Back in the 90's I was extremely upset with the Clinton Administration for their pushing of the NAFTA agreement. You see, I was an engineer that designed large electric motors in the range from 1 horsepower to 15,000 horsepower. The company that I will not name was and is one of the worlds largest electrical manufacturers, employing hundreds of thousands worldwide.
That was and is an industry under intense pressure from extremely low price (low quality) foreign imports. I worked as a development engineer, and the focus of my position was two fold. One was to oversee complete redesign of our product lines to meet energy efficiency standards mandated by legislation called EPAct, short for Energy Policy Act of 1992. The other was cost reduction, necessary to keep our factories (3 that I was responsible for) competitive with overseas competition.
This was an extremely difficult task because the two goals are contrary to each other. Higher efficiency required higher quality (more expensive) electrical steel used to manufacture rotor and stator cores. It required more steel to keep magnetic flux densities down. And it required larger cross section copper conductors, (more weight of an expensive material). The challenges and the pressure from upper management was so intense, I am walking around today with many grey hairs and stomach problems that I'm sure can in part be attributed to the high level of stress I endured over those years.
The largest reason for the stress resulted from an edict given by upper management that unless I was unable to meet the goals for energy efficiency and cost reduction, two of our factories in the US were going to be closed and the equipment and manufacturing would be moved to Mexico. So, you see, I felt the weight on my shoulders of all those thousands of American workers who's livelihood and families depended upon the jobs they had. I worked day and night, analyzing performance shortcomings in our current products. Analyzing the cost of every single part and manufacturing process. Designing, redesigning, and redesigning again, and again, and again - trying to meet the goals.
Not only did I meet the goals stated for my projects I exceeded them. In fact I was given awards by my company, wined and dined by executives that most workers never even get a passing glimpse at. I was sent on nice tropical vacations with my wife at boondoggle meetings and conferences. Life was good indeed!
However, at this time, the NAFTA debate was raging away, and the agreement ultimately passed. So within my company, the Harvard MBA's went to work. They were just pissing themselves with glee. They could take my product lines (which I thought were going to save American jobs) and ship them to Mexico to be manufactured anyway. The savings would be twofold. It was going to be a windfall for the company. I sat in the meetings with the companies top executives and what I learned is that they don't give one shit about workers and families. One meeting was held in Guadalajara Mexico, at the plant where some of the manufacturing was to be moved. I remember the new building construction that was going on at the time. There were bulldozers, front end loaders, etc, all sitting around while hundreds of Mexican workers dug holes for the foundations using picks and shovels. I couldn't believe it. I asked about it and one of our German executives commented that, there is so much cheap labor to he had here, if we started using those machines, there would be riots in the street. He added that your American politicians have sold your citizens a bill of goods. He said they are promising that wages will rise, and workers here will be able to buy your goods. That is fantasy. He said that the world has literally an INFINITE supply of cheap labor. If wages rise here, the manufacturing will be moved yet somewhere else. YOU WILL NEVER SEE WAGES RISE... I was shocked by the attitude but not surprised.
I tell this story because it explains why I have NO LOVE for the Clintons. And I especially hated Al Gore - specifically after his debate with Perot on Larry King Live. I didn't give a damn that Ken Star was being unfair to Bill Clinton. And I shed no tears when Al Gore was "beat" by G W Bush. I simply hated them all, because I had to deal with the tears and fears of all those folks at my company who lost their jobs at the hands of NAFTA. It was a life changing experience to watch them get pink slipped group by group until the factories were empty.
Fast forward to 2008. Obama is trying to pin the NAFTA thing on to Hillary Clinton with his mailers, and with this from last night's debate
SEN. OBAMA: Well, I think what is absolutely true is, is that when Senator Clinton continually talks about her experience, she is including the eight years that she served as first lady, and you know, often says, you know, "Here's what I did."
"Here's what we did." "Here's what we accomplished" -- which is fine.And I have not -- I have not in any way said that that experience is not relevant, and I don't begrudge her claiming that as experience. What I've said, and what I would continue to maintain, is you can't take credit for all the good things that happened but then, when it comes to issues like NAFTA, you say, well, I -- behind the scenes, I was disagreeing. That doesn't work. So you have to, I think, take both responsibility as well as credit.
That got me thinking. That was Bill's presidency, not Hillary's. How do we know what went on behind closed doors? Is it fair to shackle Hillary with everything that Bill did in his term as president? I wonder...
Then I saw this on CNN, and I decided that maybe I should take her at her word...
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