They were the stupid years, what they were doing was incredible,
NAFTA, one of the world's worst trade deals ever, I know a couple of others
we've been involved in them too.
By erecting tariffs and threatening to tear up free trade agreements,
President Donald Trump has done more to advance one of the left's long standing policy goals
than any other modern President.
And he also sounds a lot like some of the Democratic candidates
that are running to unseat him in the next election.
Bernie Sanders sill brags about how he opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement
when it was ratified by Congress in 1994.
In 2011, the Vermont Senator even went after the Smithsonian Institution
for selling Chinese made toys.
We should not be selling statues of the founding fathers of this country
and have them made in China.
From the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle in 1999 to the 2016 campaign trail,
The left has traditionally opposed free trade on the grounds that it hurts American workers.
I hope in fact, all across the board, we begin to focus on rebuilding our manufacturing sector
so that we create millions of jobs in products made in the United States.
But it's Donald Trump who has made at least some of those dreams come true.
We're asking Bernie Sanders voters to join our movement.
This creates a conundrum:
the Democrats running for office in 2020 can't say that they like what Trump is doing
but they're also not really willing to criticize his trade war.
Your approach to trade with China is very similar to the President's.
No it is not.
He's talking about how we're getting ripped of left and right on trade.
And I think you know I can take that paragraph and just use it in my speeches
since what I'm saying it's one of my big things.
US trade policy has delivered one punch in the gut after another.
Trump and anti-trade Democrats fail to grasp that nations don't really trade with one another at all.
Individuals and corporations do,
and sometimes those individuals and corporations
want to buy or sell something to someone in another country.
And trade is the source of our wealth,
since 1950, international trade boosted Americans' per household income
by about 18 thousand dollars.
And the gains flowed dis-proportionally to lower income households.
If they can save a nickel by moving a job to Mexico, they'll do it in a heartbeat.
Elizabeth is absolutely right,
for anybody here that thinks that corporate America
gives one damn about the average American worker, you're mistaken.
But American manufacturing jobs peaked at about 20 million in 1979.
That's 15 years before NAFTA.
Until bottoming out at 11.4 million in 2011.
The reason for that decline isn't shifting jobs overseas, it's automation.
Manufacturing output has doubled since the mid 1980s.
America makes more stuff than ever, our factories just don't require as many workers as they once did.
Even supposedly centrist candidates like Senator Kamala Harris
have shifted into protectionist mode.
In an interview with Jake Tapper in May,
Harris said she wouldn't have voted for NAFTA if she'd been in the Senate when it passed.
I believe that we have got to have policy
that better protects American workers and American industries.
Harris did criticize Trump's use of tariffs,
calling the President's habit of conducting trade policy,
economic policy, foreign policy by tweet 'irresponsible.'
But that really drives home my point.
Democrats seem happy to criticize Trump's haphazard handling of the trade war.
But many of the 2020 candidates are at least tacitly endorsing the same protectionist views.
Even Joe Biden, once a pro trade Democrat,
is now backing away from his record for fear of upsetting the progressive left.
I would not rejoin the TTP as it was initially put forward.
The Democrats are essentially arguing
that all we need is a more competent protectionist in the White House.
I think Trump gets it wrong in terms of implementation.
But there's no way to correctly implement a policy
that stops individuals from freely exchanging goods and services
just because they live in different countries.
Thanks to President Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders' vision
of restricting our ability to peacefully trade with one another has become policy.
And that's a catastrophe for all Americans.