Pelosi's $335 MILLION STD Prevention = 55.8% rise in syphillis cases in San Francisco. Good job Nancy!

Pelosi wrote in a $335 million provision for the STD Prevention clause to the unethical bailouts.

According to the smug mental midgets on the left:

"Some reasons that increased funding for STD prevention specifically will ultimately save the United States money:
– Increase workforce productivity. More than 56,000 people become infected with HIV/AIDS each year. The CDC estimates that the new infections cost the country $56 billion in medical care and lost productivity.
– Lower health industry costs. STDs, some of the most preventable diseases, cost the U.S. health care system as much as $15.3 billion annually.
– Lower federal government costs. The federal government is expected to spend $12.3 billion on HIV/AIDS-related medical care in 2009."
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/28/drudge-std/

Let's see how well this worked out for San Francisco...

"San Francisco health officials reported an alarming increase in new syphilis cases last year after years of declines."

Wait. Why such an expensive provision in the first place if STD's were already on the decline. You can go to Planned Parenthood to get this information and free condoms. We already subsidize that.

The Center for Disease control and Prevention already has the scoop on how to prevent STD's. Why did Pelosi feel as if she needed to spend more money at a "problem" to begin with?

http://www.cdc.gov/std/syphilis/STDFact-Syphilis.htm#symptoms


So this was the outcome of the spending...

"New syphilis cases rose 55.8 percent in 2008 over the previous year, San Francisco public health officials reported."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/12/05/BALT1AMKLJ.DTL

DID PELOSI EMBEZZLE THE MONEY? WHY THE HORRIBLE RESULT?

So basically, the more money we give to Pelosi for her STD Prevention, the more people will end up with STD's in her own district. This causes me to fear what the result of Obama's Healthcare reform will be. Now the taxpayers will be stuck paying for the reckless behavior of STD infected San Francisco idiots.

Although it's only .03% of the useless bailout, that $335 million could have been spent on interest to China, it could have been spent on helping people who have lost homes, it could have been spent to help those that lost their jobs due to the subprime collapse.

PELOSI--->SHAME ON YOU!

Here are the idiots who voted for the bailout with the $335 million STD prevention

ROLL CALL FOR THE BAILOUT VOTE!
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=111&session=1&vote=00005

Remember, John Dennis is running against Pelosi in 2010 in the 8th District of California, which is otherwise known as San Franciso.
SF, you have no excuses this time!! VOTE PELOSI OUT!!

Audit the Fed? Sure but is it enough?

Months ago Alan Grayson asked Bernanke which foreign banks got a $500 billion loan. Bernanke replied, "I don't know".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n0NYBTkE1yQ
http://www.newsweek.com/id/161199

Did somebody really make an electronic run on the banks?

Of course audit the Fed.

But my problem is that auditing the Fed is not going to be enough. It takes too much pressure off of the President, Congress and the Senate for their own conflicts of interests, aka. special interests and lobbyists who work against American citizens. Auditing the Fed is not necessarily a red herring, it's only part of the problem.

Look, the American citizens gave Uncle Sam $1.34 trillion in income taxes in 2007. Corporate America gave Uncle Sam a lousy $300 billion plus BRIBES that year. They got preference because the bribes went straight to the legislators.

If Americans wanted to change things for the better, we have to address the context of bribery and a conflict of interest and limit that with our politicians. We are entitled to our representation, everyone on Capitol Hill should be sued for going against their contracts.

Why haven't Fuld and Mozillo been placed on trail YET? We need Congress to testify, we also need Dubya, Paulson and Bernanke to testify.

The employment/population growth dropped a staggering 60% in the last decade, which is why so many people foreclosed on their homes to begin with. (see table at the bottom of "Jobless Recovery" on Wikipedia) Guess what? A lack of jobs creates foreclosures. Gen Y is most adversely affected by these statistics and without jobs (less inflation) Gen Y doesn't have the capacity to lessen the fiscal burden to bail out criminals and foreign banks.

