Has The Republican Party Turned Itself Into A Great Big Chinese Mole?

Last month we looked at how Congress finally dealt with the plague of Chinese currency manipulation. China is fighting back-- by spending money to help elect John Boehner Speaker and Mitch McConnell Senate Majority Leader. It's illegal and it's a job of outsourcing in the opposite direction. Instead of sending American jobs to China this time, China has tasked their sleazy friends at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with this one. Why? Good question. Apart from the fact that Boehner has never found a "free" trade agreement-- no matter how destructive to his own constituents-- that he didn't embrace and champion, there's plenty of unregulated cash sloshing around in this pot. From NAFTA, CAFTA, the WTO/GATT, to all the fast track legislation and to the current bills he's pushing to send more U.S. jobs to South Korea, Bahrain and Colombia, Boehner has always been and still is a fanatic supporter of "free" (rather than fair) trade.

When Tim Ryan's bill to curb China's currency manipulation hit the floor last month it passed with a gigantic bipartisan majority, 348-79, most Republicans abandoning Boehner and crossing the aisle to vote with Ryan and the Democrats-- in effect, to vote for American working families instead of with China's authoritarian communist regime. Even the senior Republican members of Ohio's congressional delegation-- ALL of them-- voted against Boehner in a rare show of independence. 99 Republicans voted for American families and American jobs; 74 Republicans voted with China's government.

At the time we first looked at it, I couldn't understand. And then the story broke about how China is helping to finance the Chamber of Commerce's multimillion dollar effort to flood the TV and radio airwaves with lies about Democrats in order to put their two agents-- Boehner and McConnell-- into power. I asked Tim Ryan what had happened and he was blunt in pointing out that the whole GOP House leadership-- Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mike Pence, Pete Sessions, Darrell Issa, Paul Ryan, David Dreier, Joe Barton, Jerry Lewis, Kevin McCarthy, the guys charged with keeping the campaign cash flowing-- were the ones whipping against the bill. They failed miserably-- basically only the crackpots like Michele Bachmann, Steve King, Wally Herger, Mean Jean Schmidt, Scott Garrett, John Campbell, Marsha Blackburn, Tom McClintock, Louie Gohmert, Tom Price, Gary Miller, Paul Broun, and Trent Franks-- had the temerity to thumb their noses at the voters this close to an election-- along with three craven and cowardly sellouts desperate for financial help in tough races: Mary Bono Mack (CA), Leonard Lance (NJ) and Dave Reichert (WA).

Yesterday's Capitol Fax broke the story that one of Mitch McConnell's pet candidates, like him another GOP-living-a-lie-closet-queen, Mark Kirk, planned a "Beijing fundraiser which was held the day before a House vote to close tax loopholes for companies that send jobs out of the country." Kirk, of course followed the company line and joined Boehner in voting against closing tax loopholes that would prevent companies from using current U.S. foreign tax credit rules to subsidize their foreign activities, just as he voted more recently against reining in China's systematic currency manipulation that results in dumping, stealing market share and loss of American jobs.

The Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v FEC has made it possible to hide the sources of foreign (illegal) yuan, dinars and rubles flooding into the electoral system. When the Democrats tried addressing that with the DISCLOSE Act, it passed narrowly in the House 219-206, only two Republicans willing to cross the aisle and vote for sunlight (while a whole pack of corrupt Blue Dogs-- 5 of whom (Bobby Bright, Frank Kratovil, Glenn Nye, Travis Childers, and Jim Marshall) are also getting foreign money through the Chamber of Commerce-- opposed the bill. That's when well documented Chinese agent Mitch McConnell moved into action. He was instrumental in getting every single Republican senator to join a filibuster to kill the bill and keep the foreign money flowing into GOP campaign coffers. Nancy Pelosi's blog warned about what is happening in stark terms:

Shadowy front groups headed up by Republican operatives and funded by secret corporate donors are supporting the GOP and their special interest agenda-- shipping good-paying American jobs overseas, turning Social Security over to Wall Street, and turning Medicare over to the insurance companies. An editorial in today’s Los Angeles Times highlights the secret money that is being used to influence Americans:

…Democracy 21, a campaign-spending watchdog group, estimates that as much as $300 million will be spent anonymously in this election cycle; voters will never know where the money came from.

…Crossroads GPS has not disclosed its donors. Campaign reform advocates are asking the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the group to determine whether it’s in violation of a requirement that it not be “primarily engaged” in supporting or opposing candidates.

One remedy for the avalanche of anonymous attack ads is the DISCLOSE Act, which would require nonprofits like Crossroads GPS and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (which is covered by a different provision of the tax code) to disclose the names of the companies, organizations and individuals who fund them. The legislation has been approved by the House but was blocked in the Senate by a Republican filibuster; it could, and should, be revived in a postelection session. The DISCLOSE Act also would require the chief officers of corporations — and nonprofits such as Crossroads GPS-- to appear in ads and take responsibility for them, just as candidates do for advertising sponsored by their campaigns.

