GUEST LETTER State Senator Johnson Takes Exception with Congressional Delegation over Supportive CAFTA Votes August 16, 2005 Dear Arizona Congressmen: I have debated with myself about sending this letter to you, but with each day that passes since your CAFTA vote, my sadness for America increases. The events of July 28 portend the end of America as a sovereign, independent nation. And YOU, Congressmen, who swore to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic, betrayed your country in the disgraceful post-midnight, vote-buying debacle that delivered the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). In fact, CAFTA and NAFTA, as well as the upcoming FTAA, will ultimately make corporations and politicians richer and more powerful, U.S. citizenship meaningless, the taxpayers more oppressed and the Constitution and U.S. sovereignty as dated as hula hoops. The souls who line up to get a day’s work at sweatshops in Nicaragua or Guatemala aren’t going to be any better off either. As the Mexican working class discovered after NAFTA passed, they work cheap, in sweatshop conditions and they don’t make enough to buy much in the way of American goods. That is why our trade surplus with Mexico has become a huge trade deficit. It’s not as if you didn’t know what the passage of CAFTA would mean for the U.S. The agreement has been widely touted as an extension of NAFTA and we all know what that has brought: drugs, gangs, disease and a never-ending invasion of illegal job seekers and dependents, not to mention record trade deficits. We’ve watched NAFTA suck up more than a million U.S. jobs even as the trade deficit with Canada and Mexico ballooned to a whopping $111 BILLION last year. And, how about those claims that NAFTA would raise Mexican living standards and keep workers at home? The ink on the accord was barely dry when Mexico declared bankruptcy and the peso collapsed; Mexico sank into its worst depression in 60 years and U.S. taxpayers underwrote a mega-BILLION dollar bail-out! Turning a flood of illegal border-crossers into a tsunami that shows no sign of abating, NAFTA has literally moved the Third World , with all of its problems, into the First World , overwhelming our Arizona law enforcement, job markets, schools and hospitals. Perhaps you remember, Congressmen, how NAFTA zealots embraced Mexico ’s (then) president Carlos Salinas de Gortari, praising him for reversing socialism and unleashing a market-driven economy. Post-NAFTA, they went mum as he went on the lam from murder and drug charges and slunk into exile in Cuba . Mexico ’s current presidente, whining one minute, demandingly arrogant the next, is so disliked by his own people that his political party currently rates third with the electorate. Pollsters say the people’s main concerns are the economy, unemployment, insecurity and the influence of narcotraffickers, all things NAFTA was suppose to fix. Dependent on U.S. dollar remittances from Mexicans residing in the U.S. , the NAFTA-emboldened Mexican government not only encourages illegal border crossers, it helps them get here and, once here, insists that U.S. policies favor them. Today – as you surely know, Congressmen – Mexico is little more than a narco-state, responsible for 92 percent of the cocaine sold in the U.S. in 2004 and wracked by warring drug cartels. Law enforcement officers on both sides of the border are increasingly attacked by paramilitary units, aka “Zetas”, escorting drug shipments into the U.S. and reportedly offering a $50,000 bounty on Boarder Patrol agents and police officers. In Nuevo Laredo , the busiest border entry into the U.S. and where neither the military nor the federal police have been able to stop the killing, the U.S. ambassador announced – TWO days after YOUR vote for the border-opening CAFTA – that he was closing the consulate for security reasons. CAFTA will build on all the problems produced by NAFTA and extend its failures to the poverty-laden counties of Central America and the Dominican Republic . But all these things you know, Congressmen, just as you know that modern trade agreements are less about trade then about redistributing people, power and wealth. CAFTA is NOT a free trade agreement! Within its thousands of pages, CAFTA further eliminates our Constitutional protections, further permitting the override of the law of the land by external trade committees, (appointed – not elected), virtually eliminating our borders, and permitting the free flow of “immigrants” (formally called illegals) from Central American countries. It will further increase the flow of our industrial base and jobs out of the U.S. , which was started by NAFTA, as well as the excessive regulation of business and people by the government. Still you voted for CAFTA, and it was approved by a paltry two votes. Many of your colleagues were bought off or blackmailed. Some simply decided to cast their lot with the corporate elite and the international socialists intent on destroying American sovereignty. It would be nice to have your reason for voting “yes” on CAFTA. It is the height of arrogance for the other Congressmen that voted for this mess to think they have a mandate to rewrite the Constitution or end the nation-state that millions of Americans have fought, worked and died for. The reality is looking more and more like we are currently stuck with two parties in a race to take this nation apart. One thing more: it will be difficult at best to ever believe you are really against illegal immigration, or that you believe in a truly free market, or that you stand for a strong, independent America . Your CAFTA vote tells us everything we need to know about you. Sincerely, Senator Karen S. Johnson District 18, Mesa Constitution Party of Missouri • • info@constitutionpartymo.org ~ Home ~ About ~ Platform ~ Campaigns ~ Events ~ Resource Center ~ News ~ Contact Us ~ Contribute ~ Volunteer ~