posted on June 8, 2004 06:45:43 AM new
Hello All, This post is about Geo Bush's other war his Class war against Middle and Working class Americans.
Mexican truckers are now free to roam the entire U.S. taking away jobs from American truckers.
Bush is pushing for more free trade with Central America. Central America has a work force of 36 million people who get paid from 30 cents to 1 dollar an hour.
Under Bush, the average American pay check has dropped by $1400 per year.
Under Bush company CEO'S yearly pay has raised by 25%.
Under Bush, millions of working Americans have lost benefit's including health insurance.
Under Bush our grand children will still be paying off the National Debt.
Just think of what another 4 years of Bush and company would do to the American working and middle class.
posted on June 8, 2004 07:19:55 AM new
And the Clinton liberal saga continues against the truth.
In Christ,
Rick
Genesis 1:1
"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I do not accept His claim to be God." That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic....or else he would be the devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."
C.S. Lewis: "Mere Christianity"
posted on June 8, 2004 08:09:18 AM new
::Mexican truckers are now free to roam the entire U.S. taking away jobs from American truckers.::
I dislike Bush as much a s the next guy - but that statement is incorrect. The aspect of NAFTA which would allow Mexican truck owners to enter the US has yet to be cleared. It has been delayed time after time because of various forseen problems (include American drivers stating repeatedly that they will park and leave their trucks at the crossing lanes in order to block the way. Last time they used National Security as an excuse. National Security has become a great catch-all, it was used a few months as a reason to veto a vote allowing re-importation of prescription drugs.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by fenix03 on Jun 8, 2004 08:12 AM ]
posted on June 8, 2004 09:11:46 AM new
FENIX03, Allowing Mexican trucks to roam the U.S. is another Bush attack on the American working class. The Mexican trunking issue is now a done deal. When American truckers try to stop Mexican trucks that will be a different issue. I do and will support the American trucker because Mexican truckers WILL take more American jobs away.
posted on June 8, 2004 09:37:37 AM new
I'm not a Bush supporter either, but the Mexican truck issue is a whole lot more complicated and has a lengthy history that goes well beyond the current President. There's little evidence that Mexican trucks will take away American jobs. Mexican and US trucking firms along the border have always had cordial relations. Each realizes that it needs the other for cross border commerce. Allowing Mexican trucks into the US isn't going to change that. In fact, it may actually ease and increase income for both sides. Mexican trucking companies in general can't begin to compete with the big US firms, and aren't looking to.
here's an interesting read on the subject:
http://www.lmtonline.com/nafta/010603.htm
There are plenty of good reasons to dump Bush besides this one. I guess if this one is the one that gets you out to vote, it's as good as any.
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When a dog howls at the moon, we call it religion. When he barks at strangers, we call it patriotism. - Edward Abbey
posted on June 8, 2004 09:48:00 AM new
The Mexican trunking issue is now a done deal.
SInce when? The court case only re-iterates that it CAN be done, since that order still has not been given, it does not suddenly open the gates. You can bet it's not going to happen any time soon - at the very least not until after the elections because Bush certainly does not want to piss off the unions. Until clearance has been given, they are still limited to 20 miles within the borders.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on June 8, 2004 11:19:10 AM newThe Mexican trunking issue is now a done deal.
I heard about it on the news the other day too. But I think they are just going to a 500 extension of the "zone" that Mexican transports can now go.
Each realizes that it needs the other for cross border commerce. Allowing Mexican trucks into the US isn't going to change that.
It is going to change things drastically. The wage differential alone will put Mexican trucking in great demand. In fact there are many warehouse firms just waiting for a total lifting of the ban to build warehouses in Mexico. Not only do they not pay US taxes on the warehoused goods, put they can cut the shipping costs by 70% or more.
posted on June 8, 2004 11:38:49 AM new
FENIX03, You said "The court case only re-iterates that it CAN be done" you are right. I see nothing left to stop it if Bush get re-elected. I also think you are right Bush will hold off until after the election because of votes. When Mexican trucks start roaming the U.S. today or a year from now it will cost American jobs.
