Barack Obama is trying to get an international trade agreement that will give him more power than he already has, and the institutional Congressional Republicans seem to want to give it to him. Why? Trade does not need secret agreements, trade does not need bureaucrats shuffling paper, trade needs only two partners who agree on price and product. Ross Perot might have been nuts but he was right about NAFTA sucking jobs out of the United States never to return. Keeping your jobs and factories at home is not protectionism, it is common sense, but neither party has much common sense these days. I have been waiting for a Tea Party revolt since 2010 but have yet to see the establishment Republicans give up anything or learn anything. I am sane and have the best interests of my country at heart and so do not qualify for public office, but if elected I will get all those jobs back from China and Mexico. So stuff will cost more at WalMart, but at least the stuff will be made in America by Americans.

The textile mills across the track
Are shuttered and forlorn
The jobs there they ain’t coming back
Whole towns were left to mourn
Our shipyards closed and on the block
The steel mills now are dark
Where once were three shifts on the clock
Men now sit in the park
And watch their children run and play
While mom’s still waiting for
That waitress job to keep away
The wolf from their front door
NAFTA benefits the few
And China but not us
Our leaders smiled and then they threw
Us all under the bus