Fact-checking Trump on trade agreements

In his Feb. 13 letter in the Post Independent, (“Trump keeps promises against all odds”) Bruno Kirchenwitz stated, “Trump has overseen three momentous deals with our largest trading partners.”

U.S.-Korea Free Trade Agreement (KORUS FTA): According to Vox, “KORUS has been around since 2012. But the new version removes a few regulatory burdens for U.S. automakers to export cars, extends a 25 percent U.S. tariff on imported Korean trucks, and lifts a cap on U.S. car exports to South Korea that don’t need to meet Korean safety standards (caps that American automakers weren’t anywhere close to reaching).”

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Our two lowest trading deficits with South Korea were 2012, the year the original KORUS went into effect, and 2018, the year prior to the effective date (Jan. 1, 2019) of the revised KORUS.

Trump called the original KORUS a “horrible deal.” After a few modest changes it was a “very big deal.”

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U.S.-China Trade Agreement: Politico News stated, “The deal simply restores the U.S.-China relationship to where it was pre-President Donald Trump, declares victory in areas that don’t matter as much as they did and has cost the U.S. billions in the meantime.”

U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA): Trump promoted USMCA as a complete overhaul to replace the “NAFTA nightmare.” “USMCA is 95 percent the existing NAFTA agreement,” said Jacob Kirkegaard, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “There are provisions in there that cover things like e-commerce and digital services, but with regard to the manufacturing sector, for instance, there’s very little change.” “He didn’t get much, he got to rename it,” Kirkegaard said.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, described the new North American deal as a “tweak” to the original. “It’s more marketing there,” he said.

So, there are the facts. According to the Pew Research Center, 70% of Republicans think fact-checkers tend to favor one side, compared with 30% of Democrats.

Kirk Huyser
Glenwood Springs

Main Street America needs Sen. Sanders in the White House

Dick Polman, syndicated columnist, has joined the corporate media’s war on the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Polman’s column in the Post Independent, (“In New Hampshire, Bernie underwhelmed the Democrats,” Feb. 15) is typical of the propaganda being spewed by the corporate media around the country. Polman and the rest of the corporate news media are pressuring the Democratic Party to choose, not elect, a nominee right now. They want the Democratic Party’s Democratic National Committee (DNC) to make a back room deal on a current moderate candidate as their nominee and kick Sen. Sanders to the curb. The corporate media does not want the primary process to do its job.

I fear that the DNC will pick billionaire Michael Bloomberg of New York as their nominee. The last thing that Main Street America needs is another Wall Street president. We don’t need another Trump in the White House!

The corporate media’s socialist tag that they place on Bernie is unfair. Programs such as Medicare-for-All, $15 an hour minimum wage, child care benefits, free college tuition, and others are not socialist or radical. These are benefits that all Americans need today. Only the corporate media and the old political establishment consider these programs socialist or radical. Many other developed countries around the world have these programs. Main Street Americans cannot afford to live in the wealthy 1% economy. It is the wealthy 1% economy that has created one of the highest levels of inequality in the world. So, these elitist establishment columnists and reporters of the corporate news media are extremely out of touch with Main Street America. They have no idea how badly Main Street Americans are hurting. Sen. Sanders understands this more than any other candidate.

Many Americans are beginning to understand that Sen. Sanders is above labels and party politics. He is a candidate for the people. This is why Main Street America needs Sen. Sanders in the White House.

Randy Fricke,
New Castle