Bush gives away the farm - and the highway, too

FRANK MIELE

You have to hand it to President Bush - he is persistent.

The Iraq war would be a good case of persistence, if not exactly a good war. But let's not get distracted by that war this week as there are many more examples of Bush's persistence which don't carry the emotional baggage of Iraq.

Without taking time to analyze each and every one of them, there were the nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court, the proposal to turn U.S. port security over to the Mideast city-state of Dubai, the dogged loyalty to Donald Rumsfeld and Alberto Gonzales, and the two failed efforts at "comprehensive immigration reform."

To those we may now add the president's continuing effort to break down the borders of the nation anyway he can.

I have already in this column written extensively on the foolishness of an open border with Mexico, the cupidity of the proposed North American Union, and the absurdity of putting Arabs in charge of shipping through U.S. ports.

But last week, with hardly anyone noticing, the president took another shot at chipping away at American sovereignty by opening our southern border to Mexican trucking firms in a pilot program that he clearly wants to expand quickly.

According to the Associated Press, "The U.S. plans to give as many as 25 Mexican firms permission [to haul their cargo anywhere in the United States] by the end of September and add another 25 companies each month until hitting 100 by the end of this year under the one-year program."

Let's be clear - this is one more rotten fruit of the NAFTA tree. It is that treaty, devised by Bush's father and shepherded by President Clinton, which said that roads in Canada, the United States and Mexico must be open to carriers from all three countries. Canada unfortunately already has full and total access to the U.S. trucking market, and now it looks like Mexico will follow.

So what's the problem?

Nothing, as long as you buy into the agenda of globalization. That's the template for all the changes being wrought in the name of multi-national corporations who want to take advantage of cheap labor. In the name of globalization, companies ship their manufacturing overseas to China or Thailand or Mexico where they don't have to worry about labor unions, or OSHA regulations or paying a decent wage. In the name of globalization, companies in the U.S. hire illegal Mexican workers to do "the jobs Americans won't do" (at slave wages). In the name of globalization, tariffs disappear, borders become meaningless, and sovereignty becomes a quaint 19th century whatnot.

This trucking invasion is just a variation on the riff that Bush and his corporate allies have been blowing for several years. Buy into the notion that we should not begrudge illegal immigrants their desire to work in America because, after all, we are all human and want the same things, then there is no reason to oppose giving American jobs to Mexicans who don't even live here at all.

Because make no mistake, American jobs are going to disappear. Once all those Mexican truckers can haul freight across the U.S. without restriction, there will be no need to pay Americans to do the same job any longer. Lots of manufacturing originates in Mexico, but even more importantly China will be able to ship its millions of cargo containers directly to Mexico for transport by Mexican drivers to Denver, to Kansas City, and to Bismarck. Why pay an American driver $17 an hour when you can pay a Mexican $7 or less? The Chinese are not stupid. Neither is corporate America.

There is also the disturbing question of the complete lack of controls on these drivers, who will be driving multi-ton vehicles that are potentially weapons of mass destruction. First of all, there is no requirement that they have to speak or read English. Yeah, English - the language which thank God we still use on street and highway signs in the United States, so when the message on the roadside says, "Prepare to stop ahead," there is no guarantee that our Mexican friend is not stepping on the gas instead.

In addition, there are virtually no controls in place to protect Americans from untrained or incompetent drivers. All that seems to matter to the president is creating a class of what can only be called "guest workers."

As Rep. Pete DeFazio, D-Calif., said, "This administration is hell-bent on opening our borders." DeFazio - who you may recall helped lead the fight to stop Dubai Ports World from running our major national port terminals - has been pursuing a legislative fix for months to protect us from the president's agenda.

With DeFazio's help, the House of Representatives passed the Safe American Roads Act of 2007 by an overwhelming and bipartisan vote of 411-3 way back in May. That would have mandated, at minimum, that Mexican drivers and carriers be required to meet the same standards of safety and excellence that we demand of our own drivers.

Unfortunately, for some reason known only to the power brokers in Washington, the Democratic-controlled Senate committee on commerce and transportation bowed to White House pressure not to hold hearings on the bill, thus effectively killing it. The provision is now part of the transportation appropriations bill for 2008, but there is no guarantee it will survive the legislative process.

Meanwhile, you have no assurance that the Mexican truck drivers are not convicted criminals or drug users. You have no way of knowing whether they have good driving records, and of course you have no way of knowing that they are not working for al-Qaida.

Considering the president's vaunted record in protecting us from terrorism, that is a particularly inexplicable blind spot. Of all presidents, you would think he would be worried about preventing explosives, nuclear material or chemical weapons from being shipped into our country, but that does not seem to be the case.

And thanks to the ever-troublesome Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, there are 10 or so FAST/express border crossing points where Mexican trucks will be able to enter the United States in as little as 15 seconds. No need to inspect those trucks for pesky drugs or weapons. The important thing is to keep the wheels of commerce rolling. American jobs, safety and security do not matter.

Maybe the president of Mexico knew what he was talking about last week when he said, "Mexico does not end at its borders," and planted a red, white and green flag in the heartland of the United States when he declared, "Where there is a Mexican, there is Mexico."

Kris Kristofferson wrote in "Me and Bobby McGee" that "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose." He was talking about the "freedom" you get when you opt to let your true love walk out the door, but he might as well be talking about sovereignty.

These days, we in America might want to start singing the new workingman's blues: Globalization's just another word for nothing left to lose." Kiss your wages good-bye. Kiss your jobs good-bye. "Nothin' ain't worth nothin' but it's free."