Still don't think he's a used-car salesman?

[PatrickforO]

414. Sorry, I don't buy that.

First of all, 800,000 jobs is not a 'few.' Secondly, the manufacturing jobs lost were good jobs that paid a living wage, but were replaced by low wage service jobs, while at the same time due to loopholes in the US tax code executive compensation reached stratospheric levels as wages for everyone else remained stagnant or lost ground.

Your 'buggy maker' argument is a fallacy because the jobs that were lost were exported, again due to Republican changes to the US corporate tax code. Now, these same corporations are holding trillions of dollars offshore that is as yet untaxed by the United States. Yet we are still the primary market. Did you know that Wells Fargo, Paccar, Mattel, GE and about 26 other Fortune level companies haven't paid US income taxes for several years?

Yet, the Republicans KNEW the TPP would cost lots of American jobs, and so took money from Medicare for a TAA training program for these displaced workers. They are also telling us that we must raise the retirement age and privatize Social Security and also forego other programs that actually help us.

You know, I pay a lot of taxes, and instead of $1.1 trillion going for the F-35 fighter that can't yet fly in lightning storms, I'd MUCH rather have good roads, single payer healthcare, free tuition at state colleges, strong safety nets, and stronger financial and environmental regulations. Yet, instead of that, we have the TPP, which will further drive American wages down, cost American workers what good jobs are left, negate our environmental and labor regulations, further boost executive salaries at the expense of everyone else and further exacerbate the wealth inequity that has nearly driven the American middle class extinct.

So don't tell me that the TPP is going to end some antiquated jobs that were going to be lost anyway. That's simply bunkum. The truth is that we need to change corporate charters so that the fiduciary responsibility of CEOs is expanded to include all stakeholders, including labor, and eliminate the false concept of 'externalities.'

When it comes to free trade, we're going the WRONG direction!