There are just so many facts out there that Lou Dobbs continues to ignore, choosing instead to condemn trade as a bad deal for the US. A case in point is Chile. We entered into one of those cursed (to Lou) Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with Chile in only 2004. Before then, the EU’s share of the Chilean market was substantial. As we’ve noted repeatedly, this is a multi-lateral world. Well, since the Chilean FTA took effect, our share of Chile’s imports has risen some 20% — and that’s in a little over a year.

As our trade guru, Frank Vargo, said, “Our experience with Chile is further proof that FTA’s boost US exports by…removing foreign trade barriers.”

Here’s a link to some info we put out today on Chile, further puncturing the myth that FTA’s hurt US manufacturers.

OK gang, on the eve of the CAFTA vote, time to have a little refresher on some of the things we’ve covered on CAFTA thus far. In the posting entitled, “CAFTA, Fact vs. Fiction“, you’ll find some facts not often cited by Lou Dobbs and his friends Smoot and Hawley. Among these are that over 15,000 manufacturers — the vast majority of them small — now export into CAFTA countries. In fact, more companies export into CAFTA countries than into China. At the moment CAFTA takes effect, some 80% of all US exports into the region will be duty-free, causing the export number to climb. Isn’t that what we want?

If you read “CAFTA, By the Numbers“, you’ll see some state-by-state data, showing the impact of the oft-reviled NAFTA, which of course turned out to be a great shot in the arm to exports. Who knew? We did. CAFTA will have the same effect.

Finally, on “The End of the World is Near“, we cite a Washington Post editorial in turn citing a University of Michigan study that showed that US income would rise by $17 billion if CAFTA passes. That’s an impressive number by any standard.

Last but not least, let us remind you all that trade-intensive industries pay an average annual compensation of $60,000 per year, almost 40% higher than the least trade-intensive industries.

The Chicken Littles were wrong about NAFTA and they’re wrong about CAFTA. Please urge your Senator to support it, unleash the full power of US manufacturing throughout the CAFTA region.

It was Sonny Corleone who famously said in “The Godfather” that when the going got tough it was time to go to the mattresses. Well, the time is here for CAFTA.

Much to Lou Dobbs’ chagrin, and in spite of a constant drumbeat against CAFTA and trade on his little drum up in CNN studios in New York, the Senate Finance Committee, in a bipartisan show of support, approved CAFTA today, sending it out of Committee and on to the floor for a vote as soon as tomorrow. Here’s a copy of the press release John Engler put out today, praising the work of the Senate Finance Committee.

And so we go to the mattresses. Here’s a link to our CAFTA Resource Center, with all the tools necessary to weigh in with your Senator to let them know you support free trade and support CAFTA.

Because our blog readers are persistent and because traffic remains high throughout the weekend, we’re starting another regular feature this Saturday called the “Saturday Video of the Week”. It’s for all of us adults who are too old to watch cartoons on Saturday morning. These will be cool manufacturing videos so you can get out of bed, pour a bloody mary and watch stuff being made. And, it won’t gum up all the important policy stuff we have to take care of during the week, like the boycott of People magazine. We’ve got a bunch of these videos, will start this Saturday. They’re generally pretty short — 5-10 minutes in length but that was the limit of the attention span of the blogger’s apprentice, who found most of them. What the heck, you can watch them over and over again.

Check back on Saturdays for the video of the week. As you’re coming down from your “Friday Follies” high, you can watch cool stuff being made.

A little late in the day, we know — sorry, been a busy one, but today we start a regular feature (at least until we run out of posters, and by then you’ll forget this is a regular feature) entitled, “Wednesday Poster of the Week”. This is a little manufacturing pick-me-up for you to get you over the hump. We have two types of posters: some really cool retro ones, based on a billboard campaign we ran in the 30′s and 40′s with the Outdoor Advertising Association. One of them is visible below, in the Father’s Day posting. The other posters we have are more recent, depicting some of our members in very atypical manufacturing settings, but while still carrying the manufacturing message. We think you’ll like them both. To get you started this week, we’ll reach back to one of the vintage ones with a message that is timeless: “World’s Highest Standard of Living – There’s No Way Like the American Way.” Hey, wait! That’s the blogger-in-chief in the back seat!

