Topics in the News: Globalization
Barack Obama on Education
: Sep 13, 2007
We need a sense of urgency about improving education system
Q: How would you assess the American education system, how well is it doing from K to high school?A: Well, I think it's doing very well for some. But it's not doing very well for all. So, No Child Left Behind has been false advertising.
And there doesn't seem to be a sense of urgency about improving the education system. It is a sense of urgency that we've got to restore if we're going to be able to remain competitive in this new global economy.
So, a couple of steps that I think we have to take. Across the board we're going to have to recruit a generation of new teachers. We're going to have to pay our teachers more, we going to have to give them more professional development, and we're also
going to have to work with them rather than against them to improve standards. We've got to improve early childhood education, because that's the area where we can probably most effectively achieve the achievement gap that exists right now.
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Source: Huffington Post Mash-Up: 2007 Democratic on-line debate
Barack Obama on Free Trade
: Aug 19, 2007
Congress subsidizes megafarms & hurts family farmers
Q: How do you protect jobs without hurting farmers?A: Congress subsidizes these big megafarms and hurts family farmers oftentimes in the process. And we've got to cap those subsidies so that we don't have continued concentration of agriculture in the
hands of a few large agribusiness interests. But, on the trade issue generally, we're not going to suddenly cordon off America from the world. Globalization is here, and I don't think Americans are afraid to compete.
And we have the goods and the services and the skills and the innovation to compete anywhere in the world. But what we've got to make absolutely certain of is that, in that competition, we are hard bargainers. You know, I'm always struck by the
Bush administration touting that this is the MBA president and they're such great businessmen, and they get taken to the cleaners in a lot of these trade agreements. And we've got to have somebody who's negotiating on behalf of workers and family farmers
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Source: 2007 Democratic primary debate on "This Week"
Barack Obama on Free Trade
: Aug 8, 2007
People don't want cheaper T-shirts if it costs their job
Q: The flip side to fair trade: how do you convince a working family that's struggling to get by that buying American is still best for them, when American T-shirts cost $20 and imported ones are $10?A: Look, people don't want a cheaper T-shirt if
they're losing a job in the process. They would rather have the job and pay a little bit more for a T-shirt. And I think that's something that all Americans could agree to.
But this raises a larger point, which is: globalization is here. And we should
be trading around the world. We don't want to just be standing still while the rest of the world is out there taking the steps that it needs to in order to expand trade.
Congress has a responsibility because we've got right now provisions in our tax
code that reward companies that are moving jobs overseas instead of companies that are investing right here in the US. And that is a reflection of the degree to which special interests have been shaping our trade policy. That's something that I'll end.
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Source: 2007 AFL-CIO Democratic primary forum
Hillary Clinton on Free Trade
: Aug 7, 2007
Better approach: real trade adjustment assistance
We've got to have a better approach to trade around the world. And it's important that we have an idea of how to maximize the benefits from the global economy while minimizing the impact on American workers.
That includes things like real trade adjustment assistance and other support.
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Source: 2007 AFL-CIO Democratic primary forum
Bill Richardson on Corporations
: Jun 28, 2007
Reward companies that pay over the prevailing wage
I would reward companies that pay over the prevailing wage, that go into the inner cities, that go into rural areas. I would also have tax-free holidays for technology start-ups: three years, if they train people in the inner city, if they hire people
over the prevailing wage. We need to rebuild this economy by being pro-growth Democrats. We should be the party of innovation, of entrepreneurship, of building capital. We need to find a way that globalization works for the middle class.
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Source: 2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University
Barack Obama on Free Trade
: Jun 28, 2007
Reinvest in communities that are burdened by globalization
Q: A lot of Americans are concerned with outsourcing of US jobs. What's your solution?A: I moved to Chicago to work with churches that were dealing with the devastation of steel plants that had closed all throughout the region. Tens of thousands of
people had been laid off. There was never a federal effort to come in after those closings and to figure out how can we retrain workers for the jobs of the future, how can we invest and make sure capital is available to create new businesses in those
communities. And so not only do we have to deal with our trade agreements, not only do we have to eliminate tax breaks for companies that are moving overseas, not only do we have to work on our education system, but we also have to have an intentional
strategy on the part of the federal government to make sure that we are reinvesting in those communities that are being burdened by globalization and not benefiting from it.
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Source: 2007 Democratic Primary Debate at Howard University
Fred Thompson on Free Trade
: Jun 6, 2007
Don't raise specter of protectionism on globalization
I look at things like globalization, the new millions of employees that are coming online in places like India and China that are going to be competing with our people.