There are so many things that we need to nail our legislators for. Save America, Bomb K Street i say! (K Street in Washington D.C. is a major hub for lobbyists).

Barney Frank pushes TARP on Steroids

Resolution Authority for Large, Interconnected Financial Companies Act of 2009, see section XII

Or the piece of shit legislation that's too long for an acronym. THis is giving banks even more cushion to fall on everytime they mess up. Volcker calls it "TARP on STeroids".

http://www.house.gov/apps/list/hearing/financialsvcs_dem/miron_testimony.pdf ...
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/financialsvcs_dem/presstitleone_102709.shtml
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/24/volcker-too-big-to-fail-s_n_298429.html

So none of the Wall Street Tycoons have been sent to the Slammer. They're not on house arrest, not in jail... they're probably floating their funds offshore and doing everything before the uprising.

But while our government is taking out taxpayer dollars to save their hides, they're enacting legislation that will permanently make taxpayers liable to the screw up bank CEO criminal tycoons as they ruin our financial system.

Barney Frank and Chris Dodd needs a lobotomy. The idiots in Congress needs to go on trial. I wish I had the resources to start a "People vs. the Government" suit.

So the FBI is "investigating"? This problem was created by our government. Phil Gramm (Deregulation- other faulty legislation that enabled the crimes to occur), Christopher Cox (Securities Exchange Commission-see items ie. Rule 10b-21 which is a corrupt way to use legislative authorities backed by the US Government), Robert Pickel (International Swaps and Derivatives Association), Gary Gensler (Commodities Futures Trading Commission), Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke are all Government officials that need to be in prison for causing the Greatest Financial Scandal in the History of the World. Congress is an accomplice.

Government was the enabler. And of course Barney Frank is "staying the course". Massachussets, please vote him out.



Andrew Jackson's Bank Veto discusses his concerns about concentration of power and the abuses within.

BABY BOOMER SPECIAL---GENERATIONAL THEFT= EPIC DISASTER

The generational groups have been labeled for marketing purposes, yet they're also most valuable for political purposes.

I wanted to dedicate an entire blog just for the Baby Boomers in light of America's disaster economy as of late. The group hated wars and loved collectivist solutions to our country's problems. We don't have a battle between political parties. The collectivist Boomers voted in collective anarchists under the guise of the Republican Party, so there is no republican party. We have an overwhelming democratic majority in Congress and an administration which has a very low approval rating.

The Boomers have an overwhelming voter base in this country. This is notable because they as a group have the ultimate say in what gets voted into office and who gets voted out. This can either work in our favor or work against us. Unfortnately in the last decade this trend has worked against the younger generations. I'll elaborate.

For the years 1940-1994, inclusive, 202 million Americans were born; about 77% of all Americans now living were born after 1939. During the baby boomer years, 1946-1964 (inclusive), 75.8 million Americans were born. The ratio of males to females has stayed relatively constant. There were approximately 1.05 male births for every one female birth.

"Every 7 Seconds"

I believe it was Bill Geist who noted first (in 1997) in his book "The Big 5-Oh" that another boomer turns 50 every 7 seconds. Whew! Is that possible? Well, you don't have to be a math major to check it out. Let's look at 50 years ago - 1959 - when 4,245,000 boomers were born. Now, I suppose that some of them have not made it this far, so let's round it down to 4,000,000. (That's just my estimate, but it is close enough for my purposes here.) So, a bit more than 4,000,000 will turn 50 in 2009. Let's see how that breaks down:

per year: 4,000,000
per day (4.0 mil / 365): 10,958
per hour (10.6 k / 24): 456
per minute (456 / 60): 7.1


And 7.1 per minute amounts to one every 8.5 seconds.

http://www.bbhq.com/bomrstat.htm


Now let's evalueate this situation.

Back in the days when Boomers became young adults;
-A single earner household could afford a mortgage, a car and to raise a family and save money without a college degree.
-Young adults refused to live with the "squares" and moved out, choosing to live in cheap apartments with their own cars they could afford on the REAL WAGES then.

