Free Trade: Democrats are always in the way

Today's Financial News - Posted April 10, 2008

“As long as Pelosi has control of the big chair in the House, you might as well hang up your goal of becoming a rich businessman. In her eyes, profits are something you can only get if you steal from your neighbor.” - Andrew Snyder

By Andrew Snyder

Baltimore (TFN)- Once again, politics are getting in the way of running the nation’s businesses. I will give you one guess which party is behind the shenanigans. Yep, it is Nancy Pelosi and her business-hating Democrats.

Apparently, their only political goal is to not allow anybody to get rich until the nation is free from poverty, a trip to the doctor is free, and every person (whether they are willing to work or not) makes the same middle-class income.

As long as Pelosi has control of the big chair in the House, you might as well hang up your goals of becoming a rich businessman. In her eyes, profits are something you can only get if you steal from your neighbor.

Colombia has poor people too

By now, you must have heard of President Bush’s goal of lowering trade barriers with Colombia. With the possibility of being a key ally in Latin America, his administration wants to ensure free trade and continued economic cooperation.

Rational thinkers see there are very few ways, if any, this deal could hurt Americans. But Pelosi and her left-leaning posse are not known for their rational thinking.

Nope, they see this as a political opportunity to stand up for the little guy. You know the guy I am talking about. He has no education, four kids, does not like the way work makes him feel, and has a killer HDTV setup. Until the American taxpayer buys him a pain-free life (and he is locked in as a Democratic voter), international policy is on hold.

Pelosi says she opposes the free-trade deal with Colombia because of the way the country treats its union leaders. They tend to get killed.

I can understand why she feels that is a bad action to support. But has anybody wondered if those labor groups would have to fight less if we let natural economic laws run their course? If free trade were allowed with Colombia, those union leaders would not have time to fight. They would be too busy working.

Vote the “right” way

Let’s face it. In November, we have a very big decision to make. To the right, we could go with a pro-business, free-market protecting leader. And to the left, we could go with a pro-citizen, big-government kind of leader.

For decades, maybe even centuries, most economists have understood that money is best (most efficiently) spent by companies. After all, they have limited funds and a bottom line to protect. Governments, on the other hand, have the ability to continuously raise their revenues and have no profit margins to worry about. So why would they care about efficiency? It isn’t their money.

That is exactly why the Government Accountability Office just announced more than 40% of all federal credit card spending during a 15-month investigation period was unauthorized of fraudulent. Your hard-earned tax dollars were spent on things like custom suits, massages (no comments Mr. Spitzer), and even lingerie.

In all, it adds up to $14 billion of our money flushed down a golden toilet.

This figure tells us that nearly 40% of our tax dollars are being wasted. How many houses would not be in foreclosure, or how many people would be able to pay their health insurance bills, or how many kids could go to college if that money stayed in the hands of the folks that earned it?

If we want the American economy to rebound and be successful, we cannot raise more trade barriers. We need to eliminate them and let natural economic laws work. Even more importantly, we need to limit the size of our government and keep the nation’s money in the hands that earned it.

So Ms. Pelosi, I hope you kept the receipts for that lingerie. We want our money back.