And some people want to raise the specter of protectionism.
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Source: Fox News "Hannity & Colmes" interview
Chris Dodd on Immigration
: Jun 3, 2007
More language training is needed in a global economy
We need to be encouraging more language training in our country. At the time of the 9/11 attacks here, we had advertisements running in national newspapers for anybody who could speak Arabic here.
We have too few of our people in this country that can understand second languages. This is the 21st century. This is a global economy. We need to encourage more diversity in that. Certainly we have a national language here.
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Source: 2007 Dem. debate at Saint Anselm College
Fred Thompson on Free Trade
: May 4, 2007
Markets do more for freedom than any central planner
On globalization -- we're not afraid of it. It works to our benefit. We innovate more and invest in that innovation better than anywhere else in the world. Same thing goes for services, which are increasingly driving our economy.
Free trade and market economies have done more for freedom and prosperity than a central planner could ever dream and we're the world's best example of that. So, why do we want to take investment dollars out of growth, and invest it in government?
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Source: Speech to Lincoln Club Annual Dinner, Orange County CA
Rudy Giuliani on Free Trade
: Mar 26, 2007
Take advantage of globalization--market US healthcare abroad
Q: What about taking some action to limit the US trade deficit--is that protectionist?A: Generally a bad idea and generally self-defeating. And certainly not an agenda for the future, kind of an agenda for the past. The best way to deal with the
global economy is to take advantage of it in an aggressive way, in an optimistic way. Let's build industries that we can sell in this new part of the world where we have a growing number of consumers.
Let's think of the strength of
American health care rather than just the weaknesses of it. We're still the place where more people want to come to get medical treatment. People aren't flooding hospitals in Europe and Asia to get brain surgery and cancer treatment, they're coming to
America. We're perilously close to pushing them in the other direction of socialized medicine, but we still have the best health care system in the world. Let's market that. That's a product we can sell. We're ahead of everybody else on that.
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Source: Interview on "Kudlow & Company", RealClearPolitics.com
Barack Obama on Jobs
: Mar 24, 2007
Burdens of globalization are placed on the backs of workers
This world is not standing still. And we've got to take the values that have made America great but we have to adapt them to new times. And we know what those challenges are. Because of globalization, because of automation what we're seeing is
increasingly a situation in which the benefits of this new economy accrued to just some and leave too many behind. Wages, salaries have flat lined and benefits are diminished. And the message that we've heard over the last six years is,
You're on your own. The troubles, the difficulties, the burdens of globalization are going to be placed on the backs of workers. But there's always been another vision that says we're in it together and that the burdens and benefits
of this new economy have to be spread evenly across the economy, and nowhere do we see that more than in the issue of health care.
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Source: SEIU Democratic Health Care Forum in Las Vegas
John Edwards on Free Trade
: Feb 21, 2007
Globalization means more education needed for success
Q: The issue of globalization has shifted somewhat in recent years as many white collar jobs have been outsourced overseas. A: We have to be smarter than we've been about the effects of globalization. What globalization has done is created a
stratification of class in America. It's much more difficult for somebody like me, who came from a pretty modest background and now has absolutely everything, to be able to do that in the country today. There are a lot of reasons for it.
Our tax structure is one reason; not having access to health care is another. But the impact of globalization has makes it much more difficult to be able to move up and for their children to have a better life.
We have to be smarter, better educated. Science, math, technology -- we need to push more kids into those areas. We need to make it easier for kids to go to college, not harder. We need more serious investment in graduate education in all those areas.
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Source: 2007 AFSCME Democratic primary debate in Carson City Nevada
Hillary Clinton on Health Care
: Feb 21, 2007
Universal health care coverage by the end of my second term
Q: Many experts project that it would cost between $90 billion and $120 billion to actually achieve universal health care for everyone in America. Is comprehensive reform achievable financially? A: We already spend more money than anybody else in the
world, by about $800 billion, and we have 47 million uninsured. We're also at a competitive disadvantage because other countries either provide health care or don't, and our companies are trying to be competing in a global economy. So I want to figure
out how we provide universal health care without putting billions more into the system. Let's get prescription drug prices down by negotiating with the drug companies, for example. I am going around the country, and I'm asking people's advice, then
I'm going to be proposing a specific plan. You know, President Kennedy said in his inauguration that he wanted to have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Well, I want to have universal health care coverage by the end of my second term.
