Due to the graphic facts and sheer number of victims, this post is rated XXX by the DNC and RNC. Viewer discretion is advised for single issue or low information voters.
Ed Markey’s inconvenient truth is: 175,706 manufacturing jobs lost in Massachusetts during NAFTA/WTO Period
Is this what we were promised by the politicians, who popped champagne bottles when these so-called “free trade” agreements were passed? I hope Mr. Markey celebrated their passage with a nice glass of Dom Perrion. Ignoring the pleas of many unions, Ed Markey chose a different path which resulted in Massachusetts hemorrhaging 41% of its manufacturing jobs. Before Ed Markey voted for NAFTA $ GATT, 18% of all private sector jobs in Massachusetts were in the manufacturing sector. Remember the slogan “Make It In Massachusetts”? Today, it is below 9%. Anyone for drinking some box wine?
The net loss in jobs in Massachusetts due to our trade deficit with Mexico alone is over 17,000, China has wiped out over 78,000. Does Ed Markey, by living in Chevy Chase, Maryland, have any clue of the impact these trade deals have on the middle class in Massachusetts, let alone across the entire nation? Does he even care? Is there any doubt, Stephen Lynch, who worked at the Quincy Shipyard and the GM Plant in Framingham, who witnessed these jobs vanish and moved out of the country, is fully aware of the impact the free trade deals have on real people? Politicians make choices in life. Some choose to spend most of their time living outside their district like Mr. Markey, others like Stephen Lynch return back to the district they represent, as often as possible, to get on the ground, speak to the people in the supermarkets or local sporting events, and find out what the hell is really happening, and more important, what D.C. can do better or stop doing.
In 2004, the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program was passed to help train workers who lost their job due to imports or offshoring. Since its passage, almost 50,000 Massachusetts residents have had to apply for this program. Some here applaud Mr. Markey for supporting this bill. I look at it as an indictment of his support for NAFTA and GATT a decade earlier.
If you believe America can continue this cycle of importing cheap goods while exporting our manufacturing jobs, Chevy Chase Ed Markey is your man and will fit perfectly in the U.S. Senate, where most members are oblivious to what is going on in the working middle class.
On the other hand, we can stop this insanity of incentivizing corporations to move operations offshore. We can elect a man who did at one point in his life, had to wait in an unemployment line, actually worked a very difficult blue-collar job while putting himself though college, and who doesn’t have to pander to the middle class by hanging his hat on a little factoid that he drove his dad’s milk truck one summer while on semester break.
I urge we vote for a man who struggled to maintain his middle class status for most of his life. By electing Stephen Lynch, we all get to go to D.C., and finally have a seat at the table reserved for the most affluent in our society. It should be no surprise that in 1965, there were 51 full-time workers to every one person on disability. In 1997 as the trade agreements began to take root, the ratio was 24-1. Today, the ratio is at 13-1.
The working middle class has been on an economic death spiral for 20 years. We Democrats and Unenrolled voters can either elect Ed Markey, who helped put our economy in the death spiral with his NAFTA and GATT votes, or we can elect Stephen Lynch, who will fight for a new path, that includes protection and guardrails for our fellow Americans who need it the most , the working middle class. Are you with me!
The sequel, Ed Markey makes Bain Capital look like a staffing agency.
Ask fellow Lynch supporter Striker57 to show you how it’s done. I think we are now well-aware that your beef with Markey is NAFTA so no need to sound like a broken record. That argument won’t convince me anyway since I would have voted for NAFTA as well and I still think on balance it is best to have open borders. I actually believe this kind of freedom is progressive whereas protectionism is too selfish and more in line with conservatism because the latter strikes me as the equivalent of xenophobia.
To a third world country. Never knew Romney was just sharing the wealth when he outsourced jobs, what a big liberal Oh I can’t wait for all the positive views Christopher’s post will receive, come on people, who agrees with Christopher?
I did in my post, I challenged Dan and instead Striker57 took up the cause with a thoughtful post, and he even mentioned areas where he disagreed with Lynch but still thought he was the better candidate. I am uncovinced Dan would be supporting Lynch if Scotto was still in the race and he probably figured NAFTA was one of the few vote differentiators that made Lynch more sympathetic to progressives. To wit Lynch’s campaign managers seem to think the same thing. Time will tell if it sticks, it certainly isn’t here.
Of course my posts have made an impact, that is why I was ordered not to make any more new posts about NAFTA/GATT. Don’t you think people from the Markey camp were whining to BMG to censor me or knock me off because of the facts I was putting on the table?