Since then;
-the cost of living skyrocketed.
-families are no longer cohesive.
-the majority of this country's poor consist of single mother households. (libertarians aka. Mises are misogynists, and this is the reason why I'm not a libertarian. Women should be encouraged to enter the workforce with competative skills, not receiving welfare)
-living standards went down because the muscle determining our economic policies don't come from scholastic economists who work for our country; they come from politicians who take bribes from bureaucrats who are only interested in short term gains and monopolizations for themselves via. cheating at the expense of the taxpayer.
-real wages went down due to Outsourcing and Offshoring.
-The Boomers were really the last group of middle class earners that could save and afford a legitimate mortgage. Therefore most of the Primary owners of Real Estate are Boomers. Many made up the speculative, flippers who took out ARM loans to purposely inflate the price of real estate. Therefore, the price of real estate was unaffordable to the masses with w legitimate mortgage on our REAL WAGES.
-nobody in the Boomer group has shown any disapproval with the bailouts, the fraud in the subprime crisis, generational theft, outsourcing, offshoring, the federal deficit, the Halliburton scandal, etc. Although they want to preach government control over everything. They have the voting power to make it possible.
-illegal immigration increased more than tenfold. Our fiscal budgets can't handle this, over 80 hospitals closed in California alone due to the high cost of illegal immigration.
-the bailouts/collapse of the subprime market demonstrates that the Boomer generation as a whole learned nothing from the S&L Crisis. The greatest financial scandal in the history of the world happened under the Boomer watch.
-Instead of using their political/voting/investing powers to work, the Boomers instead chose to allow their elected politicians to take taxpayer dollars to bailout the bad CEO's. The anger is nothing more than theatrics. They vote with their wallets. Many people in general are nieve on how financial engineering works. Without a job market, there's nobody to pay off a krappy ARM Mortgage to inflate demand and prices on a house.
REGRESSIVE TAXATION:
-During a bad economy when the banks are still refusing to lend money, during a nasty economic contraction the boomer elected politicians want to hinder personal finances, consumer spending power, savings (for investments) and business expenses by imposing a hefty tax called a Cap and Trade policy.
-How in the world do pot/hash/crack/opium smoking, coke/meth sniffing Boomers get the audacity to increase the drinking age and impose regressive taxation on smokers? Again, these policies are imposed by Boomer elected politicians!! They're not taxing the rich, they're punishing people for being born without a silver spoon.
GOVERNMENT FISCAL INCOMPETANCE
The government lost social security. We have to feel for the Boomers on this one. HOWEVER-this is exactly what the Boomers decided to do about it.
1. 401K's, IRA's and other various retirement accounts. That's what I specialize in. The Dot com was a hit but after vesters were bled dry, they decided to speculate in derivatives/real estate.
2. Instead of calling out the government for mismanaging THEIR money (like the Boomers have the power to do); they instead choose to bailout the bad banks and criminals; impose a stimulus and put our fiscal situation at the mercy of foreign entities (ie. CHINA).
3. Now the Boomers want people like Pelosi (who can't even count) to regulate their healthcare and their retirement pension accounts.

Here's a quote from WikiInvest about Generational theft,

Impact on Medicare and Social Security
Most immediately, the Boomers will begin to draw government benefits such as Social Security and Medicare. Both entitlement programs will be exceedingly costly. In 2006, Social Security cost U.S. taxpayers about 4.2% of GDP, or approximately $554 billion. This figure is expected to increase to 6.2% of GDP by 2030, and to continue rising.

Meanwhile, the potential long-term costs of Medicare are even more severe. Currently, Medicare costs U.S. taxpayers about $230 billion per year, or 3.1% of GDP. However, these figures are expected to rise dramatically over the next 20 years as more Boomers pass age 75. In fact, government analysts estimate that by 2018, Medicare will have surpassed Social Security in terms of its annual cost.

