Obama's Follies

Obama is on a roll, seemingly for every donor and special interest group that can get out the vote for election 2012. First, there was a leaked document on the negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership. This yet another bad trade agreement, written by and for multinational corporations, special interests, will usurp U.S. sovereignty, offshore outsource jobs, increase our trade deficit and help export our economy.

Public Citizen summarized the leaked chapter from the TPP trade agreement in the below excerpt:

Although the TPP has been branded a “trade” agreement, the leaked text of the pact’s Investment Chapter shows that the TPP would:

  • limit how U.S. federal and state officials could regulate foreign firms operating within U.S.  boundaries, with requirements to provide them greater rights than domestic firms;
  • extend the incentives for U.S. firms to offshore investment and jobs to lower-wage countries;
  • establish a two-track legal system that gives foreign firms new rights to skirt U.S. courts and laws, directly sue the U.S. government before foreign tribunals and demand compensation for financial, health, environmental, land use and other laws they claim undermine their TPP privileges; and
  • allow foreign firms to demand compensation for the costs of complying with U.S. financial or environmental regulations that apply equally to domestic and foreign firms. 

While 600 official U.S. corporate advisors have access to TPP texts and have a special role in advising U.S. negotiators, for the public, press and policymakers, this leak provides the first access to one of the prospective TPP’s most controversial chapters.

If you think it's just Obama and one can just vote him out in 2012, think again. This same bad policy dictated by corporate lobbyists? Romney is all in for the Trans-Pacific Partnership bad trade deal above.

Next up, Obama just subverted immigration law and Congress by enacting a controversial policy giving work permits to over 800,000 illegal immigrants. The claim is these are simply young people, brought over by their parents illegally, who are de facto American in all other aspects. Unfortunately that's the sales pitch.

Here's the criteria:

  1. Came to the United States under the age of 16.
  2. Have continuously lived in the United States for a least five years prior to June 15, 2012 and are currently live in the U.S.
  3. Are currently in school, have graduated from high school, have obtained a GED, or have been honorably discharged from United States military service.
  4. Have not been convicted of a felony, a significant misdemeanor offense, multiple misdemeanor offenses, or otherwise pose a threat to national security or public safety.
  5. Are not above the age of 30.
  6. Young illegal immigrants who meet these criteria will be eligible to receive deferred action for a period of two years, subject to renewal, and will be eligible to apply for work authorization.

"Our nation's immigration laws must be enforced in a firm and sensible manner," said Secretary Napolitano. "But they are not designed to be blindly enforced without consideration given to the individual circumstances of each case. Nor are they designed to remove productive young people to countries where they may not have lived or even speak the language. Discretion, which is used in so many other areas, is especially justified here."

Individuals will not be eligible if they are currently outside of the United States and cannot prove that they have been physically present in the U.S. for at least five years immediately preceding June 15, 2012.

That sounds all nice and fine and should pull at your heart strings. The problem is an additional 800,000 people into the official labor force when the United States has over 27 million people needing a full time job. Some estimates on the number of additional illegals obtaining work Visas from this executive order is as high as 3 million. That said, the employment statistics include illegal aliens already, so these people who will obtain work Visas might be already included in the U.S. labor force statistics. Still, that's a sudden influx of additional official workers into the U.S. labor force and teenage unemployment rates are already through the roof, 24.6%, as are the unemployment rate for those under the age of 25. Sudden influxes or changes in labor supply, all other things static, create wage repression and labor arbitrage. Too many workers, not enough jobs and bad things happen, especially in a nation with eroding labor law enforcement.

The timing is also suspicious, as this New Yorker article outlines. For Obama to win in 2012, he must have a heavy Latino voter turnout.

The evidence is pretty clear: the President owes his 2008 victory, in large part, to Latino voters. They were responsible for his winning Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico, at the very least—plus, arguably, Florida, Indiana, North Carolina, and Virginia. That’s a total of eighty-five Electoral College votes; take them away, and Obama only squeaks by.

This year, Obama’s re-election campaign may very well live or die on the Latino vote.

Actually the GOP, via Marco Rubio, was coming out with something identical next week, so Obama's move isn't out of concern for illegals brought here as children, it was to upend the GOP, all to cater to that illegal immigrant special interest vote.

While a story breaks on yet another bad trade agreement and thus more broken campaign promises, we get a triple whammy. The Latino vote power play, covers up the latest sell out America ploy via yet another bad trade deal, negotiated in secret. We also see Obama's political strategy for 2012. Get enough special interest groups, illegals, the gay community to GOTV in critical electoral states and win.

Real financial reform, stopping the offshore outsourcing of jobs, any of the much needed policies to really improve the economy and take it out of the hands of lobbyists and multinational corporations just isn't gonna happen.

In other words, economic voters, we're screwed no matter which candidate wins. Why? Romney is pretty much touting the same corporate lobbyist dictated policies as Obama is de facto implementing, despite the rhetoric.

Meta: 

Comments

Free trade + illegal immigration. = United Sweatshop of America

NAFTA, CAFTA, TPP, as Ross Perot predicted, simply means jobs rushing out of the US. For those jobs still paying too much that cannot be outsourced, the USG/corporate masters allow visa after visa program. Then, those trained in those programs simply return overseas to set up show with stolen IP or they rise in ranks and hire fellow foreigners to flood entire formerly US corporations from top to bottom here. And for those really low-paying service jobs Bill Clinton, Bush, and Obama referred to as awesome "service jobs," they will allow tens of millions of people to flood the market and drive down wages even more and let them stay here legally while further burdening our tax structure.
Now, it's pretty obvious even to a non-thinking Congressmen or President or corporate shill that a college grad that is told repeatedly to get a STEM degree or become a teacher or learn multiple languages all at his/her own expense in $ and time that they cannot compete in wage arbitrage when they have sunk costs of 16+ years of education and $100,000+ in schooling and are forced to legally pay sales, state, and federal income tax, + rent, + car loans + insurance if they live outside cities, etc.
Are there enough gated compounds and armed guards willing to work for $10/hr. to enforce these Pakistani economic conditions in the US in the future? I think the 1% plan on it. The 99% left purposely out in the cold might disagree quite vehemently.

excellent piece on China hypocracy

We've written about this as well, but it appears, at least for Ohioans to see the administration is considering some tariffs WTO complaint on the flood of parts coming in from China.

EP readers know this is pure B.S. since we've written miles documenting the Obama administration's refusal to do anything about trade, esp. China.

The problem with your numbers

You act as if those 800,000 people aren't here, as if they won't be looking for or getting jobs anyway. Those 800,000 are people that live here now, they exist, and they will not be deported in any numbers that will change that 800,000 significantly, you can pretend all you want. Thats not s sudden influx of people in the work force, they exist in our country, not all the 800,000 will be instantly looking, many are in grade school, high school, or college, they are just like anyone in those situations, they gradually come into the workforce.

I state that in the above

I say, clearly, illegals are in large part, counted in the unemployment statistics. That said, there are businesses, corporations who want U.S. Citizens, legal workers and they do check, therefore many of these labor markets were not open to illegals. Therefore, this should still create a sudden influx of more workers.

We'll see, but 800k, or the upper estimates of 3 million, if true should negatively impact opportunities for U.S. workers, impact the labor market, especially because the demographics of these work Visas are under the age of 30 and this demographic in the United States already is decimated for jobs, their labor participation rates beyond belief low.

Politics aside and this side is not in the habit of endorsing political philosophies, labor economics are labor economics. We'll see this projection in the employment statistics 6 months to a year from now if these projections are correct or not.