We hope you enjoy the series. If you stumble upon any we should know about, let us know and we’ll work ‘em into the rotation.

Only in Washington can you work for years trying to pass a bill, trying to force a vote, only to have it pass 85-12. Such was the fate of the energy bill in the Senate yesterday. Thanks to the thousands of manufacturers who weighed in across the country, driving home the point that we have the highest natural gas prices in the world, and reminding the Congress that the old laws of supply and demand are alive and well.

Happily, of the 18 or so charter members of the newly-minted Senate Manufacturing Caucus, only one — Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) voted against it.

Here’s a link to our press release extolling the Senate victory and reminding everyone that the real work now begins, as it goes into a conference committee to reconcile the differences between it and the House-passed version.

The roll call vote can be found on the NAM energy website.

During the “American Idol” season, in the Style section of the Washington Post, they have a column called, “We Watch So You Don’t Have To”. Every week, you can get filled in on what happened the night before without having to suffer through the antics, the hand-wringing and commercials. Not everybody has TiVo, after all.

In that same spirit, and since we’ve been on other topics for a few days, we wanted to catch you up on what you missed on Lou Dobbs’ show since last week:

Thursday

Segment 1: Trade is bad.
Segment 2: Furriners is bad.

Friday

Segment 1: Trade is bad.
Segment 2: Furriners is bad.

Monday

Segment 1: Trade is bad.
Segment 2: Furriners is bad.

Tuesday

Segment 1: Trade is bad.
Segment 2: Furriners is bad.

OK, you’re good now. We’ll pick up with more tomorrow.

For those of you who’ve not been following it, or have been in a cave for the past few days, Ronald Reagan was voted “The Greatest American” in a long-running series and contest on the Discovery Channel. In all, almost 2 and a half million votes were cast. In the top ten were President George W. Bush (at #6), nosing out his predecessor Bill Clinton at #7. Reagan, the 40th President, edged out Abe Lincoln (#2) and Martin Luther King, Jr. (#3) for the highest honor.

But what makes this really great is that the narrator/moderator/cheerleader for all of this was Matt Lauer of The Today Show, not noted for his conservative views. He must’ve coughed up a lung to have to announce that the greatest figure in the Conservative movement in the 20th century was voted “The Greatest American”. Not sure Matt ever voted for him. We bet Katie was steamed, too. (Hope nobody’s offended by the picture — it was the first one that came up on Google.) Ah, irony. Gotta have some fun in this life.

“Nothing in life is certain,” Ben Franklin famously wrote in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy in 1789, “except death and taxes.” Well over 200 years later, we deal with both, and greet them with equal dread.

Four years ago we were able — through the tremendous activism of small, family-owned manufacturing companies and their employees — to begin phasing out the death tax, the tax owed upon your death by your estate. Unfortunately…

(continue reading…)

The Carpenters (not Richard and Karen, but the Union) made it official today, joining the Change to Win Coalition in their efforts to gain reform at the AFL-CIO and in the process defeat John Sweeney. That failing, they appear to be hell-bent on starting their own federation. With the addition of the Carpenters, the Change to Win Coalition now represents some 6 million workers, nearly half of the AFL-CIO’s total, but still not enough to force out the 71 year-old Sweeney. Here’s a link to the press release put out by the coalition today.

The other rumor sweeping the labor world is that the National Education Association (NEA) will soon be joining the Change to Win Coalition as well. While not a member of the AFL-CIO, the addition of their 2.7 million members would add considerable lift to the Coalition’s efforts to breathe life into the moribund labor movement presided over by Sweeney. Also, if the dissidents set up their own group, with the addition of the NEA it would be a few million larger than the one headed by Pyrrhus Sweeney. Some victory for him.

People will be working overtime (at time and a half, of course) between now and the AFL-CIO Convention in July to find a face-saving way out for Sweeney. The stakes just got raised by the Carpenters. If the NEA joins the group, the other shoe has dropped.