It was no surprise to me when asked to distinguish himself from Markey, Lynch went right for the throat and talked about Ed’s support for the trade agreements and the havoc they have caused. It’s called compare and contrast. How many times have Markey supporters raised the issue of abortion and the candidates differences? Is that too, off the table? I can hear the hemming and hawing from here.
I have been silenced but the issue will be raised over and over by Team Lynch, and it will stick, unfortunately for Markey, more than any other issue.
Dan has been silenced! His posts have made an impact, so the Machine is having him censored!
I’ve seen this movie many times. It’s never worth watching.
Oh, and no, I don’t think people from the Markey camp were whining to BMG to censor you or knock you off. That would be stupid. But even if David, et al, stoop to deny it, you wouldn’t believe them, because you have SPOKE THE TRUTH and BEEN SILENCED.
Poor Dan.
I appreciated the opportunity to make my case. I am sure BMG got some heat and complaints, politics is a dirty business. Not from the camps specifically but I would guess some volunteers may have complained. It is a tedious subject too, kinda dont blame them.
BMG is an awesome blog and both camps are monitoring it, no doubt in my mind, that is how good it is.
Your delusion that anybody tried to “silence” you is laughable.
Your comments about NAFTA/GATT are so repetitive and tiresome that they amount to spam/flooding.
If I were in the Ed Markey campaign (which I am not), I would do everything in my power to keep your comments as visible as possible — like the war-whoopers for Scott Brown, I’m confident that each of your utterances here gains about ten Democratic votes for Ed Markey for each Steve Lynch vote (don’t forget, it is a Democratic primary).
I particularly enjoyed your accolades for John Silbur and Ed King — I’m sure that the Lynch campaign is eager to be associated with both of those lovingly-remembered individuals.
posts about NAFTA/GATT?
I will most likely support Markey, but I don’t get it. NAFTA is a legitimate historical issue. It was a mistake, but I don’t find it particularly relevant today. The 1990s was the Democrats fiscally conservative response to Republican movement conservatism. Bill Clinton and the DLC were the Presidential its representatives. All of our legislators approved Gramm-Leach. The only thing that matters today is whether Markey would support NAFTA if it came up again.
Both Kennedy and Kerry voted for NAFTA.
Here’s the NAFTA roll call vote for Congress:
NO D Olver, John MA 1st
NO D Neal, Richard MA 2nd
NO R Blute, Peter MA 3rd
NO D Frank, Barney MA 4th
AYE D Meehan, Marty MA 5th
AYE R Torkildsen, Peter MA 6th
AYE D Markey, Ed MA 7th
AYE D Kennedy, Joseph MA 8th
NO D Moakley, John MA 9th
AYE D Studds, Gerry MA 10th
In a comment on this thread:
http://vps28478.inmotionhosting.com/~bluema24/2013/02/ed-markeys-own-inconvenient-truth/#comment-309968
His one trick pony act is getting tiresome.
We need someone like Lynch who can recognize a bad bill when it’s about to become law, not after the devestation and say “whoops, my bad, got that one wrong, sorry to all you folks who lost your job”. That cannot and should be the standard.
If you truely do find it a mistake, you should go with Lynch, his experience and heart is with the working class, always have been.
I’m more concerned with the future than the distant past. If I cared about the distant past, I’d care about Lynch’s arrest record and substance abuse, but I don’t. That was then. This is now.
I grew up and live in a working class town. I have working class friends and relatives. I care about them. But I don’t think they know what’s best for themselves just because they are working class. I don’t think anyone necessarily knows what’s best for themselves based on what class or group they belong to. Some of my self-employed friends oppose policies that would actually be good for the working class they belong to. Plenty of teachers oppose policies that would be in their best interests.
Steve Lynch is from the working class. He’s also from Southie. I can tell you even less about Ed Markey. I don’t know if either one is like me, and I don’t really care. What I care about is what they will do. My decision will be probably based on whether my Congressman supports him. My Congressman has worked with both Lynch and Markey, and he’s represented me well for the last 20 years. And he voted against NAFTA.
…the evidence that draws a line from NAFTA to outsourcing that does not commit the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. Most of the outsourcing we complain about goes to China which of course is not party to NAFTA, though I do wish we did not kowtow to their MFN status. Besides creating opportunities in Mexico isn’t the worst thing for either side of the Rio Grande.