There is no cogent argument against maximum disclosure…Even as it ruled this year that corporations had the right to engage in political spending, the Supreme Court upheld disclosure requirements, noting a previous holding that “disclosure could be justified based on a governmental interest in ‘provid[ing] the electorate with information’ about the sources of election-related spending.”

That is what the DISCLOSE Act would do. If those who seek to influence elections don’t have the courage of their convictions, Congress must act to identify them.

Tuesday Think Progress revealed what appears to be a bit more than a coincidence to me: the Chamber of Commerce conducting outsourcing seminars for the Chinese government.

Among the many lies told by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce recently, chief Chamber lobbyist Bruce Josten said that his organization’s foreign affiliates, called AmChams, are only “comprised of American companies doing business abroad in those countries.” In fact, the Chinese AmCham is comprised of Chinese firms like Northern Light Venture Capital; the AmCham in Russia is comprised of Russian state-run companies like VTB Bank; and, the AmCham of Abu Dhabi is comprised of UAE state-run oil companies.

The ties between the AmChams and the U.S. Chamber are deep. In addition to sharing staff members, the Chinese AmCham has worked closely with the U.S. Chamber and the Chinese government to sponsor a series of seminars in America to teach American businesses how to outsource jobs to China (called the China Grassroots Program). Below is an invite to an event sponsored by the right-wing billionaire Sheldon Adelson, inviting local businesses in Florida to come to Jacksonville and learn about outsourcing from Chinese government officials like Li Haiyan, the Counselor for Economic Affairs for the People’s Republic of China, U.S. Chamber lobbyist Joseph Fawkner, and BChinaB, a firm that specializes in helping American firms outsource their manufacturing jobs to China.

China may be funding Boehner's run for the speakership but his state's Senator, Sherrod Brown is one of the foremost advocates for a sane, FAIR trade policy with China. Where Boehner is always pushing interests that come wrapped in hundred dollar bills regardless of the harm they do to Ohio families, Brown, author of the well-reasoned Myths of Free Trade, has been a voice for a new, more equitable direction in trade policies. Monday he contributed an OpEd in the NY Times Boehner and McConnell would do well to try to read and understand.

Ten years ago this fall the Senate sold out American manufacturing. By a vote of 83 to 15, it established so-called permanent normal trade relations with China, paving the way for that country to join the World Trade Organization. As a result, Chinese imports to the United States fell under the same low tariffs and high quotas as those from countries like Canada and Britain.

Today, though, our trade relations with China are anything but normal. The 2000 agreement’s proponents insisted it would enable a billion Chinese consumers to buy American products. Instead, our bilateral trade deficit has increased 170 percent, largely because China has undermined free-market competition through illegal subsidies and currency manipulation.

Unless the administration takes punitive steps in response to China’s unfair trade practices, the American economy-- and the American worker-- will continue to suffer.

The old agreement on trade with China was never really about promoting American manufacturing. Rather, it was a cynical ploy on the part of many multinational companies. They lobbied Congress to approve it, promising a boost to American exports; then, once it passed, they closed domestic plants, moved production overseas and sold their products back to American consumers.

...And it’s no longer just Chinese bicycles and electronics that are flooding our markets. China will soon make half the world’s wind turbines and solar panels, most of which it plans to export to America. And, as usual, China’s clean-energy industry relies on large government subsidies, in direct violation of international trade laws.

In response, the Obama administration recently accepted a petition, filed by the United Steelworkers under Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act, to investigate China’s state support for clean-energy exports. If the White House finds that the support violates international trade rules, Section 301 allows it to respond with a range of aggressive measures, including tariffs.

This strategy has worked before: in the 1980s and ’90s, the United States used its 301 authority to combat Japanese and Korean subsidies and trade barriers. Though critics warned of bitter trade wars, the get-tough approach actually led to more balanced trade relationships, and even encouraged foreign investors, like Asian auto companies, to build plants in America.

In trying to get China to play fair, though, Washington has instead relied on rhetoric and moral suasion. It hasn’t worked. Only rigorous enforcement of trade rules by the Obama administration can reverse the harm caused by the permanent normal trade relations agreement.

Congress has a role to play, too: when the Senate reconvenes next month, it should vote, as the House did in September, to expand the president’s authority to impose tariffs on China or any other country that unfairly manipulates its currency.

Many politicians claim they support products “made in America.” But the phrase is more than an empty slogan; it means standing up for American manufacturers. Only by learning the lessons of “normal” trade with China-- and acknowledging buyer’s remorse-- can we reach a truly balanced bilateral relationship that works for America.

We've embedded this clip before but it can never be seen too much, particularly not when you have Republican candidates like Carly Fiorina (CA), Pat Toomey (PA), Roy Blunt (MO) and Ron Johnson (WI) taking Chamber of Commerce foreign cash and pushing for more outsourcing in return: