CRAIGforCONGRESS
Missouri's 7th District, U.S. House of Representatives

 

 

 

Bringing LIBERTY to Capitol Hill -- 2008
OZARKS VIRTUAL TOWN HALL
Saturday Morning, April 19, 2008, 10:30am

A Discussion of The President's Saturday Morning Radio Address

Click here to listen to a replay of the April 19, 2008 Ozarks Virtual Town Hall

Notes and Summary of the President's Address -- "Columbia Free Trade Agreement"

THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Next week, I will be hosting the North American Leaders' Summit in New Orleans. This event will give me an opportunity to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calder n to discuss some of the most significant issues facing our hemisphere and the world. (continued below)

April 19 - Significant Anniversaries

Today is the anniversary of several significant events in American history. April 19, 1775, 1993, 2008

April 19 is the anniversary of the battle of Lexington and Concord, the battle that began the American Revolution, when the British attempted to seize ammunition held by the colonists. The Second Amendment was the result of this conflict, an amendment which guarantees rights -- not of hunters and gun collectors, but of opponents of tyranny and those who are carrying out what the Declaration of Independence describes as a "duty" to abolish tyrannical governments.

Every single person who signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution would say that America faces a more serious threat to "Liberty Under God" from today's government than we did from Britain in 1776. All of America's Founding Fathers would begin working to overthrow the government of the United States. The Constitution is a dead-letter.

Last year, The Oakland Press asked, "When it comes to national tragedies, what is it about mid-April?"

. On April 19, 1993, following a 51-day standoff, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. A fire, later determined to have been set by the Davidians, destroyed the compound and killed 57 of its residents.
. On April 19, 1995, a bomb inside a rental truck exploded at the Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people in what was then the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.
. The killer turned out to be 27-year-old Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh's ex-Army buddy, Terry Nichols, was also charged in the crime.
. On April 20, 1999, two armed highschool seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, walked through Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. In the end, 12 students, one teacher and the two murderers were dead.
. Add Monday's slaughter of 32 by a 23-year-old South Korean student at Virginia Tech to the terrible list.

There are two ideas that make up the American Mind:
• Liberty Under God
• Taking up Arms
The Bible says that "Liberty Under God" cannot be protected in the long run by taking up arms against the short-term enemies of "Liberty Under God."

How the President Differs from the American vision of "Liberty Under God":

  1. A Truly American Foreign Policy:

    The great rule of conduct for us, in regard to foreign nations is in extending our commercial relations to have with them as little political connection as possible."
         — Washington, Farewell Address (1796) [Washington’s emphasis]
    I deem [one of] the essential principles of our government, and consequently [one] which ought to shape its administration,…peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none.
         — Jefferson, First Inaugural Address (1801) 
    A truly American Foreign Policy is conducted by American business owners, not politicians.
    "Spreading democracy" demands, first, spreading economic democracy: "Free Markets" or "capitalism" through free trade: not government-imposed isolationism: "sanctions" and embargoes.

  2. Free Trade means the absence of government restrictions on trade

  3. "Free Trade" does not mean a "Free Trade Agreement" which manages trade but does not leave it free

  4. "Free Trade" does not mean a new, unrepresentative, unelected regional government outside the Constitution which governs trade, labor, and the "environment" (which pretty much includes everything).

    1. Judges in courts created under NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) have the power to overturn U.S. laws and court decisions. This does not differ in any significant way from having the British Parliament govern the United States.

    2. The Architects of NAFTA and other "free trade" agreements are following the lead of the architects of the European Union, who used "trade agreements" to abolish the national sovereignty of European nations to merge them into a new regional government.

    3. The United States, Mexico, and Canada are being merged into a "North American Union."

    4. The European Union and the North American Union will someday be merged.

    5. The goal is Global Government.

  5. "Global Government" and "Globalization" are not the same thing.

    1. The ability of American consumers to buy the cheapest products from around the world increases our standard of living. This is "free trade" and "globalization."

    2. The ability of American voters to determine their rulers is being destroyed by "Free Trade Agreements" which create new, unelected government officials who have sweeping powers over economics and the "environment." This is "global government."

President Bush's
Saturday Morning Radio Address

Another Perspective:
"Liberty Under God"
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Next week, I will be hosting the North American Leaders' Summit in New Orleans. This event will give me an opportunity to meet with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderón to discuss some of the most significant issues facing our hemisphere and the world. The rhetoric here -- bringing in Canada and Mexico in a discussion of a "free trade" agreement with Columbia -- is paving the way for the "North American Union."
One of the issues that I'll be discussing with these leaders is the importance of expanding trade in our hemisphere. Recently I sent Congress an agreement that would expand America's access to markets in Colombia. Unfortunately, the Speaker of the House has chosen to block the Colombia free trade agreement instead of giving it an up or down vote that Congress committed to. Her action is unprecedented and extremely unfortunate. I hope that the Speaker will change her mind. If she does not, the agreement will be dead. And this will be bad for American workers and bad for America's national security. If a Democrat President had sent the Columbia Free Trade Agreement to Congress, the Democrat Speaker of the House would have already voted on it, and in favor of it. And eventually that will happen. This is partisan grandstanding.

 

How can forcing Columbia to reduce tariffs on American-made goods affect America's "National Security?"
And here is why: Today, almost all of Colombia's exports to the United States enter duty-free. But the 9,000 American businesses that export to Colombia, including nearly 8,000 small and mid-sized firms, face significant tariffs on their products. The situation is completely one-sided. Our markets are open to Colombian products, but barriers that make it harder to sell American goods in Colombia remain. If the free trade agreement were implemented, however, most of Colombia's tariffs on American goods would be eliminated immediately. The tariffs on American goods can be lifted without moving us closer to EuropeanUnion-stile hemispheric government.
There is also a strategic imperative to approve the agreement. By obstructing this agreement, Congress is signaling to a watching hemisphere that America cannot be trusted to support its friends. Over the past six years, Colombia's President Uribe has been a steadfast ally of the United States. He's transformed his country from a near-failed state to a stable democracy with a growing economy. He has partnered with America in the fight against drugs and terror. And he has addressed virtually every one of Congress's concerns, including revising the free trade agreement to include some of the most rigorous labor and environmental protections in history. How does America requiring Columbia to reduce its income (through tariffs on U.S. goods) make America Columbia's friend?

 

 

Not only is the U.S. "burdening" Columbia by cutting off Columbia's income from tariffs, but the FTA imposes "rigorous" labor and environmental requirements on Columbia. How does this make America Columbia's "friend?"
He has done all this while his country is under violent assault from a terrorist organization and facing constant intimidation from anti-American regimes in the region. As Canada's Prime Minister Harper has said, "If the U.S. turns its back on its friends in Colombia, this will set back our cause far more than any Latin American dictator could hope to achieve." The U.S. federal government has done as much to keep "anti-American regimes" in power as anyone, by keeping communists in power in the Soviet Union for the last 80 years.

“Merchant of Death,” Viktor Bout Arrested
Leaders in Congress have made a serious error, but it is not too late to get it right. This week, a long list of senior officials from Democratic administrations and Democrats from previous Congresses signed a letter urging Congress to approve the agreement this year. They wrote, "We feel that the treaty should be considered as soon as possible and that any obstacles should be quickly and amicably resolved." I strongly agree. I believe that if the Speaker allows a vote on the merits, a majority of the House of Representatives will approve the trade agreement. So I urge leaders in Congress to reconsider their position, recognize the stakes at hand, and approve the Colombia agreement as soon as possible. Democrats are just as committed to regional government as Republicans are. They have no real disagreements to the concept of "Free Trade Agreements" which build the infrastructure of a government in the Western Hemisphere which resembles that of the European Union.

What this shows, however, is that Congress does have the power to prevent the United States from being merged with other governments in the Western Hemisphere.

Pelosi Maneuver to Stall Bush on Columbia FTA Proves Congressional Legislative Authority Still Exists
Thank you for listening.  

Kevin Craig's Platform:

Libertarian Resources

Communicating with Government and Media

  • Contact Congress -- this is from the JBS website, powered by "CapWiz," from Capitol Advantage. Lots of organizations use capwiz. If you don't want to go through the JBS, search for capwiz on Google and find another organization that uses it.
    Notice that you can also contact media through this webpage.
  • Action E-List
    Sign up for the JBS Action E-List and be notified when you can make a critical difference on important issues.

John Adams once wrote that the American Revolution began in 1761, when Massachusetts attorney James Otis began legal challenges to the Writs of Assistance. He lost the case, but "American independence," Adams wrote, "was then and there born." Now do the math. That means it took 15 years to convince the rest of America to declare Independence (1776). Then another seven years of war was required before a Peace Treaty was signed (1783), and then six years before the Constitution was finally ratified (1789). That's almost 30 years. (And Jefferson said we shouldn't go 20 years without another rebellion!) How can we hope to convince Americans to fight for principles they were never taught in government schools? We need to be in this battle for the long term. "Eternal Vigilance is the Price of Liberty."

The Democrat Party Radio Address:

Governor Howard Dean delivered the Democratic Radio Address.

Numerous talking points, no arguments or analysis, generally anti-McCain.

Click here for a replay of this edition of the Ozarks Virtual Town Hall