Ed Markey’s GATT vote in 1994 was for the U.S. to become a member of the World Trade Organization. Many felt that by joining this organization, we ceded much of our sovereignty over the U.S. tariff and trade law to the WTO, who happen to rule against the U.S. whe we bring a trade dispute.
Since Markey’s vote for NAFTA/GATT, our trade deficit has more than tripled.
I understand, you believe this is a good think, an American loses his/her middle class job to someone living in Mexico or China as a way of spreading the wealth. You called it “progressive”, did you not? So all the factory workers at Whirlpool or the thousand or so Massachusetts residents who were terminated by Gillette when their jobs were moved to Mexico, they should all be happy that someone else, less fortanute than they are b/c they don’t live in the U.S., now has a job. I am sure you mean well, but I vehemently disagree with it. I want a Senator who will look out for the American worker, first and foremost, which is why I support Lynch and you support Markey.
Thank you for commenting on my post, enjoy the exchange of ideas.
do with the exchange rate than anything else.
Given your criteria about looking out for the American worker, I find it somewhat ironic that you supported Scott Brown over Elizabeth Warren.
That the trade deficit is mostly about the exchange rate. I am sure it will give them comfort, all 800 of them.
for Scott Brown or that the twenty year-old treaty you can’t stop talking about has nothing to do with their losing their jobs to China?
you have piqued my interest.
Want interested me is how specifically is this due to NAFTA. I don’t think you can tell us that manufacturing was booming industry prior to NAFTA, we were losing jobs due to other factors prior.
Did we lose non-farm jobs overall (prior to the Republican economic collapse) — since I don’t think you can twist that into NAFTA. Mid-2000 or 2007 area, how were our job numbers, how were Mexico’s job numbers.
My feeling, you might be surprised with the results.
then just say it. Many people agree with you. I believe it is unfair asking the American worker to compete with cheap or slave wages in Mexico or China, let alone their working conditions. It is a race to the bottom, IMO. During these critical votes, we needed a fighter like Lynch, not a horn tooter as Markey was.
To answer your question, as best as I have researched, MA was shedding jobs left and right long before the financial crisis. By 2002, MA had lost 44,000 jobs due to NAFTA but gained 21,000. In fact, Massachusetts is one of the harder hit states when looking at just the percentage of loss jobs.
If I may, let me ask you a question. How would you feel if all public employees, teachers, police, etc. could have their jobs outsourced to cheaper labor? How would they react, you think? Would they say what Christopher suggested, at least they would be spreading the wealth around? Or would they fight tooth and nail to prevent such a proposal from becoming law? That is why I find it unconscionable for any public worker to vote for Ed Markey over Stephen Lynch. Markey over a Scott Brown, sure, both are “free traders” but not over Lynch. Not over a guy who will have everyone’s back, public, private, middle or poor, all American workers.
wrong.
Deflecting is not answering a question.
MA lost significant jobs to NAFTA alone prior to the financial collapse. I know this may be hard for Markey supporters, I appreciate at, but the raw truth must be told.
Here is for instance. Remember Evergreen Solar? The laid off 800 workers who made solar panels. Where did they go? China, who is part of the WTO, which Ed Markey said is a good thing to be in. Dismiss those workers, but if they belonged to a public union or SEIOU or whatever, you bet there would be holy hell raised. And Charley says green energy creates jobs? Not when Markey is giving the store away, good for China, not us.
I don’t expect any to answer my last question because how you answer depends on whether you have a conscience or not, in my humble opinion, of course.
This Wikipedia entry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_trade_debate
is perhaps worth reading more than trying to squeeze insight from the person whom I would never accuse of being a troll.
There’s nothing in this post that the OP hasn’t already said in his numerous comments, many times over.
Every time dfw “answers” a comment, I want to favorite this comment again.
I think this is probably enough posts on the NAFTA/GATT issue.
What a crashing boorish Trollish load of garbage. Anyone who does not agree with the Wizard of Waltham must automatically be a low information voter. Snore
Come on man. What is Lynch going to actually do about NAFTA, GATT or the loss of manufacturing jobs? So far you haven’t listed a single thing. For that matter, what has Lynch already done. After all, he already IS a Congressman just like Markey. What has he done?
They can clearly be copied and remade rather easily from someone else.
It wouldn’t take much more than a random number generator and a small collection of bumper-stickers, slogans, right-wing talking points, and dog-whistle phrases. Sort of an automated political “mad-libs”.
Gee, maybe I should create that for the GOP — seems like promotional organizations for ALL their candidates are likely sales prospects.
…and you’ll have a social media winner!