DeLay: House Will Pass CAFTAAccording to House Republicans - today is the day for CAFTA. (Or rather, tonight. Wanting to miss the evening news?)
House will pass CAFTA tonight: DeLay
Jul 27, 11:11 AM (ET)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans in the House of Representatives will approve a new free trade agreement with Central America late on Wednesday with the help of a few Democrats, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay said.
"It will be a tough vote but we'll pass CAFTA tonight," DeLay told reporters after a meeting between [Bush] and House Republicans. "We will honor our commitments to the south, we will protect our national security and will do it all with very few Democrats."
Mr. DeLay hits on an important point - "very few Democrats" should be supporting CAFTA to begin with, especially Democrats from Iowa.
With fitting timing, Tom Frank commented on TPM Cafe about where Democrats (and progressives in general) should stand on economic issues:
We need to point out the massive contradiction between the cons’ populist, “family values” rhetoric and their free-market practice. When conservatives talk about how Xtreme and revolutionary the laissez-faire system is, we should agree with them—and then point out what exactly this means: the destruction of the world you grew up in. If left to itself, free-market capitalism would empty our towns and bid our wages down to nothing and drill for oil in the Grand Canyon and hook us all up to non-stop virtual-reality advertising goggles for the rest of our days. It doesn’t give a damn about families or values or very much else. This is why you once had so many liberals in this country: liberals protected people from these forces. That’s what we were about.
Thus, CAFTA should be a Republicans-only bill, passed in the name of the "American People", passed for the benefit of concentrated corporate power.
There's still time to call Tom Latham!
Toll-free numbers to reach the Capitol switchboard:
866-340-9281, 866-340-9279, 877-762-8762
The vote on CAFTA is today. Tom Latham of Iowa is on the fence. If Latham is your representative, call his office and let him know that his health voters are looking very carefully at this vote, etc. ASK HIM TO VOTE AGAINST CAFTA. As you know CAFTA has the CODEX-like agreement within it which would impact access to our vitamins and supplements. We need an amazing flurry of calls.
Washington DC Switchboard 202 224-3121
Ask for Mike Gruber in Cong. Latham's office and leave a message on his voice mail
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