Given these figures, the Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees stated in their 2007 Annual Report that, “…currently projected long-run growth rates [for the programs] are not sustainable under current financing arrangements.” Translation: Either long-term-benefits must decrease, or taxes must increase if benefits are to continue at their current levels.

Dependence on Foreign Countries
This quandary poses several difficulties for the U.S. government and for taxpayers. If current budget deficit levels persist, the federal government will be forced to pay for Social Security and Medicare by issuing new debt in the form of U.S. Treasury bonds. While this may lend long-term support to the price of the U.S. dollar, it will also allow foreign buyers—mostly Chinese and Japanese—to exert greater control over long-term U.S. interest rates.

Such a situation could become precarious if foreign buyers perceive that Treasuries no longer represent the best investment for their export-driven foreign currency reserves. For example, if euro-denominated government bonds become more attractive on a long-term basis, foreign buyers may liquidate Treasuries in large numbers, in which case long-term U.S. interest rates would soar. The resulting impact on U.S. credit and real estate markets could be severe.

Labor Burden on Younger Workers
For taxpayers, the Boomers’ retirement means that younger workers will have to bear a much larger burden in order to support the burgeoning ranks of retirees. Currently, there are 3.3 U.S. workers to support each retiree, but by 2030, this number will fall to only two. Given the political clout that seniors have and are likely to retain in the future, an increase in payroll taxes to support the Boomers’ needs seems entirely plausible. Extrapolated over a 10 to 20-year period, such an increase could represent a significant drag on U.S. economic growth. While increases in per-worker productivity may offset some of this burden, it remains to be seen how the U.S. will deal with what is arguably one of the most difficult financial burdens it has ever faced.

The investment advice given regarding the Boomer population are as follows:

Carnival Cruise Lines (CCL) and Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL) stand to benefit from an increase in senior traffic, as both derive a large percentage of their income from passengers over 55. Royal Caribbean in particular has more than doubled its market capitalization in the last five years, and may continue to benefit as more seniors gravitate toward warmer-weather vacations. Retirement means more time to one’s self, and for many Boomers, that means time to travel. This is the generation of Woodstock and Timothy Leary; they have an expansive worldview and enjoy extending their horizons.
Merck (MRK) and Pfizer (PFE) are pharmaceutical giants that will almost certainly benefit as seniors require more prescriptions and Medicare coverage is expanded. Advanced Medical Optics (EYE), which manufactures products for cataract surgery, laser vision correction, and contact lens care, stands to benefit as well.
Walgreen Company (WAG), Rite Aid (RAD), CVS (CVS) are retail drugstores where senior citizens purchase their drugs.
NBTY (NTY), Leiner Health Products, and Nature's Sunshine Products (NATR) are nutritional supplements manufacturers. As an increasing number of senior citizens consume more healthcare dollars, many of these elderly consumers will also consume more preventive medicines, including the dietary supplements.
AmerisourceBergen Corporation (Holding Co) (ABC), Cardinal Health (CAH), and McKesson (MCK) are wholesalers who distribute branded and generic drugs to pharmacies, where senior citizens purchase their drugs.
Affordable Residential Communities (ARC), which manages more than 350 senior living communities nationwide, has seen solid appreciation over the last five years as analysts anticipate strong growth in demand for senior housing.
Brookdale Senior Living (BKD) offers senior living facilities which cater to independent and assisted living seniors. They also have been selected to assist in many elderly housing expansion projects.
Merrill Lynch (MER), Charles Schwab (SCHW), Principal Financial Group (PFG), and MetLife (MET), all of which have invested substantial resources in developing their retirement services, will likely reap large rewards as retirement assets under management grow over the next decade. For many Boomers, retirement will require specialized financial planning as life expectancies expand and estate planning becomes more complex.
BlackRock (BLK), Goldman Sachs Group (GS), and Lehman Brothers Fin SA (LEH) all manage pension funds for large institutional investors and will likely benefit as companies are forced to commit more capital toward funding their pension obligations.
Stryker (SYK) offers surgical drills, saws, rasps and even cement mixers. Orthopaedic Implants segment manufactures replacement joints, spinal rods, screws, as well as many other implants. Stryker also offers rehabilitation services in over 31 states. Zimmer Holdings (ZMH) offers similar services.
Stericycle collects and disposes of medical waste. An aging population uses more medical services than a younger population and consequently produces more medical waste for companies like Stericycle.

