Dubya, The Working Man's Friend

A family member belongs to the Sheet Metal Workers International Association, and he forwarded some literature pertaining to “The Outsourcing of America” that I wanted to post here. Basically, he designs electrical signs and displays used by banks, sports parks, and casinos (lots of measuring and cutting and intricate wiring is involved).

I have a lot of material on this, and I’m not going to get into all of it in a single post like this one. I’ll just present a few highlights at a time, such as this (by the way, click here to download the entire issue of their publication containing this information as a .pdf file):

- The average U.S. manufacturing wage is $16.00 per hour or $33,280 per year. The average Canadian manufacturing wage is $20.20 per hour or $42,016 per year. The average Communist China manufacturing wage is 61 cents per hour or $1,268 per year.

- From 2000 to 2003, real median family income declined 0.9 percent per year, a three-year drop of $1,500.

- Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.2 percent from June 2005 to July 2005 after seasonal adjustment, according to data released on August 16, 2005 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor.

- The trade deficit with Communist China skyrocketed to $162 billion, up more than 30% since last year and more than double where it was in 2000, the year Congress gave China permanent normal trade relations.

- Canada’s imports from China have risen as rapidly as that of the U.S.

- Canada’s trade deficit with China was the same percentage of Gross Domestic Product (1.1%) as the $124 billion deficit of the U.S.

- U.S. imports from China are more than five times the value of U.S. exports to China (THAT should shock you as if did me).

- At the current rate of growth, China will surpass Canada and become the largest supplier of U.S. imports in 2006.

- Also, to get more of a picture of just how much we have come to rely on imports from China, take a look at this.

To be fair, this has been going on since before Dubya was installed as president. However, as we can see, it has dramatically accelerated under his watch. The ramifications of this are huge, and not just in terms of the price we pay for gas (which China is starting to gobble up ferociously also). This impacts our wages and benefits and ultimately determines how quickly this country will slide into third-world status.

Also, I want to emphasize that my dissatisfaction here is between our government and that of China’s, partly for waiting too long to unpeg their currency against ours. It’s wrong to blame individual Chinese for this as much as it is wrong to blame individual Muslims for terrorism.

I’ll probably have more to post on this in the coming days.

On an unrelated note, I should also state that I intend, as much as I can, to “stand out of the way” when Patrick Fitzgerald hands down any indictments in the Valerie Plame matter, which are expected to come today. Others have reported on this more thoroughly and consistently than I have, and I would suggest reading the accounts at their sites (AmericaBlog, Atrios, Daily Kos, Huffington Post, The Smirking Chimp, etc.) to get the full story.

Update: Man, what was I thinking anyway? My take on all of this? Glad you asked…

- Libby (sounds like he goes up to a “Club Fed” for some R&R)

- Rove (maybe he resigns too with a hefty fine and a conviction on the statute for revealing Plame's identity or obstruction of justice, though he’ll be absent from this administration the same way DeLay is absent from the U.S. House, which is to say not at all – no jail time)

- Cheney (walks – too big to get taken down for something like this, unfortunately)

And by the way, let’s pray that I’m wrong and Rove/Cheney and others “get it in the neck.”

Also, some thoughts on Patrick Fitzgerald – there was a time on this site when I pilloried him for going after Cooper and Miller and leaving Novak alone, but I was flat, dead, 100 percent wrong. I think Fitzgerald got it right away that Novak – and certainly Cooper and other reporters – were minor players, and the keys were Miller and others in Bushco, and he proceeded accordingly.

I also went after Chicago Tribune columnist Steve Chapman for saying both Miller and Cooper should roll over for Fitzgerald, and my argument with Chapman was that he treated Cooper and Miller the same. I stand by that; Chapman was a dunce. Cooper and Miller could not have been more different cases.

By the way, Atrios has a statement from Ted Kennedy on this (remember him?) which I thought was good.