Hell of that matter why not make Mexico a giant freight dispatch center. What's left of American companies could just call a dispatcher in Mexico and a Mexican truck can be at their door the next day. I am sure that with our governments support and blessings the freight corporations can work all that out with another 4 years of Bush.
VOTE FOR CHANGE BEFORE ITS TO LATE. VOTE DEMOCRATS TO CONGRESS !
posted on June 8, 2004 12:54:55 PM new
The wage differential won't affect things that much. Don't forget, a huge Mexican trucking firm has maybe a hundred vehicles in it's fleet, small potatoes compared to giant US firms, who will be very difficult to compete with. Northbound costs are much greater than southbound costs due all the US hoops that have to be jumped through. Those hoops will change a bit when the border is truly opened, but they won't be lessened. Those costs may in fact go up for the Mexican firms, as there will be lots of vehicles that will have to be replaced or upgraded in order to cross the border. What will happen is the short haul trucks, who now handle the cross border business, will have a tougher time surviving. It will no longer be necessary to offload goods from a short haul truck to a long haul carrier. Streamlining cuts costs. This might just result in lowered prices. Don't forget, in many parts of the US, 75% of the produce in chain groceries in the winter is Mexican.Another problem that will be alleviated is border congestion. Due to the necessity of short haul trucks handling cross border movement, at any given time roughly half the trucks at the border are empty, and must still be inspected! I have a cousin in the business. He's pretty successful, running about a dozen produce trucks between Sinaloa and the POE at Nogales, Arizona. He tells me he isn't even remotely interested in expanding north.
___________________________________
When a dog howls at the moon, we call it religion. When he barks at strangers, we call it patriotism. - Edward Abbey
posted on June 8, 2004 01:49:08 PM new
I think what needs to be accepted is that although it has not been done yet and probablywon't be done until after the elections, it is going to be done. Might as well accept it, make neccesary adjustments and and move on. The problem that our country seems to have is that we spend way too much time fighting off the inevitable when we would be better served expending that energy in figuring out how to adapt and capitalize on it.
i.e. - I could have spent a lot of time bemoaning the drop in the economy and the disposable income of the public which dictates my income. Instead I recognized that I sell items with appeal in many parts of the world and that the depessed dollar equates to favorable exchange rates when I market those products outside our border. Now I target my sales towards other countries and am seeing better returns than I have in a few years when I targeted my efforts toward the U.S.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
[ edited by fenix03 on Jun 8, 2004 01:50 PM ]
posted on June 8, 2004 05:52:44 PM new
une 8, 2004, 2:52PM
Few expect Mexican trucks to flood U.S.
By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
HARLINGEN -- Trade experts along the Texas-Mexico border were unsure of the effects of Monday's high court ruling allowing Mexican trucks to haul freight into the American interior, but said a dramatic influx was unlikely.
"You're not going to see a whole flood of Mexican trucks coming north -- you're going to see an evolution coming forth," predicted Professor Don Michie, a transportation expert at the University of Texas-El Paso.
Michie and others noted that Mexican trucking firms must contend not only with post-9/11 border security, but forge new business alliances with U.S. companies to make long-haul trucking profitable.
"They can't make a one-way haul to Chicago and drive back empty. They've got to have a load -- both northbound and southbound -- for them to be competitive," said Michie, who notes that Mexican trucks can only return with cargo bound for Mexico.
Veronica Callaghan, on the board of the El Paso Foreign Trade Association, said that while her group favored the opening of border states to Mexican trucking, "we're really not sure what the impact will be since so much has happened in 10 years."
Manuel Gomez, past president of Mexico's 8,000-member National Chamber of Cargo Transportation, said few Mexican companies would make the investment in training time and equipment to enter the U.S. market. Gomez said trucking owners remain mistrustful because the original entry to U.S. markets was delayed in late 1995 by the Clinton Administration, noting that only about a dozen Mexican companies had applied for U.S. operating permits at the time.