And to end this blog, it seems like the market anymore is the thieving of not just money, but debt and interest. The World Factbook noted that the net worth of America is around $50 trillion dollars, take or give $20 trillion for market/dollar value fluctuations. The projected burden on our country for Boomer Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid is $50 trillion. That's before the stimulus, the omnibus, the current federal deficit, the probably need for military defense, welfare, interest payables on our treasuries and many other administrative expenses.

Just food for thought. We need to get our Boomers aware of their power in our country at this time. I pray that they are on our side in fixing our country's problems instead of robbing future generations of opportunities and a quality of life they might deserve.

RON KIRK FOR THE WIN!!!

This Cabinet rookie is starting as a fiscal wide receiver who took the ball and decided to run for the 5 yard line against Team China. The referee, the WTO is a hairy beast of corruption who's working against Team USA. To play against China, we must understand that we have to beat the referees just so we can get our own numbers up on the board.

Obama's cabinet members, ie. Obama, our most inept Congress and Geithner is undermining Kirk's efforts by spending and giving the U.S. more reason to sell treasuries to China. China buys US Treasuries to prop up the dollar above the Yuan to stay competative on trade. So right now, Kirk is making the right plays by addressing the WTO on China's protectionist policies against the U.S. Unfortunately, team USA never gave Kirk pass protection and defensive linemen.

Here is the WTO issue that he's dealing with. I'm posting a vid and the text of the transcript at the bottom of this post.

Personally, if I were Obama, I would have picked a non-politician; preferably a proven expert at international business or anyone in the Microsoft department that implemented and successfully executed the anti-piracy black screen on their Microsoft Vista program.

Ron Kirk is a novice at international trade relations; his primary occupation before politics was law. He's an attorney. The press and "expert economist" SHILLS both muffle out the damage done to our economy due to the massive deficit in the private sector. Metaphorically, these "expert economists" are getting paid to be raped. Big business pimps for short term gains and the smart people have become their whores. The money must be that good to conciously undermine your professional credibility.

So thank god Ron Kirk understands the weight of his position. He is aggressively pursuing a diplomatic, pragmatical and more intellegent resolution in our trade relations with China. Fixing the trade deficit will repair the economy by putting non-interest compounding money supply back into circulation; which is going to work out much better than manipulating federal reserve interest rates and allowing fraudulent derivatives to be sold again in the market.

Even if he's being lobbied and encouraged by big business to address the WTO on grievances, Kirk is doing more for the American people than the 500+ overpaid idiots in our Congress. So for dealing with the WTO, he will deserve every penny if he can pull this off. I'm a fiscal republican who is extremely critical of the Obama Administration and their handling on domestic matters; and I'm giving Ron Kirk 110% of my support.

Maybe we should probably bribe the WTO like China does. Hmmmm--->how do I know that China bribes the WTO? The WTO is working against us and CHina is known to give out bribes. The probably of that happening is very high.

Here are a few issues that he's dealing with.

Ron Kirk is showing America that he wants to win the game.

Here are a few other links to other related trade issues Ron Kirk is addressing:
US Prepared To Take Fresh WTO Action Vs EU Over Airbus Aid

Secretary Gary Locke and USTR Ron Kirk Call on China To Revoke Mandatory Internet Filtering Software


I'm glad to see him addressing the World Trade Organization in this matter. This is exciting, encouraging news.


Transcripts of the press conference: Kirk and the China defense team.

TRANSCRIPT: Press Conference on WTO Case Against China Over Export Restraints on Raw MaterialsAmbassador Kirk: Good morning. Thank you all for joining us. Forgive me for being a few minutes late.

