CAFTA: Another Democratic Obstruction

According to Sen. Harry Reid and Rep. Steny Hoyer, Democrats have found yet another issue to oppose - the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Despite the tremendous success of NAFTA in increasing trade and reducing cost of goods to American consumers, Democrats (and certain Buchananite Republicans) still believe that free trade is a terrible thing.

Hoyer of Maryland told reporters today that he sees Democrats voting ``overwhelmingly against'' Cafta, and that there may not be enough support among Republicans to even hold a vote.

This would be very unfortunate. Apart from basic economics that free trade can increase the wealth among all countries involved, CAFTA is an important long-term security issue for the U.S. People from Central America and Mexico cross the border illegally into the U.S. to increase their economic standing. In the long run, we need to be concerned with increasing our own wealth as a nation as well as that of our trading partners.

Peter Morici, a University of Maryland professor and former chief economist at the International Trade Commission, has another take on CAFTA:

Cafta is in trouble because of frustration with Bush administration inaction on the trade deficit and the Chinese yuan.''

This is complete garbage. It's the President's job to help increase the wealth of the U.S. - not to prevent U.S. consumers from buying inexpensive products from overseas. We need pro-growth trading policies to continue our competitiveness as a nation and CAFTA is an important trading agreement that should be passed.