Will The Teabaggers Work With Progressives To Derail A Toxic Obama-Boehner Free Trade Push?

Yesterday Frank Rich had everybody asking Who Will Stand Up To The Superrich? Looking at who financed Obama's electoral campaign, who runs his treasury department and economic team and who he appointed to be his first chief of staff, we can be sure who won't stand up to the superrich. And now that the superrich just bought the House of Representatives, anyone who thinks the Senate is about to make an historic u-turn and start standing up for regular working families has got to be delusional. The Supreme Court has been a wholly owned subsidiary of the superrich for decades. And that leaves...

America’s ever-widening income inequality was not an inevitable by-product of the modern megacorporation, or of globalization, or of the advent of the new tech-driven economy, or of a growing education gap. (Yes, the very rich often have fancy degrees, but so do those in many income levels below them.) Inequality is instead the result of specific policies, including tax policies, championed by Washington Democrats and Republicans alike as they conducted a bidding war for high-rolling donors in election after election.

...The G.O.P.’s arguments for extending the Bush tax cuts to this crowd, usually wrapped in laughably hypocritical whining about “class warfare,” are easily batted down. The most constant refrain is that small-business owners who file in this bracket would be hit so hard they could no longer hire new employees. But the Tax Policy Center found in 2008, when checking out similar campaign claims by “Joe the Plumber,” that only 2 percent of all Americans reporting small-business income, regardless of tax bracket, would see tax increases if Obama fulfilled his pledge to let the Bush tax cuts lapse for the top earners. The economist Dean Baker calculated that the yearly tax increase at the lower end of that bracket, for those with earnings between $200,000 and $500,000, would amount to $700-- which “isn’t enough to hire anyone.”

Those in the higher reaches aren’t investing in creating new jobs even now, when the full Bush tax cuts remain in effect, so why would extending them change that equation? American companies seem intent on sitting on trillions in cash until the economy reboots. Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office ranks the extension of any Bush tax cuts, let alone those to the wealthiest Americans, as the least effective of 11 possible policy options for increasing employment.

Nor are the superrich helping to further the traditional American business culture that inspires and encourages those with big ideas and drive to believe they can climb to the top. Robert Frank, the writer who chronicled the superrich in the book “Richistan,” recently analyzed the new Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans for The Wall Street Journal and found a “hardening of the plutocracy” and scant mobility. Only 16 of the 400 were newcomers-- as opposed to an average of 40 to 50 in recent years-- and they tended to be in industries like coal, natural gas, chemicals and casinos rather than forward-looking businesses involving the Green Economy, tech or biotechnology. This is “not exactly the formula for America’s vaunted entrepreneurial wealth machine,” Frank wrote.

As “Winner-Take-All Politics” documents, America has been busy “building a bridge to the 19th century”-- that is, to a new Gilded Age. To dislodge the country from this stagnant rut will require all kinds of effort from Americans in and out of politics. That includes some patriotic selflessness from those at the very top who still might emulate Warren Buffett and the few others in the Forbes 400 who dare say publicly that it’s not in America’s best interests to stack the tax and regulatory decks in their favor.

Many of the countless tasks that need to be addressed to start rebuilding an equitable America are formidable, but surely few, if any, are easier than eliminating a tax break that was destined to expire anyway and that most Americans want to see expire. Two years ago, Obama campaigned on this issue far more strenuously than he did on, say, reforming health care. Now he and what remains of his Congressional caucus are poised to retreat from even this clear-cut battle. You know things are grim when you start wishing that the president might summon his inner Linda McMahon.

Late last summer when polling showed Boehner that there's was virtually nothing that the Democrats could do that would keep him out of the Speaker's chair, he introduced himself to the American public with a speech at the City Club of Cleveland in which he said, basically, that it'd time to get back to the policies promulgated under the Bush White House/Republican Congress. Most of it was all the right-wing claptrap about lowering taxes on the rich but this is what Boehner had to say about what the right calls "free" trade:

We’ve also recently heard a lot of talk in Washington about the manufacturing sector, but no action. Congress has yet to act on pending free trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea. 

These agreements would level the playing field for American workers, farmers, and businesses and pave the way for creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs here at home. 

Passing these free-trade agreements was a critical plank of the jobs plan that House Republican Whip Eric Cantor and I presented to President Obama last December.

Congress should approve these free trade agreements immediately.

It's the place where the conservative majority in the House and the conservative Democrat in the White House-- all of whom have had the political careers financed by the same sources-- find common ground. Remember, when Democrats prevented George H.W. Bush from ramming through the disastrous and hated NAFTA, it was Clinton-- and a particularly brutal, driven and very corporatist White House henchman, Rahm Emanuel-- who managed to get it passed, working with Tom DeLay and the corporately-owned Republican leadership.

Emanuel and DeLay had their hands full to pass the hated NAFTA legislation and there are plenty of legendary stories about nuts being cracked and congressmen being forced to sell out their own constituents. One, Robin Hayes (R-NC), actually broke down and wept like a little girl when DeLay told him he had to vote to destroy what was left of the Piedmont's once-booming textile industry. In the end, on that fateful day in November, 1993, 234 voted aye and only 200, overwhelmingly Democrats, of course, voted nay. Many of the corporate shills who cast their votes against American workers are still in public office-- or otherwise engaged in politics, like Tea Party organizer Dick Armey, and perpetual presidential candidate Newt Gingrich.

Let me do a quick, where are they now on some of the folks who refused to stick up for American workers when push (from DeLay) came to shove (from Emanuel)-- people who are now in the process of reorganizing the House, who back these deadly, job-destroying "free" trade policies and who cynically pay lip service to the deluded teabaggers who helped them into power. Along with Emanuel, Clinton, DeLay, Armey and Gingrich, these were the people who forced through NAFTA and a trade policy based on de-industrialization and outsourcing:

-Spencer Bachus (R-AL), who has taken more Wall Street bribes, $4,450,324, than any other currently serving Members of the House other than career criminals Charlie Rangel ($4,826,590) and Eric Cantor ($4,458,585), slated to be chairman of the Financial Services Committee
-Joe Barton (R-Big Oil)
-John Boehner (R-OH), whose life story is all about how he went from a sweeper of bar floors (his parents') to a multimillionaire, simply by learning how to fellate the rich and powerful
-Ken Calvert (R-CA)
-Dave Camp (R-MI)
-Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN), one that got away... for now
-David Dreier (R-CA)
-Wally Herger (R-CA)
-Peter King (R-NY)
-Jerry Lewis (R-CA)
-Buck McKeon (R-CA)
-Dan Rohrabacher (R-CA)
-John Sensenbrenner (R-WI)
-Fred Upton (R-MI)
-Bill Young (R-FL)

132 Republicans voted for NAFTA and only 43 opposed it. 156 Democrats (+ independent Bernie Sanders) voted against NAFTA but 102 crossed the aisle to vote with the Republicans... and Clinton. A few days ago a NY Times OpEd by Robert E. Lighthizer, a former deputy trade representative in the Reagan administration, explores the question of whether we will have to look to the teabaggers to save us from an Obama-Boehner "Free" Trade Axis.

Despite his failure to conclude a trade deal with South Korea this week, President Obama has put free trade at the top of his agenda. That’s in part because the White House and the newly empowered Republican leadership see it as one of the few places where they can work together.

But those expectations could be upset by an unexpected force: the Tea Party. Strangely, for a movement named after an 18th-century protest against import levies, Tea Partyers are largely skeptical about free trade’s benefits-- according to a recent poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal, 61 percent of Tea Party sympathizers believe it has hurt the United States.

The movement has already forced the Republicans to alter their agenda in several policy areas. Should the same thing happen with free trade, America’s stance toward open markets and globalization could shift drastically.

At first glance, the Tea Party’s position may seem contradictory: its small-government, pro-business views usually go hand in hand with free trade. But if you consider the dominant themes underlying its agenda, it makes sense that the movement would be wary about free-trade policies. For starters, Tea Partyers are frustrated with Washington, and that includes its failure to make free trade work for America. Our trade deficit in manufactured goods was about $4.3 trillion during the last decade, and the country lost some 5.6 million manufacturing jobs.

And while the Tea Party supports market outcomes, its members appear to believe that the rest of the world is stacking the free-trade deck against us. They have a point: most policymakers agree that the Chinese currency is grossly and deliberately undervalued, that China fails to respect intellectual property rights and that it uses government subsidies to protect its own manufacturing base. Meanwhile, the movement says, the United States does virtually nothing in response.

The Republican establishment will argue that its trade agenda is consistent with Tea Party ideals, that its goal is to get government out of the way and allow American companies to thrive in competitive markets.

But Tea Partyers will ask, what good does it do to reduce the role of our government if foreign governments are free to rig the rules, attack American industries and take American jobs? As a result, the otherwise pro-market Tea Party may find its economic program far more at home with a nationalist trade policy that confronts foreign abuses and fights for American companies.

...Trade is an issue where Tea Party concerns about “elites” thwarting the will of the voters will resonate.

In this case, the elites include both Democrats and Republicans. You would need a high-powered microscope to tell the difference between Bill Clinton and George W. Bush on the subject of trade. Even during this slow economic recovery, Mr. Obama is pushing for a new market-opening round of talks at the World Trade Organization.

Among Republicans, not one major elected figure expresses the skepticism toward free trade held by over three-fifths of Tea Partyers. In the face of soaring trade deficits and talk of American decline, the Tea Party may ask whether this is yet another area where the establishment has simply gotten it wrong.

In short, the apparent contradiction between the Tea Party’s fiscal conservatism and its skepticism about free trade may not be a contradiction at all. If the Tea Party continues to influence the Republican agenda, it may not only spell bad news for the South Korea free trade agreement-- it could also mean a fundamental reorientation of our country’s attitude toward trade and globalization.

Nancy Pelosi supported Clinton and crossed the aisle to vote with Gingrich, DeLay, Armey, Boehner and the rest of the "free" trade crowd on NAFTA. That vote was the subject of the ad Blue America ran in OH-8 against Boehner:



Unlike Boehner and virtually all of his Republican colleagues, Pelosi didn't make that mistake again. In fact when the House passed CAFTA on July 28, 2005 by a 217-215 vote, Pelosi led the opposition to it. 187 Democrats voted against it (along with 27 Republicans), while 202 Republicans and 15 Democrats voted in favor. Who forced CAFTA through? The same crew of Wall Street/Big Business shills who enshrined outsourcing and de-industrialization: Tom DeLay (R-TX), John Boehner (R-OH), Eric Cantor (R-VA), Roy Blunt (R-MO), Paul Ryan (R-WI), David Dreier (R-CA), Buck McKeon (R-CA), Spencer Bachus (R-AL), Steve & Peter King (R-IA &NY), Jeb Hensarling (R-TX), Charlie Bass (R-NH), Mike Pence (R-IN), John Boozman (R-AR)... along with sold-out conservative Democrats like Melissa Bean, Jim Cooper, Jim Matheson, Ike Skelton and William Jefferson.

And which Republicans joined Pelosi and the Democratic caucus in opposing this outrageous, job-destroying legislation? Some are among Congress' most conservative members: Virginia Foxx and Patrick McHenry, both of North Carolina, Scott Garrett (R-NJ), Tom Tancredo (R-CO), Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Connie Mack (R-FL) and Rand Paul (R-TX).

I suspect that the Tea Party movement will dry up and wither away now, especially if it takes any serious stands against the behind-the-curtain financiers who made it viable and put it into the national consciousness. The GOP is, after all, a very top-down party and the teabaggers, whether they knew it or not, had a role to play. Boehner may have to do a little juggling but when the Tea Party Patriots published the personal phone numbers of the new Republican freshmen last week, urging supporters to call and urge them to not buy into GOP Establishment nostrums (like "free" trade), they almost immediately had to follow up with a post calling off the dogs and asking teabaggers to not call the freshmen. I hope you won't either... unless you think it's really, really important:

AL-02 Martha Roby - (334) 315-1925 - martharoby@gmail.com
AL-05 Mo Brooks - (256) 652-3833 - mbrooks@leo-law.com
AR-01 Rick Crawford - (870) 919-0305 - erc@meetrickcrawford.com
AR-02 Tim Griffin - (501) 837-5190 - griffinjag@comcast.net
AR-03 Steve Womack - (479) 936-0234 - womackforcongress@gmail.com
AZ-01 Paul Gosar - (928) 853-6225 - paul@drgosar.com
AZ-03 Benjamin Quayle - (602) 616-6837 - bquayle@tynwaldcapital.com
AZ-05 Dave Schweikert - (602) 619-3330 - dave@david10.com
AZ-08 Jesse Kelly - (520) 907-5388 - kellyforcongress@live.com
CA-11 David Harmer - (925) 998-3458 - harmerdavidj@gmail.com
CA-19 Jeff Denham - (831) 595-6785 - jeff_denham@yahoo.com
CA-20 Andy Vidak - andy@vidakforcongress.com
CO-03 Scott Tipton - (970) 560-2631 - scottrtipton@yahoo.com
CO-04 Cory Gardner - (970) 597-0123 - cory@corygardner.net
FL-02 Steve Southerland - (850) 258-9082 - steve@southerlandforcongress.com
FL-05 Richard Nugent - (352) 428-0924 - Richard_Nugent1@msn.com
FL-08 Daniel Webster - (407) 947-5376 - senator_webster@yahoo.com
FL-12 Dennis Ross - (863) 255-1048 - Dross71803@aol.com
FL-22 Allen West - (954) 288-6934 - gowest@allenwestforcongress.com
FL-24 Sandy Adams - (321) 303-9214 - sadams4flhr33@aol.com
FL-25 David Rivera - (786) 258-2222 - Rivera2004@comcast.net
GA-07 Rob Woodall - (770) 366-4245 - rob@robwoodall.com
GA-08 Austin Scott - (229) 392-6992 - austin@scottforga.com
GA-09 Tom Graves - (770) 548-2288 - sovision@aol.com
ID-01 Raul Labrador - (208) 965-1622 - labrador4idaho@gmail.com
IL-08 Joe Walsh (847) 849-9508 - info@walshforcongress.com
IL-10 Bob Dold (847) 251-3653 - bob@bobdold.com
IL-11 Adam Kinzinger - (309) 287-6938 - aknznger@AOL.com
IL-14 Randy Hultgren - (630) 347-1136 - randy@hultgrenforcongress.com
IL-17 Bobby Schilling - (309) 428-9046 - bobbyschilling@gmail.com
IN-03 Marlin Stutzman - (260) 336-0809 - marlin@marlinstutzman.com
IN-04 Todd Rokita - (317) 414-5071 - trokita@hotmail.com
IN-08 Larry Bucshon - (812) 604-5812 - larrybucshon@gmail.com
IN-09 Todd Young - (812) 320-3736 - toddyoung@toddyoungforcongress.com
KS-01 Tim Huelskamp (620) 646-5413 - huelskampforcongress@rurallink.net
KS-03 Kevin Yoder - (913) 526-1990 - kyoder@kc.rr.com
KS-04 Michael Pompeo - (316) 393-6830 - mpompeo@sentryinternational.net
KY-06 Andy Barr - (859) 619-7381 - andy@andybarr.org
LA-03 Jeff Landry - (337) 380-1382 - jlandry@gjtbs.com
MD-01 Andy Harris - (443) 791-0691 - dr.andy.harris@gmail.com
MI-01 Dan Benishek - (906) 396-5839 - benishekforcongress@gmail.com
MI-02 Bill Huizenga - (616) 405-9216 - huizengaforhouse@charter.net
MI-03 Justin Amash - (616) 881-3390 - justin@justinamash.com
MI-07 Tim Walberg - (517) 673-0507 - congressmanwalberg@gmail.com
MN-08 Chip Cravaack - (651) 395-0785 - chip@votechip.org
MO-04 Vicky Hartzler - (816) 392-1582 - vicky79@me.com
MO-07 Billy Long - (417) 839-0061 - auctnr1@aol.com
MS-01 Alan Nunnelee - (662) 213-3571 - alan@senatornunnelee.com
MS-04 Steven Palazzo - (228) 596-8297 - spalazzo@palazzocpa.com
NC-02 Renee Ellmers - renee@reneeforcongress.com
ND-AL Rick Berg - (701) 866-9077 - Berg@bergforcongress.com
NH-01 Frank Guinta - (603) 860-0474 - frankguinta@yahoo.com
NH-02 Charlie Bass - (603) 547-0570 - cfbass@comcast.net
NJ-03 Jon Runyan - (856) 466-3009 - runyanjon69@comcast.net
NM-02 Steve Pearce - (575) 202-9251 - stevehr3746@verizon.net
NV-03 Joe Heck - (702) 885-2626 - joe@heck4nevada.com
NY-13 Michael Grimm - (917) 885-6022 - mggbusiness@aol.com
NY-19 Nan Hayworth - (914) 584-5324 - nan@nanhayworth.com
NY-20 Chris Gibson - (518) 821-7807 - cpandmjgibson@aol.com
NY-24 Richard Hanna - (315) 794-9602 - rlhanna@roadrunner.com
NY-25 Ann Marie Buerkle - (315) 415-4233 - AnnMBuerkle@gmail.com
NY-29 Tom Reed - (607) 765-0487 - tjwreed@yahoo.com
OH-01 Steve Chabot - (513) 235-0150 - Stevechabot11@gmail.com
OH-06 Bill Johnson - (330) 261-2059 - bill.johnson@zoominternet.net
OH-15 Steve Stivers - (614) 581-5559 - stivers.steve@gmail.com
OH-16 Jim Renacci - (330) 336-7956 - jrenacci@sprynet.com
OH-18 Bob Gibbs - (330) 763-1224 - bob@bobgibbs.org
OK-05 James Lankford - (405) 990-9042 - James@jameslankford.com
PA-03 Mike Kelly - (724) 712-6312 - Mikekelly@zoominternet.net
PA-07 Pat Meehan - (215) 850-6352 - pmeehan@conradobrien.com
PA-08 Mike Fitzpatrick - (215) 514-0470 - mfitzpatrick@begleycarlin.com
PA-10 Tom Marino - (570) 772-3192 - realamon@aol.com
PA-11 Lou Barletta - (570) 578-0026 - loubarletta@gmail.com
SC-01 Tim Scott - (843) 343-4990 - tim@votetimscott.com
SC-03 Jeff Duncan - (864) 923-3188 - jeffduncan22@gmail.com
SC-04 Trey Gowdy - (864) 809-0917 - treygowdy@charter.net
SC-05 Mick Mulvaney - (803) 246-1001 - mickmulvaney@mac.com
SD-AL Kristi Noem - (605) 881-2526 - racota@dailypost.com
TN-03 Chuck Fleischmann - (423) 413-3767 - chuck@chuckforcongress.com
TN-04 Scott Desjarlais - (423) 280-1122 - tndesjarlais@charter.net
TN-06 Diane Black - (615) 397-9033 - diane.davidblack@comcast.net
TN-08 Steve Fincher - (731) 676-3555 - Fieldsofgrace5@yahoo.com
TX-17 Bill Flores - (281) 352-2476 - bflores@floresforcongress.org
TX-23 Quico Canseco - (210) 216-8169 - fquico@yahoo.com
TX-27 R. Blake Farenthold - (361) 533-3393
VA-02 Scott Rigell - (757) 619-8276 - esrigell@scottrigell.com
VA-05 Robert Hurt - (434) 489-7995 - robert@roberthurt.org
VA-09 Morgan Griffith - (540) 353-8287 - hmg1993@aol.com
VA-11 Keith Fimian - (703) 989-3782 - keith@fimian2010.com
WA-02 John Koster - (425) 308-9609 - repkoster@hotmail.com
WA-03 Jaime Herrera - (360) 609-0435 - jaimelherrera@hotmail.com
WA-09 Dick Muri - (253) 439-9797 - dick@dickmuri.com
WI-07 Sean Duffy - (715) 491-2345 - sean@seanpduffy.com
WI-08 Reid Ribble - (920) 378-7343 - RRibble@ribblegroup.com
WV-01 David McKinley - (304) 639-1188 - dmckinley@mckinleyassoc.com

And, no, Ben Qualye's number is not good for ordering online porno.