Before I begin my remarks about the subject of our press conference, the mayor in me has to take a moment and express our thoughts and prayers to the families of those who were killed in the horrible train accident yesterday and extend our support to Mayor Fenty and his team as they struggle to work through this tragedy and make some sense of it and learn from it. So our thoughts and prayers are with all those who lost their lives and those who may have been injured.

This morning I have an opportunity to talk to you about a matter that is critically important not just to our mission here at the United States Trade Representative's Office, but also, we believe, to all the businesses that are involved in helping keep America strong by being in the export business which allows them to create important and good jobs here at home.

Now more than ever, trade is essential to keeping America's economy afloat. We know that as a result of the decline in global trade over the last 18 months or so, to its lowest levels since World War II, and we've seen the effect that's had not only on our economy but on economies around the world.

More significantly, 97 percent of America's exporters are small and medium sized businesses that employ millions upon millions of citizens. Many of them are subcontractors to some of the larger companies with whom you may be more familiar.

And jobs dependent on trade in many cases are better-paying jobs that Americans want and desperately need - with salaries that can range from 13 to 18 percent higher than the national average.

Thus access to markets around the world that help us retain and create good-paying jobs are the kind of trade that Americans can support and that President Obama believes is a critical part of our economic recovery.

Thus barriers to trade can slow our ability to recover from this current economic crisis.

The Obama Administration has been clear with our trading partners that we wish to work together to keep global trade flowing and provide economic opportunities for all of our citizens. But we will always, and that's always, expect our trading partners to play by the rules.

Now, our preferred tools of engagement are direct dialogue and discussions to resolve differences as quickly as possible so that we can keep trade flowing efficiently. But there are instances when our talks don't work as well as we would like for them to, and we've always reserved the right to take action. We will enforce the rights of American manufacturers, farmers, ranchers, our services providers, and our workers through the rules-based global trading system at the World Trade Organization.

So today the Obama administration is insisting on the rights of American businesses and workers to a level playing field. Thus we are initiating formal consultations with China in the World Trade Organization, because we see a major problem in one particular area.

The United States believes that China is unfairly restricting exports of raw materials. These actions are hurting American steel, aluminum and chemical manufacturers, among other industries, that desperately need these materials to make their products. These actions also endanger thousands of jobs in America for those employed in these important sectors.

USTR is very concerned that China appears to be restricting these export materials at the expense of U.S. industries that need these materials for their production. And this appears to be occurring despite very strong and clear WTO rules designed to discipline export restraints.

And we are most troubled that this appears to be a conscious policy to create unfair preferences for Chinese industries by making raw materials cheaper for China's companies to get, and goods more economical for them to produce.

These export restrictions by China skew the playing field against American workers and businesses, but also other industries around the world dependent on these raw materials. And they unfairly advantage Chinese producers.

Under WTO rules, such distortion of the playing field on trade is simply not allowed. It is not okay in specific cases like the one that we raised today. It is certainly not okay as an underpinning of a country's overall industrial policy regime.

Now, more than ever, we must fight against this kind of domestic favoritism.

Earlier this month, I had an opportunity to speak to the US-China Business Council and I made it clear that the United States and our office seek a productive, cooperative relationship with China to advance our mutual economic relationship. This is particularly true in the field of trade.

But I also made it equally clear that the United States will not yield on enforcing the right of American businesses and exporters to compete on a level playing field with China.

And I made it plain that if we can do it by trade diplomacy, that we would do so where we had problems that arise. But if we have to file cases at the WTO, then we would do so.

So after more than two years of urging China to lift these unfair restrictions with no result, we are filing at the WTO today.

Now before many of you run off and write stories that we're escalating tension between the U.S. and China, I want to remind you of one thing. The WTO is a wonderful mechanism for resolving trade disputes that inevitably occur in mature relationships. It's been less than ten years, if you think about it, since China has been admitted to the World Trade Organization. During that time the United States has brought seven cases against China and China has brought four cases against us. And in many of those cases we have been able to resolve them by mutual understanding through Memorandum of Agreements before these cases go from the consultation stage to the appellate body.

