Let me finish with the trade issue.
I think it’s important that the Democrats take a hard look at any trade deal for the impact it’s likely to have on jobs and economic development in this country.
It’s important that the country and the party look at how this Pacific trade deal affects us overall. Will it help us compete in the world? Will it help create jobs for the future? Will it give the U.S. worker the best possible shot at those jobs?
We all grew up hearing the calls against trade. We got them before the Great Depression, calls that led to the Smoot-Hawley tariffs, which many believe were a direct cause of the Great Depression.
And, yes, we’ve heard the calls from presidents, Democratic presidents, including Jack Kennedy and Bill Clinton, arguing the advantages of trade expansion.
Yes, there are going to be trade-offs. That’s why it’s called a deal.
The challenge of our leaders is to decide if it all adds up to a net plus or a net minus.
Do most people generally believe we’d be better off if we’d cut off imports from Japan and Germany and Korea in the auto industry? Do we honestly want to go back to the days of the U.S. monopoly on cars, the days when they lasted about two or three years before serious breakdowns, the days of planned obsolescence?









