The U.S. Trade Representative's office attributes almost 11% of our GDP to exports, globalization ballooned the our economy by $1 trillion. Some areas realized job increases while others saw decreases yet overall families experienced an average increase of $10,000 as a result of the trade. Unskilled labor is being shipped out and higher technology is replacing it. President Kennedy’s statement which said something to the effect that the higher tide raises all proves itself valid here. Unemployment is down to 4.4%, our nation has stepped up a level and exported careers which have subsequently become out-of-date.

FREE TRADE IS A KEY TO PROSPERITY. WHY DO DEMOCRATS FIGHT IT?
Pete Du Pont, WSJ

"Free trade is the most important single way to promote growth," Milton Friedman said in an interview a few weeks before his death.

But the new Democratic congressional majority doesn't understand that. Just a week after the elections one of the first actions Congress took was to vote down the new trade agreement with Vietnam. Ninety-four Democrats voted against it, 90 of them for it; and that is before some 16 newly elected House Democrats opposed to free trade are even sworn in. As Charlie Rangel, the incoming House Ways and Means Committee Chairman, put it, "We need to be angry as hell and try to protect American industry."

Five new Democratic senators share similar views on free trade. Ohio's Sen.-elect Sherrod Brown wrote a book entitled "Myths of Free Trade," arguing that trade agreements should only be allowed if those nations pass laws "guaranteeing enforceable labor and environmental standards." John Edwards is a protectionist zealot; John Kerry said in 2004 that unless the treaties had the standards in them he would as president veto them. ...

The dems focus on protecting all labor and ‘worry’ for the prosperity of middle America. Rather than promote growth for the sector, they envision a ‘finite pie’ of which must be shared by the hard working successful. There is only so much room for opportunity and globalization has been spent. Even without all of the answers or a defined program, future discussions concerning health care, taxes, education, unions... will be numerous.

The Democrats' Economy Wars
Harold Meyerson, WP

...Concerned that the American dream is fading for the middle class, and fearful that said middle class may turn against the global free-trade order he helped erect, Rubin has created the Hamilton Project, which, in the spirit of its namesake, our first Treasury secretary, proposes a series of enlightened Tory solutions to address these conundrums. The project has called for greater public investment in education, health care, research and development, and infrastructure; balancing the budget; and wage insurance for workers compelled to take lower-paying jobs in our Wal-Mart-ized economy. ...

More people are working today. They have more sophisticated jobs. They are moving up into the higher levels of the economic sector faster. NAFTA has tripled trade between Mexico, doubled it to Canada, and created more than 1 million jobs. BMW’s... are now built in the U.S. creating almost 7 million jobs. If we followed the dem philosophy, how would it affect prices on whatever? What would be the consequences to employment? What if choices were only U.S.?