Dogging Action Team

We need volunteers in every Congressional district throughout the country who are willing to keep an eye out for Town Halls and other public events held by U.S. Representatives and U.S. Senators. Please take a moment now to visit your Member of Congress’ websites and sign up for their email lists, so that you’re receiving invitations to their constituent events. Once you’ve done so, please let us know at by filling out the TPP Bird-Dogging Action Team sign-up form.

When you hear about an upcoming Town Hall or public event with your Members of Congress, please let us know at info@citizenstrade.org. Whenever possible, please attend the event yourself and ask a pointed question like:

“I am angry that U.S. trade negotiators have refused to tell the American public what they’ve been proposing in our names for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, while simultaneously giving hundreds of corporate lobbyists, including those from Walmart, Chevron and Cargill, access to the negotiating texts. We can’t afford for the TPP to become another back-room deal the enriches big corporations at the expense of working people. Will you commit to opposing Fast Track authority for the TPP?”

Please report back what the Representative or Senator says at info@citizenstrade.org — and please don’t hesitate to contact us if you want background on the Member’s past trade positions or if you need help crafting a Member-specific question or comment.

A new TPP negotiating round has been added for the month of July in Canada. Details are still forthcoming.

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Obama is Wrong or Lying: The Trans Pacific Free Trade Agreement Will Destroy Jobs and Maybe Even the Constitution

The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) is another free trade income redistribution treaty that Kills Jobs. The President’s State of the Union address contained a number of great proposals, but his call for a massive new Free Trade Agreements wasn’t one of them. The Guardian of the UK calls it a “Nafta on steroids” and a constitutional endrun.

In his speech, President Obama claimed that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will “boost American exports, support Americans jobs and level the playing field.” Please take action now to let Congress know you don’t buy it.

The legacy of trade pacts on which the TPP is modeled has clearly been one of job destruction, not job creation.

Since the Korea-US Free Trade Agreement was implemented during President Obama’s first term, our bilateral trade deficit is up and U.S. exports to South Korea are down. Before that, China’s entry into the World Trade Organization caused our deficit with that country to skyrocket. And before that, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) converted a U.S. trade surplus with Mexico into a large trade deficit. Jobs are shipped overseas, and the products once produced in the US are exported to the USA. There goes our tax base that supports schools, fire, police, roads and other government services. The difference between the old, higher US wages and the new, lower wages over there go straight into the pockets of the rich via higher corporate earnings, surging share prices and rocketing dividends. These agreements are why the US 1 percent receives have stolen…..

All this means the loss of livelihood for hard-working American families and an increase in sweatshop working conditions throughout the globe. There is zero evidence that the Office of U.S. Trade Representative has taken these lessons to heart. Instead, leaked texts suggest that the TPP will become a “NAFTA on steroids.”

Congress should not delegate away its constitutional authority to ensure trade agreements work for most Americans. It must oppose Fast Tracking the TPP. Instead, Congress should set mandatory trade negotiating requirements that protect fundamental labor rights; eliminate “investor-state” offshoring incentives; maintain “Buy American” government procurement policies; safeguard against currency manipulation; and include strong Rules of Origin.

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President Obama and the Trans Pacific Partnership–NAFTA on Steroids

Trying to Screw a Nation?

If you want to destroy an economy, if you want to destroy a middle class, the best way to do that is to ship as many jobs as possible away. That’s what President Obama wants to do, apparently, since he is continuing the negotiations begun by President George W. Bush to do exactly this via the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), which the Guardian Newspaper of the UK calls NAFTA on Steroids.

Like all free trade treaties, it’s an income redistribution scam. These treaties ensure that high paying jobs are shipped away to low paying nations. The difference between the old higher wages and the new lower wages, as well as other savings (such as lower environmental and regulatory costs), is redistributed to the 1 percent from the 99 percent via higher corporate earnings, rising dividends and soaring share prices.

Obama is indebted to such Wall Street corporations as Goldman Sachs and Citibank. With the TPP, he will be paying them back, but he’s taking money from those whose jobs are being shipped overseas (such as call center workers, computer programmers, engineers, manufacturing workers, etc…), and this will weaken the tax base. Other income losers will be government workers, such as teachers, fire fighters, accountants, government lawyers, road workers, etc…. In addition, it should be pointed out that for every 70 workers who lose their jobs in manufacturing, there will be an additional 25 job loses for book keepers, accountants, computer techs, accountants, managerial staff, and everybody who works to support those 70 manufacturing workers. The numbers are similar for call-center operations, computer programmers, etc…. There are tons of support staff jobs that will follow the ships shipped overseas.

Do your kids have crowded classes? That’s because your tax base has been redistributed to the 1 percent which is best shown via the bold paragraph above.

As the Nation magazine notes, “The TPP has been cleverly misbranded as a trade agreement (yawn) by its corporate boosters. As a result, since George W. Bush initiated negotiations in 2008, it has cruised along under the radar. The Obama administration initially paused the talks, ostensibly to develop a new approach compatible with candidate Obama’s pledges to replace the old NAFTA-based trade model. But by late 2009, talks restarted just where Bush had left off.

Since then, US negotiators have proposed new rights for Big Pharma and pushed into the text aspects of the Stop Online Piracy Act, which would limit Internet freedom, despite the derailing of SOPA in Congress earlier this year thanks to public activism. In June a text of the TPP investment chapter was leaked, revealing that US negotiators are even pushing to expand NAFTA’s notorious corporate tribunals, which have been used to attack domestic public interest laws.”

Therefore, the president is not only planning on using the TPP to redistribute income from the 99 percent to his Wall Street cronies, he is plotting to take away more of your rights as US citizens and redistributing those rights to Wall Street.

As the Guardian of the UK reports, “In reality, the deal has almost nothing to do with trade: actual trade barriers between these countries are already very low. The TPP is an effort to use the holy grail of free trade to impose conditions and override domestic laws in a way that would be almost impossible if the proposed measures had to go through the normal legislative process. The expectation is that by lining up powerful corporate interests, the governments will be able to ram this new “free trade” pact through legislatures on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.’

Right now, the 1 percent receive over 30 percent of all the income in the US, compared to about 8 percent in 1980. That means the 99 percent receive about 69 percent of the total national income, compared to 92 percent thirty-three years ago. Jobs are scarce, the US economy is teetering on the abyss of banana republic status because the 99 percent have less money to purchase stuff compared to 1980. That’s why there are less jobs. The tax base has been wrecked by free trade treaties, which is why the federal deficit is so high. All of this are simple concepts and your president understands them, but he has political debts to pay, and if it means destroying the wreck of a once great economy, so be it.

Click the link below for more on the Trans Pacific Partnership.

nafta on steroids–the nation

The free trade agreement that is not about free trade–the guardian UK

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