Republicans Continue to Support US Job Losses in Trade Deals, Discounting Efforts to Retrain Displaced Workers.

Jobs, jobs, jobs???

Isn’t it about time we admit Republicans used the uncertainty over American jobs as an empty campaign slogan? If it wasn’t, would the Republicans have even thought to put a stop to funding retraining programs for displaced workers?  

WoPo: Congressional Republicans are holding back approval of a White House-backed extension of worker benefits in order to pressure the Obama administration to finalize pending free-trade agreements with Colombia and Panama. The move to link the two issues puts at risk a federal initiative that helps retrain and find work for several hundred thousand U.S. workers who have been displaced by global trade.

What happened to the deliberate process of debate and not ramming even trade deals down America’s throat?

U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk's … made clear that the administration will not move on the Panama and Colombia agreements without first revising them, "we will not sign agreements just for agreements' sake," Kirk said … progress has been … getting Panama to take steps to prevent individuals and companies from using the country as a tax  … The issues under discussion with Colombia … involve the independence of the country's judiciary and violence against union organizers.

Violence against union organizers? It's a conservative wet dream. How could you not blame Republicans for pushing the approval process  along quickly, knowing unions would face state sanctioned brutality against organizers. 

Perhaps Republicans are looking to see what works in Columbia, before they start their own more aggressive campaign against unions here, once one party rule is restored in 2012.

Factoid: Over the past 20 years, 2,754 unionists have been murdered in Columbia. More often than not, no convictions are ever obtained. In the rare instance where prosecutors are able to obtain a conviction, which is roughly 5 percent of the time, it is often in absentia, meaning the government does not have a suspect in custody.  According to Torrico, a 2008 report by Human Rights Watch a high level of collusion between Columbian lawmakers and the paramilitaries carrying out the murders, suggesting that the low conviction rate is no mere coincidence or simply bad police work.