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"In the spirit of reaching across the aisle, we owe it to the Democrats to show their president the exact same kind of respect and loyalty that they have shown our recent Republican president." - Ann Coulter

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March 1st, 2008 at 1:55 pm

Dem Candidates Mum on NAFTA in Texas

in: Election 2008, News, Ohio Politics, Opinion, Presidential Candidates, The Economy

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Hussein Obama are suspiciously silent on the subject of the North American Free Trade Agreement as they stump across the Lone Star State. This after bad mouthing the international treaty while in Ohio. Hussein Obama wants to end the treaty and Hillary wants to “re-negotiate” according to their Ohio speeches. But in Texas - silence. The question is why.

In Texas they’ve benefited from the treaty. Tequila and auto parts are flowing across the border like illegals. This is actually a boon for the Texan economy. But here in Ohio where those auto parts used to be made, the former union employees who used to make those parts want an end to the treaty in a false hope of getting their jobs back. News flash, those jobs are gone.

I can say this from a level of certainty because I used to have one of those jobs that went south of the border. The town I live in is depressed because of those jobs moving south of the border. But those jobs didn’t belong to those employees, they belonged to the businesses that hired them. Their jobs, their choice to move them.

Ohio workers are going to have to get it through our heads that the money is no longer in the auto industry for us. Those jobs are now gone. We need to re-educate and get those office and service jobs. Whether blame in NAFTA is justified or not is no longer the question. The damage is done and those jobs are gone for good.

Most of the blame for the loss of the jobs that used to be here belongs to the state. Tax rates and employment costs drove those jobs out not NAFTA. NAFTA just made it easier for the companies to move.

Today the Federal Minimum Wage is $5.85 per hour. That wage took effect on July 24, 2007. January 1, 2007 the Ohio Minimum Wage went to $6.85 per hour. Even with the higher wage, Ohio didn’t lose these jobs due to wages. We lost them because of the costs based on those wages. Unemployment insurance, workers compensation insurance, disability insurance, the employer’s portion of the Social Security and Medicare insurances, and the biggie, Health Insurance. These costs were bankrupting companies doing business in Ohio. Most of the jobs which have left were high paying low skilled jobs that can be done almost anywhere for lower wages and lower costs. They are now like Elvis, they have left the building never to return.

Ohioans need to get used the fact that NAFTA didn’t cause our jobs to go. It just made it easier to move them. And no matter what a politician says to you, they aren’t coming back.

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