Sanders: No More Bad Trade Deals

Statement

There are a whole lot of absurd discussions that take place in the Congress. That's nothing new to the American people. But at the top of the list for absurd discussions is our trade policy.

Year after year after year, what we are doing in trade is failing in terms of our trade deficits, which are going up and up and up. The policy is failing in terms of the number of good-paying, blue-collar manufacturing jobs we continue to lose. Trade policy is failing because we're at the cusp of losing millions of good-paying, white-collar information-technology jobs.

The most important question, in my view, that Congress can deal with -- should be dealing with -- is why is it that, with an explosion of technology and a huge increase in worker productivity, there are millions and millions of American workers today who have seen a decline in their standard of living and in their real wages, and in the last five years, 5 million more Americans have become poor?

Globalization and our trade policies are not the only reason for that, but are an important part of that equation. The simple reality is that what these trade policies are about -- and have been forced upon us by large multinational corporations -- they are asking American workers to compete against desperate people in the developing world, who in some cases make pennies an hour.

That is what our trade policy is about.

And if you are a large corporate leader, it doesn't take a Ph.D. in economics to understand that, yes, you will throw American workers out on the street, who make $20 an hour, have health care, and where you have to obey environmental regulations. And yes, you'll run to China, pay people 30 cents an hour. If they stand up for a union, they go to jail. If they stand up for environmental regulations, they go to jail. Why wouldn't you go to China?

And of course, that's exactly what many, many American corporations are doing.

One of the changes, in terms of trade policy, that has taken place in recent years is that, years ago, people really, at the heads of these corporations, didn't admit, didn't acknowledge what they are doing.

But right now, we're seeing people very proudly saying what they are doing. Jeffrey Immelt, the head of GE has said, "When I'm talking to G.E. managers, I talk about China, China, China."

With pride, they talk about how they're going to throw American workers out on the street and move to China. Other major CEOs do the same.

So, bottom line is, when you have a football coach who, year after year, gives you a losing record, what most organizations do is say, "Thank you; we're getting rid of the coach; we're changing our policy."

This is a failed strategy. Seeing the middle class of America decline is a failed strategy. Seeing jobs go to China that used to be in this country paying people a living wage, is a failed strategy.

The time is now, to completely reassess our trade policies and develop a trade program which works for American workers and the middle class and not just for the CEOs of large multinational corporations.

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