Ya know that meager, token Buy American clause in the Stimulus? Well, surprise, surprise, of course they are still out to kill it. So here comes Canada, now seeking an exemption in order to bid on U.S. contracts.
In USTR Kirk: Deal With Canada On 'Buy American' Not Yet Sealed, of course our U.S. trade representative is trying to subvert a clause passed by Congress and ship U.S. taxpayer stimulus money off to Canada, instead of U.S. manufacturers. It appears the new plan is to just give U.S. manufacturers priority, uh huh in contract bids.
"We don't have it nailed down, but I'm going to talking with (Canada's International Trade) Minister (Stockwell) Day this afternoon on another matter," U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk told reporters after a delivering a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. "But they have presented us what they think might be a resolution that would allow them to more fully engage in this market. We're working very collaboratively."
Kirk's comments come after the CBC reported that a pact to exempt Canada from the controversial Buy American provision is imminent. The report, which cited Canadian government sources, said the agreement would provide U.S. companies access to business with Canadian provinces and municipalities.
The provision is deeply unpopular north of the border, where businesses complain that they don't have access to contracts funded with stimulus dollars.
Remember that the entire idea of the Stimulus was to give U.S. government contracts to U.S. companies so supposedly that money would trickle down and hire U.S. workers?
Well, what I want to know is since we are giving away our tax dollars to Canada instead, does this mean I can drive up to Canada and receive some decent health care for free?
Not a bad idea.
How about displaced workers get to enroll in Canadian health care system? F*ck it! How about a trade agreement that allows all of us to get Canadian health care?
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
no kidding
I'd even pay into their system at their cost rates per person. Now *that* would be one hell of a good trade deal. ;)
You know that entire BS about wait times? I made an appointment with a specialist. The wait time is 6 months out! That's 4 months longer than Canada.
Trying to find a primary care Doctor....gee wiz, they are not accepting new patients. Others ask to run a credit check on you and I discovered many refuse to deal with anyone at all on Medicaid (esp) as well as Medicare!
(I'm not on either, I have regular good old fashioned insurance, this is just the wait times for that).
Robert, I apologize ahead of time.
For injecting politics into website. But I have to say:
Have at Congressman Alan Grayson: Don't apologize to anyone for saying the truth. Maybe, all wimpy-ass Dems should take note.
Grayson Not Backing Down
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Alan Grayson
Can we get this guy to run for US Senate? The current Florida senate race is full of special interest money. Grayson at least holds the Fed's feet to the fire and demands information Uncle Ben is reluctant to provide.
Frank T.
Frank T.
So in CA race as I understand it
Boxer's seat. Many it's a choice between worse and worser.
Two Senators to really watch their floor speeches are Byron Dorgan and Bernie Sanders. They don't mince words either, although they give a lot of statistics and facts, also with sardonic wit.
I mean Grayson did this one almost as a "in your face and that's too bad" speech and after the Senate finance committee farce, kind of can't blame him.
Peter Defazio literally said, loudly, "that's bullshit!" on the House floor when the original bail out via Hank Paulson and Bernanke was voted on.
I mean considering the state of health care in this country, I think they should have way more Reps. plain coming out and saying "you're killing people" but to the health insurance lobbyists themselves and....any Sen./Rep. who votes for them.
Rep. Grayson, this is a scream!
Although I would claim this is also many Democrats plan as well. But too good and he's getting a bunch of crap over this which is pretty ridiculous considering all of the floor speeches about the government going to kill old people. If they can say that, he can say this:
and then gets even better, Republicans demanded an apology, so he gave 'em one. ;) (of course this can be also said of some Democrats)
Holy crap!
You posted before just before me. So I withdraw my apology.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
my only issue with this
is it's too partisan but then again, on health care as far as I can tell, they are just trying to block it, not do anything that could actually work....
but I love it....I mean is there anything more obvious that health care in terms of corporate lobbyists running the show and killing bills?
(Although I do blame some Democrats on the entire illegal immigrant issue, if they had just passed those amendments it wouldn't have become so large and 83% of all Americans don't want to foot the bill for people just border jumping...obvious answer is to stop people from border hopping in the first place but ya know, that really mucked up the Dem position frankly, there are a few others they did which they should have just fixed to get everybody covered and kill the insurance company strangle hold, i.e. eye off the ball as usual).