Free Trade Agreements with South Korea and Others: Republicans Lose a Battle in Their Class Warfare on Working Men and Women

Correction: It’s Not Class Warfare When the Wealthy Attack  the Employed

The Bush Administration had negotiated bi-lateral Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Panama and Columbia, Agreements that further the cause of free trade.  Economists, including The Dismal Political Economist think free trade is a good thing.  It leads to higher economic growth for both parties to the agreements.

This does not mean that some individuals are not harmed by these agreements.  In America there has always been a tradition of government assistance to those whose employment is terminated by the government changing the trade rules.  This is a decent and humane policy; it does not cost a lot of money, and it certainly helps those who support free trade to be able to do so knowing that some of the damage will be ameliorated by government help to the victims.

Of course, a tradition like this cannot stand up to Conservative philosophy which says that the role of government is to help business, but not help the people working for business.  Conservatives were horrified, horrified that Democrats wanted aid to displaced workers to be part of any new trade agreement approval. 

The government provides benefits to workers who lose jobs to foreign competition including training programs, money to cover the cost of searching for a job or relocating to a new city and tax credits for health insurance. Congress temporarily expanded eligibility for those programs in 2009, but after Republicans took control of the House they refused to continue the expanded program.

In a rare display of resolve, the Obama Administration held out for trade assistance aid to workers harmed by the agreements,

The White House also refused to submit the agreements to Congress without a clear deal to expand benefits for workers.

and they have forced the Congress to agree with their requests for such aid.

The White House, Senate Democrats and House Republicans reached a deal this summer on the terms of a partial restoration of those expanded benefits. The Senate passed the deal earlier this month, but the White House and House Republicans continued to negotiate procedural issues.

On Monday, the White House deemed the latest Republican proposal acceptable.

So the new agreements are expected to become law, with, hopefully enough funds to help those who lose their jobs because of the new agreements. 

There are several lessons to be learned here, but we won’t list them in the hopes that Democrats will learn them on their own.  We are not optimistic this will happen.