Marcy Kaptur: “the papers back home tell the story: 25 firefighter jobs advertised, thousands of applicants. Bass Pro Sporting Goods…”

“the papers back home tell the story: 25 firefighter jobs advertised, thousands of applicants. Bass Pro Sporting Goods building a new store, 300 jobs, 13,000 applicants, and the applications keep coming in. Yet the Bush administration last week sent Congress another job-killing NAFTA-like trade pact, this time for the South American nation of Colombia. But why Colombia? And why now? The answer to both questions, in a word, is oil. Rather than paying attention to what is happening in this country, again, the Bush administration is focused to a new set of global oil deposits. Why Colombia? In the big picture of global trade, Colombia is relatively insignificant to the United States. So why would the Bush administration make it a top priority in the final year of his presidency? Because oil represents more than half of Colombia's exports to the United States. And nothing drives Bush administration policy more than oil. Ten years ago, Colombia wasn't even exporting oil. It was an oil-importing country. But with the Middle East in turmoil, the Bush administration, like the Clinton administration before it, is doing everything it can to make Colombia safe for oil exports to us. At a time when U.S. relations with Venezuela, South America's leading oil producer, have dropped to an all-time low, Colombia has emerged as the continent's fourth leading supplying supplier.”