So at this stage what we are simply doing is initiating this process by requesting formal consultations with China in a further attempt to find a negotiated solution to this problem. It is very much our hope that we will not have to proceed to the next stage which is requesting a WTO panel to examine this matter.

This is not a step that we have taken lightly, but we are taking it deliberately and it is a necessary step to enforce the rights of America's manufacturers.

It's also the fulfillment of a promise. One that I made during my confirmation hearings to Members of the House and Senate, and it's one that President Obama promised in his 2009 Trade Policy Agenda, that one of the highest priorities of our trade policy would be our standing up for the rights of American workers and businesses in the rules-based global trading system.

President Obama and I are of the firm belief that given a level playing field, American workers and businesses can compete with the best of those anywhere in the world, and we can win.

China's policies on these raw materials seem to put a giant thumb on the scale in favor of Chinese producers. It's our job to make sure we remove that thumb from the scale.

Today's action is proof of our commitment to level the playing field in this area. It is our hope that this dispute is resolved speedily and to the fair benefit of U.S. industries and workers and other industries around the world as well.

Our steelworkers, our aluminum producers, and workers in countless other industries deserve the chance to compete fairly with their Chinese counterparts. This case is simply designed to give them that chance.

I'll be happy to take your questions, and I would remind you after our questions and answers, that our China team and lawyers will be available for a more detailed briefing for you if you have specific questions.

Question: Jim Berger, Washington Trade Daily.

I assume you meet with the Chinese Minister later in the week in Paris. Did you find it to be of no purpose to bring this dispute up then for settlement? Or is it just off the table?

Ambassador Kirk: I do hope to have an opportunity to visit with my counterpart. I'm not sure of my final schedule, Jim, when I attend the OECD. But we believe that after two years of discussion and dialogue with no resolution it was well past the time to take this step at this particular time.

This also, frankly, may give me an opportunity to have a more fruitful conversation with my colleagues with us having taken this first step.

Question: Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, Zengxin Li from Caijing Magazine.

We all know that China is right now highly dependent on investments [inaudible]. [Inaudible] consider the risk of Chinese economy collapsing and endanger the world recovery and even U.S. jobs? Thank you.

Ambassador Kirk: Our first priority is making sure that the United States economy is restored and as part of that economic recovery we believe that trade can become a much more central part of that. But in order for that to happen, trade has to be fair.

One of the reasons the United States made I think the right decision and a wise decision to support China's admission to the WTO was so that we would have a forum to address these types of problems. And I'll be honest, I can't imagine that our resolving trade disputes in a manner that is consistent with commitments that China made when it was admitted to the WTO and it expressly made the commitment that it would not engage in this type of behavior. We think that asking our trading partners to play by the rules that we agreed to will in no way endanger their economy. And we think asking Chinese exporters, frankly, to compete with us on an even playing field will make them stronger and not weaker.

So it's not only good for American manufacturers, we think it will be good for China's economy in the long run.

Question: Dan Neumann, Inside U.S. Trade.

You talked about how these discussions have been going on for over two years. It was our understanding that the Bush administration considered filing a case on this problem at the end of its time in office but declined to.

What changed that calculation for the Obama administration? Was it simply a fact that the talks have gone on for two years? Or is this an example of the Obama administration being tougher on China?

Ambassador Kirk: Well Dan, in Texas we say that's not a question, that's an answer. I don't mean to be --

Question: What would you say in Washington?

Ambassador Kirk: I'd remind you that I'm not standing here as the third Trade Representative of the Bush administration, but as the first Trade Representative for President Obama. And we made a commitment that we would revisit our trade policy in every aspect. President Obama and I both believe that trade can play and should play a role in our overall economic recovery. But we were equally concerned that more and more Americans have become cynical about trade, and one of the reasons is that they believe that the United States has either lack of will or the resources to force our trading partners to play by the rules.

