“Free Traitor” Emanuel Primed to Repeat Past Mistakes

One of President-elect Barack Obama’s biggest missteps thus far has been surrounding himself with old Washington insiders that are proponents of disastrous “free trade” agreements that have utterly decimated America’s manufacturing base and were instrumental in putting the economy in the poor shape it is currently in.

The appointments of Bill Richardson to head the Commerce Department, a nomination that was recently withdrawn, former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk as U.S. Trade Representative and Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff represent a complete about-face from Obama’s campaign rhetoric regarding “free trade.”

“There’s no doubt that [the North American Free Trade Agreement] needs to be amended,” Obama said during the campaign. “I’ve already said I would contact the president of Mexico and the prime minister of Canada to make sure that labor agreements are enforceable.”

The appointment of Emanuel as Chief of Staff is especially worrisome because of his key role in shepherding NAFTA through Congress as a member of the Clinton administration. Emanuel has been credited with being Clinton’s point-man on NAFTA, lobbying for votes in the House and crafting and implementing media strategy, which many observers now recognize as mere “free trade” propaganda.

“You know, politics is about mending and tacking and so on, and setting your priorities,“ Emanuel said. “We were a very determined administration. We made a lot of compromises to get NAFTA passed and a lot of deals to get NAFTA passed.”

As Chief of Staff, Emanuel will be one of Obama’s closest advisors and will be charged with scheduling, a task that will determine which voices Obama will hear. That could pose a major problem for those groups out there hoping for a policy of fair trade as opposed to “free trade.” In addition to his role in the passage of NAFTA, Emanuel later made millions on Wall Street and could bring his pro-Wall Street, “free trade” politics to the White House.

Not only that, Emanuel has not changed his tune on NAFTA, as many Democrats have done over the past 15 years.

"NAFTA is not the main reason workers today are hurting," Emanuel wrote in the Wall Street Journal during his reign as House Democratic Caucus Chairman.

They say that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it, and Emanuel is a prime example. Even after witnessing its disastrous effects, he has repeatedly tried to pass additional trade agreements as a member of the House. Since 2003, Emanuel has supported “free trade” agreements with Singapore, Chile, the Andean nations of South America and Peru. He also voted against withdrawing from the World Trade Organization.

As if that weren’t enough, Emanuel has cosponsored H.R. 4262 to increase the cap on H-2B so that more foreign workers could be imported, cosponsored H.R. 2330 to increase foreign-worker importation of unskilled workers, voted against the Tancredo Amendment to H.R. 2862 to prevent the U.S. Trade Representative from including immigration provisions in Free Trade Agreements and most recently cosponsored H.R. 1645 (STRIVE Act) to drastically increase foreign-worker importation by using EB green cards, H-2C, H-1B, and L-1 visas.

“Unfortunately, the Republican National Committee, Rahm Emanuel and their media echo chamber don't want the U.S. to adapt better to the global economy,” wrote John Nichols of Public Citizen. “Rather, they want to maintain trade policies that benefit only the multinational corporations that fund campaigns and own media in a country with an economy that is wobbling under the weight of the largest trade deficit in the history of the planet.”

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