Under the North American Free Trade Agreement, Mexican trucking firms that complied with safety requirements could operate in border states beginning in December 1995, and throughout the country in January 2000.
"There will be some companies, as there were last time, who want to enter the international cargo market, but I don't think it's going to be a majority," said Gomez, who operates a trucking company in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen. "It's going to be only a few."
Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Tela Mange said that, even with the Supreme Court ruling, it will be several months before any Mexican trucks start traveling across Texas beyond the restricted commercial zones near border crossings.
She said Mexican trucks must first pass safety inspections and complete paperwork required of American trucks.
Mange said the DPS expects fewer than 1,000 Mexican trucks to meet the requirements and actually travel beyond the border zones because "it costs a lot of money to do what they need to do."
Currently, 307 DPS truck inspectors are stationed at eight state inspection stations at major border crossings, although Mange said they do not inspect each truck that enters Texas.
"Of the vehicles we inspect coming across the border, an average of 35 percent are placed out of service for various safety defects," Mange said, adding that 2 percent of the drivers were not allowed to drive.
Tom "Smitty" Smith, Texas director of Public Citizen, a government watchdog group whose national office lost the suit before the Supreme Court, said the DPS was underestimating the likely number of trucks.
"We don't have a good estimate on that, but there will be many more than 1,000," he predicted.
Laredo Mayor Betty Flores expressed relief, as did other border officials, that the court challenge was resolved.
"We're glad it's done but it's for the trucking industry, they're going to be the ones to decide where the economies are," said Flores.
Critics, including Smith of Public Citizen, warned that American trucking companies will take advantage of the less stringent Mexican emission standards.
"Once the border is open, American trucking companies will go to the other side of the border, buy Mexican trucking companies and use those trucks in Texas," he said.
More than 65 percent of freight generated by NAFTA goes through Texas, meaning the state will suffer disproportionately from emissions from Mexican trucks, Smith said.
"The Secret Service has announced it is doubling its protection for John Kerry. You can understand why — with two positions on every issue, he has twice as many people mad at him." —Jay Leno
posted on June 8, 2004 06:22:20 PM new
All this ASSUMES that Mexican Companies will be the only ones doing the trucking.
What is going to happen is that American trucking companies will either move into Mexico or partner with Mexican companies to take advantage of the wage differential - this would also by-pass the requirement of return loads only going to Mexico. If it is an American company with a subsidiary based in Mexico it can now deliver all over the US.
There were those that said it would be too hard or not economical to move capital equipment into Mexico to take advantage of the low wages. Boy were those people wrong.
Any trucking company that sees a way to drastically cut wages and offer no benefits is going to do so before their competition does.
posted on June 8, 2004 08:15:15 PM new
Hello All, now that everyone realizes Mexican Trucking is a done deal.
I don't care when the trucks start roaming the U.S. we can say good-by to American Jobs.
posted on June 8, 2004 08:51:33 PM new
WHatalerican jobs is it that you think are going to be lost ither than the few companies that specialize in short hauls in texas and California since even when the trucks can come across, few are going to make long hauls because they are simply not profitable.
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If it's really "common" sense, why do so few people actually have it?
posted on June 9, 2004 03:13:53 PM new
Gee, this comes under the heading, 'If you can't blind them with brilliance, baffle them with barbra streisand'.
posted on June 10, 2004 05:58:38 AM new
PARKLANE64, You said "'If you can't blind them with brilliance, baffle them with barbra streisand'.
LOL, ANOTHER WORN OUT REPUBLICAN PARTY LINE THAT'S TRANSPARENT AND NOT WORKING ANY LONGER.
You guys and gals that keep using these old worn out republican party lines need to take a smart pill and come up with something new. I do understand its hard because your party has such failed leaders.
VOTE FOR A NEW AMERICA AND CHANGE BEFORE ITS TO LATE. KERRY IS A LEADER WITH BOTH BRAINS AND GUTS.
