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Musgrove blasts trade agreements |
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Saturday, 20 September 2008 |
By PAUL SIMS
Starkville Daily News
Former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove made a stop in Starkville Friday afternoon and took exception to trade agreements which he says cost Mississippians jobs.
Musgrove and U.S. Sen. Wicker, a former First District congressman who was appointed to the Senate with the U.S. Sen. Trent Lott’s departure from the seat last year, are locked in a battle to earn the right to finish out Lott’s remaining term.
“Across the state there have been concerns that people have had about the loss of jobs, the high unemployment rate as a result of the bad trade agreements,” he said, listing NAFTA, CAFTA and others. “Roger Wicker and his special interest allies in Washington have written these trade agreements for the benefit of special interests.”
“It’s time we started standing up for our people and our workers in Mississippi,” Musgrove said. “I believe that we can have fair trade agreements for our farmers, our exporters and our manufacturers.”
“You can negotiate these free trade agreements where we get an equal benefit for our country,” Musgrove said. “Keep the worker as a priority. Right now our workers are being squeezed at the gas pumps, at the grocery stores and their pay and income remained about the same over the last several years.”
“... In many instances the reward they get for working at the furniture plant for years and years is for the plant to be closed, cheap furniture made in Asia and unemployment checks” which don’t cover bills, he said.
The current unemployment rate in the state is 8.5 percent, almost 3 points higher than when he left the governor’s office, Musgrove said.
Musgrove said “Roger Wicker and his special interests have brought us more bad news this week with the economic condition on Wall Street.” “ ... You can tell there’s a genuine concern that people have for what they perceive as the biggest financial mess that they can remember.”
“Congress ... threw out the rule book and let Wall Street run wild with no standards and no accountability. As a result, the greedy tycoons on Wall Street have bilked Americans out of hundreds of billions of dollars. And now they want the hard-working taxpayers of America to bail them out,” Musgrove said.
Musgrove says Wicker had a chance to vote on reforming subprime and mortgage lending “and he voted against it. That is not standing up for our people, and today you see the financial condition that Wall Street is in,” he said.
“It’s time for us to start saying ‘no’ to the special interests,” Musgrove said.
“ ... If we have to – because of our economy – help some of these Wall Street financial institutions, then they need to play by our rules,” he said. “If any CEO of any of these companies that we have to assist” has been receiving “tens of millions of dollars in bonuses shouldn’t get a penny.”
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Last Updated ( Sunday, 21 September 2008 )
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