Poor Terry McAuliffe. When he announced that Hillary Clinton was obviously in favor of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and then immediately recanted, we knew that he had been sacrificed in order to "test the waters". Is America ready for another crappy trade agreement, compliments of the Clinton cartel? Apparently no, but when has popular opinion ― or even popular votes ― ever stopped a Clinton? In case you missed it:
Pressed on whether Clinton would turn around and support the trade deal she opposed during the heat of the primary fight against Bernie Sanders, McAuliffe said: "Yes. Listen, she was in support of it. There were specific things in it she wants fixed."
Later, McAuliffe's spokesman sought to clarify the governor's remarks after this story published, saying he was simply expressing what he wants Clinton to do if she is elected president.
Yes, Hillary Clinton claims she is opposed to the TPP, even though, as Secretary of State, she praised the secretive "trade" agreement. Again and again.
If ratified, the "free trade agreement" would "grant foreign corporation shocking new powers to attack the laws we rely on for a clean environment, safe food and decent jobs. Under TPP, these corporations could sneak around our courts and laws and grab millions in our tax dollars all because they don't like our laws."
Sounds like a real hoot. And just imagine, a little more than twenty years ago First Lady Hillary Clinton helped her husband peddle the most disastrous "free trade agreement" in modern American history:
In 1993, as first lady, Mrs. Clinton lobbied hard for NAFTA. On the day her husband Bill signed it, he promised it would "create 200,000 jobs in this country by 1995 alone."
NAFTA wound up costing America more than 700,000 jobs. However, even after this devastation was becoming evident, a by-then Senator Clinton kept supporting NAFTA -- doubling down on a bad trade deal that has done as much damage to Mexico as it has to America.
Like her stance on TPP, Clinton said "great things about NAFTA until she started running for president." That's a direct quote from Barack Obama, circa 2008. Oh how times change.
NAFTA gutted American manufacturing, but it wasn't all bad! With cheap, job-destroying imports now readily available on American supermarket shelves, Hillary cashed in big as a member of Wal-Mart's board of directors. The Clintons didn't just destroy America's working class ― they profited from it:
Once NAFTA became law, highly subsidized cheap corn from major U.S. corporations flooded the Mexican market, causing millions of local farmers to lose their livelihoods, and with little options, migrate illegally to the United States. President Salinas repealed Article 27 of the Mexican Constitution, privatizing once public lands, which were then sold to the highest bidder, often U.S. corporations. This caused the importation of Walmart and factories producing automobiles, electronics, and clothing. Thousands of small businesses were eliminated and millions of displaced workers came to the U.S. Combined with NAFTA's low tariffs, these policies caused the U.S. to develop a labor surplus, which in part, contributed to companies hiring undocumented workers or outsourcing jobs to factories in Mexico, resulting in Americans losing their jobs.
Another Clinton presidency will guarantee the safe passage and implementation of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a secret agreement that has been negotiated behind closed doors for the last seven years.
Clinton now claims that she thinks NAFTA needs to be "fixed". She claims that she opposes the TPP. What a massive load of hooey. As Kevin L. Kearns, president of the U.S. Business & Industry Council (USBIC), wrote:
Hillary wants it both ways on trade -- simultaneously placating anti-free-trade Sanders voters and her pro-free-trade Wall Street benefactors -- with her "read-your-favored-position-into-it" approach. However, if our failed trade policy is something voters want to change in favor of new wealth generation and job creation, the choice of candidates is clear: The one who actually has a specific trade policy that favors American workers and the American economy. Hint: It's not Hillary Clinton.
If you think NAFTA was bad, just wait for TPP. The Clintons have sold us out. Again.