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Source: 2007 AFSCME Democratic primary debate in Carson City Nevada
Hillary Clinton on Jobs
: Feb 2, 2007
Get tough with China and bring jobs back home
When I travel across Upstate New York and hard-working people come and say, they're closing this factory down and shipping our jobs overseas. Why can't we get tough on China? And I say, because of the debt that this government, under this president,
has exploded, we are now dependent upon China, and how do you get tough on your banker? We need to start standing up for the American worker again, and be able to once again compete and win in the global economy.
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Source: Speech at Democratic National Committee winter meeting
Mike Huckabee on Tax Reform
: Jan 4, 2007
Supports national flat tax to keep up with globalization
During the 2000 presidential race, Steve Forbes advocated simplification of the tax code and the implementation of a flat tax. While far from perfect, moving toward a tax that is both flatter and fairer is a goal we should adopt. One of the arguments
for a flat tax is to address a world economy that has radically changed in the last decade. Capital, and even labor, are fluid & mobile. A tax structure that is more predictable, consistent, flatter, and fairer not only represents greater accountability
in government but may well be a key element of economic survival as we continue to play on a global stage. Governments unwilling to respond with lower rates and broader tax bases are tempting fate and could continue to see erosion of investment & jobs.
Some argue that a flat tax is especially oppressive to those at the bottom of the economy because they currently pay little of their income to taxes. Making sure that a tax system is fair means we should not ignore the needs of the poor.
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Source: From Hope to Higher Ground, by Mike Huckabee, p.109-110
Barack Obama on Education
: Jun 14, 2006
Guarantee affordable life-long, top-notch education
We've got a story to tell that isn't just against something but is for something. We know that we're the party of opportunity. We know that in a global economy that's more connective and more competitive that we're the party that will guarantee every
American an affordable, world-class, life-long, top-notch education, from early childhood to high school--from college to on-the-job training. We know that that's what we're about.
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Source: Annual 2006 Take Back America Conference
Tom Tancredo on Free Trade
: Jun 6, 2006
Globalization is replacing "citizens" with "consumers"
During a 2006 debate, Gary Hart said: "globalization is eroding national sovereignty." Globalization, he said, had replaced citizen with consumer in the minds of many people. The US isn't so much a country any more as it is a market.The same thing is
happening throughout the West. Since the Maastricht Treaty finalizing the European Union was adopted, Europeans have become citizens of a union rather than remain sovereign Dutch, German, etc. citizens. For many Europeans, their nation has simply become
a place they reside, no longer a part of their identity.
Multicultural elites now frequently describe themselves as "citizens of the world." If given the chance, they would replace loyalty to any one country to humanity, to Mother Earth, and in some
cases, loyalty to them. This rhetoric has trickled down to impressionable youth. Too frequently they tell me that America is a continent, not a nation. Multiculturalism had advanced so much that it denigrates the value of a national birthright.
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Source: In Mortal Danger, by Tom Tancredo, p.191-192
John Edwards on Corporations
: Jan 29, 2004
We can stop the job losses, by closing loopholes
Q: Is it realistic to talk to the American people about stopping the global economy and the movement toward it? A: We can have a real impact on the loss of jobs. We can do something to bring jobs back to replace the jobs that we've lost.
I've seen mills close, I've seen what it does to communities, I've seen what it does to families. We need to close loopholes in our tax code to give breaks to companies that are leaving, give tax breaks to American companies that will keep jobs here.
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Source: Democratic 2004 primary Debate in Greenville SC
Hillary Clinton on Free Trade
: Jun 17, 1999
Globalization should not substitute for humanization
As with any sweeping change in history, there are those who are great proponents of globalization, [and] there are others who are great opponents. The real challenge is not to engage in an argument, but to try better to understand the forces that are at
work and to harness those forces on behalf of society. To ensure that globalization, however one defines it, is never a substitute for humanization, never a force for marginalization, and not an enemy of the values that have long shaped our society.
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Source: Remarks at The Sorbonne, Paris, France
John McCain on Free Trade
: May 20, 1999
Retaliatory protectionism is a “murder-suicide pact”
Yes, many American families will suffer from the inevitable dislocations caused by the imperatives of a global economy. But the answer to their suffering cannot be the adoption of policies that will sustain one industry by tariff or subsidy. Embracing
protectionism here to retaliate for it elsewhere is akin to a murder-suicide pact, and we should resist the temptation whether the product in question is bananas or sugar or steel.
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Source: Speech to National Press Club, 5/20/99
Al Gore on Free Trade
: Nov 16, 1998
Protectionism only protects us from prosperity
All developed countries -- whether in Asia, Europe, or the Americas -- must play a role, and keep tearing down trade barriers. In the end, in this global economy, protectionism will only
protect us from prosperity itself.
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Source: Speech at APEC Business Summit