So we think that a critical step, first of all, is restoring America's confidence in our trade policy, and that we have to take the fairly pragmatic step of asking our partners to do what they committed to do. So it's not necessarily an indictment of the previous administration, but we believe if we're going to ask Americans to believe in our trade policy that we have to have our trading partners play by the rules.

Question: Jim Puzzanghera with the LA Times.

Given that this is the first filing by the Obama administration, and following up what you just said, what message do you hope this sends to other trading partners beyond China about the administration's intent to handle trade policy?

Ambassador Kirk: Hopefully all of our partners will realize that we're serious about this.

Secondly, for all of our economies, all of us have parroted the words that we don't want to engage in anti-protectionism, but we have to give real meaning to that. In order to keep global trade flowing and to keep trade liberalization an important part of all of our economic future, we have to engage in behavior that's consistent with the commitments that we made, whether it's through the WTO, or through any of our other Free Trade Agreements.

I want them to know, first of all, the United States is still open for business. We believe that trade can be a critical part of our economic and other countries' economic revival, but if you're going to do business with the United States you're going to have to play by the rules.

Question: Jose Lopez of the Mexican News Agency.

You said you support China's accession to the WTO to have a body to resolve these disputes. However, in March you tried to block the installation of a plant due to the complaint of Buy Mexico and the tuna dolphin safe label. Is there a double standard here?

Ambassador Kirk: No.

Question: Can you explain, please?

Ambassador Kirk: Yes. Listen, the whole purpose of entering, whether it's a Free Trade Agreement or the WTO is we make certain commitments about how we will conduct ourselves with respect to trade. We also set up a body and a framework for how we will resolve disputes. In the case of the tuna dolphin matter between the U.S. and Mexico, that is a matter that clearly should be resolved within the context of NAFTA and that dispute resolution mechanism.

In this case Mexico and the United States which have an extraordinarily close relationship culturally, trade, geographically. Mexico believes that the proper forum should have been the WTO. We have a firm belief that it should be within NAFTA. I don't see any inherent conflict in us insisting or at least pursuing the resolution of that through NAFTA which we think is the more appropriate forum.

Question: Sam Gilston with Washington Tariff and Trade Letter.

I'm trying to understand this. Despite all the complaints about the U.S. trade deficit with China and the antidumping and countervailing duty complaints against Chinese steel and chemicals, you're now saying that China's not exporting enough to the United States. I'm trying to get that in my mind to understand that. Can you clarify what specific products are not being exported that we want more exports from China now?

Ambassador Kirk: Sam, it does seem a bit counter-intuitive, but let me see if I can do it this way.

One, what we want is a non-distorted market between the United States and China. However that may occur, we will work to remove that distortion.

In the case of antidumping and those issues, that tends to be where we have a business that unfairly dumps an excessive amount of material or supplies of products into the United States over and above what we anticipated.

In this particular case we have China, we think, through the exercise of export restraints and other means unfairly restricting the flow of raw materials that are critical to the steel, aluminum and other chemical industries that causes two things. One, it limits our access to supplies that we have to have to make steel. SO it increases the cost of our supplies for American manufacturers. It increases the availability of those materials within China and reduces their costs which then can distort the market.

I'll give you one example. There is a product that's essential to making steel tubes that we call coke. In 2008 China produced 336 million metric tons of coke around the world. By putting export restraints on coke, the amount of exports dropped to 12 million metric tons. You can pretty quickly figure out the impact that had on manufacturers and producers outside of China and the competitive advantage that it gave to China's domestic producers.

So in this case the distortion of the market is caused by the export restraints, not the excess of products that are being shipped. But in every case our goal is clear. We want a market that is not distorted by either unfair tariffs, other non-tariff barriers, or export restraints.

Thank you all for coming.

Again, we have Claire Reade, Tim Stratford, members of our legal team that are happy to go through and give you a much more technical explanation of what we've done. We will give you the complete list of raw materials that are involved. We appreciate your time and attention this morning.

Thank you.