Vision - March 2009 - (Page 2) Shapiro’S Spectrum on the consumer electronics horizon 2007 and was blocked in the Senate. It is expected to pass the House along party lines and also may pass the Senate. President Obama said he supports it and will sign this proposal into law. On free trade, the outlook also is dim. Unions have vowed to block free trade pacts and are seeking protectionism in the form of new tariffs, blocks on imports from countries that do not meet U.S. ideals for worker rights and other proposals that would eliminate imports. And while President Obama has shifted from the primary anti-NAFTA rhetoric, he has appointed a UAW employee as a top trade official. CEA is fighting these trends and sadly it is too often alone. We were the only major association to not support last fall’s bailouts when industries and the public begged politicians to take action. Former CEA Chairman Congressman Darrell Issa led the opposition in Congress. No one in Congress now can state how this $300 billion expenditure has helped anyone but some highly paid executives. And while interest groups in Washington clamor for handouts, CEA is again unique in standing back. The only parts of the stimulus package CEA will support are national investments in education and broadband, whose benefits accrue to our national future and to all Americans. CEA is so principled on government spending that it twice refused to support the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for the $40 DTV converter box coupons for consumers. On the card check and the free trade issues, other tech associations and the big company representatives have refused to engage despite big company CEOs being passionate about the issue. If you believe that these issues matter to the future of the nation and our industry, this is the time to engage. Write your newspaper. Post on a blog. Give to the CEAPAC. Raise these concerns with politicians. We are heading down dangerous paths, and even the silent will be guilty and suffer. • www.ce.org Why Business Must Engage Differently I n 2007 in this column, I urged you to prepare for an economic crisis caused by Americans getting mortgages for homes they could not pay back. This time, I urge you to consider that our political leaders may be choosing to fix a sick economy with medicine that will do more harm than good. First, massive deficit spending will burden us for generations. We now spend $500 billion in interest payments on the debt each year. This is with historically low interest rates. When foreign investors start balking at buying our debt, interest rates will rise. The deflationary period we are enjoying will reverse. We will have higher interest rates, inflation and limited growth as we struggle to pay our national debt. The rising debt also will weaken the dollar as investors move to more stable nations. As if the national economic crisis is march/april 2009 not enough, the twin towers of the union agenda will strangle our nation. The unions have given almost half a billion dollars in political contributions and expect payback from the Administration and Congress on card check and trade restrictions. Card check is a change in the law to allow immediate unionization if a majority of workers sign a petition or cards. No private vote is required. Worse, it requires a government arbitrator to set working conditions days after the union and management can’t come to terms. This crazy proposal passed the House in 2 Colin Anderson/Getty Images http://www.ce.org
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