Recently, ABC infohack Cokie Roberts, doyenne of the D.C. Establishment, attacked me in her nationally syndicated column. Why? Because I dared to speak the truth about the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a so-called "free trade agreement" that has lobbyists and Washington insiders alike clamoring to stuff their pockets with corrupt corporate cash. And because I dared to speak the truth about "Fast Track," legislation whose sole purpose is to cram TPP and other corporate rip-offs down our throats.
By attacking me, Cokie Roberts unintentionally has provided a fascinating case study in how Washington, D.C. really works. Her attack on me was really an attack on the American middle class. Her attack on me was an attack on you.
Let's look at the facts. Our corporatized "free trade" policy has been an abject failure. It began with NAFTA, which impoverished workers in both the United States and abroad, solely for the benefit of wealthy corporate special interests. So has every "free trade" deal since. For the past dozen years, every year, the United States has run the largest trade deficits of any country, anywhere in the world, at any time in history. Since NAFTA went into effect, our trade deficits total $10,000,000,000,000.00, or one-sixth of our national net worth. We are buying foreign goods and assets, putting foreigners to work. Instead of buying our goods and services, they are buying our assets, driving us deeper and deeper into debt. We lose - twice.
For five years now, our so-called "Trade Representative" has conspired in secret with multinational corporations to give away our sovereignty, refusing even our elected representatives access to negotiations. "Fast Track" legislation simply is a ploy to jam the resulting surrender to multinational corporations through Congress, without hearings, without mark-ups, without amendments and even without significant debate. The real problem today is our towering trade deficit, and both "Fast Track" and TPP would make that worse.
But that's not how Cokie Roberts, the daughter of two Members of Congress and a consummate Washington insider, sees it. She quoted some of what I've said, and then she said: "Liberal ideologues like Grayson are flat-out wrong."
Let's take a look at the evidence that Cokie Roberts offers to try to prove that she's right and I'm wrong. She touts the fact that the United States exports $2 trillion in goods and services each year. While she ignores the fact that the United States has been importing nearly $3 trillion in goods and services each year. (Note to Cokie: three is more than two.) She touts the "fact" that trade supposedly "supports" almost 10 million jobs in the United States. While she ignores the fact that imports cost us even more jobs; in fact, we've lost five million manufacturing jobs to "free trade" during the past two decades.
Are you disgusted by this crooked and underhanded attack by Cokie Roberts? Do you oppose "free trade" giveaways? If so, please pledge $10 per month to our campaign now, to "honor" of the "almost 10 million jobs" that Cokie Roberts claims "free trade agreements" support in the imaginary world that she lives in.
To top it all off, Cokie Roberts then quoted this vapid and inane remark by the U.S. Trade Representative: "Trade is critical to America's prosperity." It would be far more accurate to say that trade is critical to the prosperity of America's lobbyists. Lobbyists like Cokie Roberts's brother, for instance.
And now we get to the heart of the matter, today's lesson in how Washington, D.C. works - for people like Cokie Roberts. And her brother.
Why is Cokie Roberts ignoring the trade deficit, that 800-billion-pound gorilla in the room? Could it possibly be because her brother's law firm represents a slew of multinational corporations and foreign governments who stand to benefit from the TPP? In just the Middle East, that firm's client list includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and Kuwait. That was good enough for Cokie's brother's firm to take in a whopping $40 million in lobbying fees in 2013 alone.
Cokie's brother's firm has represented scads of multinational corporations who just can't get enough of "free trade agreements." Last year alone, Goldman Sachs poured $480,000 into the coffers of that firm. Citigroup tossed in another $300,000. And Halliburton and Exxon Mobil shelled out tens of thousands of dollars, too.
(If you question whether Cokie Roberts would bend over backwards to help her brother's lobbying firm, then consider this: Dianna Ortiz is an American nun who was tortured and raped by the Guatemalan junta. Cokie Roberts's brother's law firm represented the Guatemalan junta. Cokie Roberts claimed on the air, with no basis whatsoever, that Ortiz had fabricated her story. Ortiz then proved it in court, and won a $5 million judgment.)
Cokie Roberts's attack against me is designed to discredit not only me, but also to discredit the concerns of ordinary Americans -- like you -- in order to protect the Washington elite: corporate lobbyists, corrupt insiders, millionaires and billionaires, multinational corporations, big banks, the Halliburtons and Exxon Mobils of the world, and other economic aristocrats who would benefit from these "free trade" giveaways. In short, the people who think that they own us.
The D.C. Establishment doesn't know what to do about me, because I am unbossed and unbought. Lobbyists don't like me, because I stand against their "free trade" giveaways, their bailouts, their no-bid contracts and their tax breaks. Billionaires fund my opponents' campaigns. Not mine.
If you don't like the TPP and other "free trade" giveaways, then invest in our campaign right now. If you don't like multinational corporations who try to buy laws that benefit them, then invest in our campaign now.
Washington's corporate elite relies on people like Cokie Robert to attack people like me, because I'm speaking for people like you. If you think that Cokie Roberts is wrong, that the way that the Washington, D.C. elite do business is wrong, then invest in our campaign now. With only $10 or $25 or $50 from you, every month, I can afford to keep standing up for us.
Monday marks our Federal Election Commission report cut-off date. We are under attack. And when I say "we," I don't just mean "me." I mean that the American middle class is under attack. I mean that you're under attack. When I say "we," I mean you and me.
We are fighting for justice, equality, and peace. We are paying attention, we are working hard, and we are getting things done. And because of that, I am under attack. I need your help, and I need it today. Every dollar counts. Our deadline is midnight on Monday. Please contribute today.
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Rep. Alan Grayson
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