COLUMBUS, OH — Today the Ted Strickland for Senate Campaign is releasing a humorous take on Senator Portman’s recent announcement about his position on trade policy: The Portman Triple-Aerial-Flip-Flop.
For Immediate Release: February 5, 2016
New Video: The Portman Triple-Aerial-Flip-Flop.
Of course, there’s nothing funny about Senator Portman’s record of supporting unfair trade policies that have shipped thousands of Ohio jobs to places like China. Newspapers have called Portman a “dedicated outsourcer,” a free-trade disciple,” and the Columbus Dispatch even wrote that Portman “has never met a free-trade agreement he didn’t like.”
Transcript:
Announcer: Up next it’s Rob Portman, attempting a triple-aerial flip flop.
Announcer: Rob’s been practicing it his whole career: supporting one bad trade deal after another, sending hundreds of thousands of jobs to China. Now, in an election year, he says he is against a trade deal he voted for last year. Here he goes.
Announcer: Wow! What a flip-flop!
Announcer: Rob Portman: the best Senator China’s ever had.
BACKGROUND:
Cleveland Plain Dealer Editorial: Portman Is “Is A Free-Trade Disciple.” “Those who watch such things have suspected for a while now that Rep. Rob Portman, the Southwestern Ohio Republican so personally and politically close to President George W. Bush, would not much longer remain among the House rank and file. Thus, Bush’s announcement yesterday that Portman was his nominee to be the next U.S. trade representative came as no great surprise. […] He is a free-trade disciple who, before he went to Congress a dozen years ago, practiced international trade law.” [Cleveland Plain Dealer, Editorial, 3/18/05]
Tapped To Be Bush’s Trade Representative, Portman Was Criticized For Being A “Dedicated Outsourcer.” “In a surprise move, President Bush on Thursday tapped one of his closest congressional allies, Rep. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, to be the next U.S. trade representative, giving the administration an insider’s influence in steering trade pacts through Congress. … Just the same, Alan Tonelson, a research fellow with the U.S. Business and Industry Council, which represents companies affected by free trade and opposes current free-trade policies, called Portman’s nomination a ‘slap in the face to the U.S. domestic manufacturing base.’ ‘Rep. Portman has been a dedicated outsourcer throughout his career in Congress,’ Tonelson said in a statement.” [CQ Today, 3/17/05]
Columbus Dispatch: Portman “Has Never Met A Free-Trade Agreement He Didn’t Like.” “Portman and Fisher are just as sharply split on international trade, a top issue in a state that ranks seventh nationally in exports. Portman, a former congressman and U.S. trade representative, has never met a free-trade agreement he didn’t like. Fisher, who as lieutenant governor supervises Ohio’s 14 international offices, wants to either repeal or renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.” [Columbus Dispatch, 7/11/10]
Strickland Voted Against Eight Free Trade Deals In Congress. Portman Voted For Eight Free Trade Deals. During his time in Congress, Strickland voted against eight trade deals. Portman, during his time in Congress, voted for eight trade deals. [H.R. 3078, Vote 163, 10/12/11; H.R. 3079, Vote 162, 10/12/11; H.R. 3080, Vote 161, 10/12/11; H.R. 5684, Vote 392, 7/20/06; H.R. 4340, Vote 616,12/7/05; H.R. 3045, Vote 443, 7/28/05; H.R. 4842, Vote 413, 7/22/04; H.R. 4759, Vote 375, 7/14/04; H.R. 2738, Vote 436, 7/24/03; H.R. 2739, Vote 432, 7/24/03; H.R. 3450, Vote 575, 11/17/93]
Portman Voted To Grant China Most-Favored-Nation Trade Status. [CQ,5/24/00; H.R. 4444, Vote 228, 5/24/00]
Ohio Lost 106,400 Jobs To China After Passage Of Permanent Most Favored Nation Status. “Since China entered the World Trade Organization in 2001, the massive growth of trade between China and the United States has had a dramatic and negative effect on U.S. workers and the domestic economy. Specifically, a growing U.S. goods trade deficit with China has the United States piling up foreign debt, losing export capacity, and losing jobs, especially in the vital but under-siege manufacturing sector. […] The 3.2 million U.S. jobs lost or displaced by the goods trade deficit with China between 2001 and 2013 were distributed among all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with the biggest net losses occurring in California (564,200 jobs), Texas (304,700), New York (179,200), Illinois (132,500), Pennsylvania (122,600), North Carolina (119,600), Florida (115,700), Ohio (106,400), Massachusetts (97,200), and Georgia (93,700). […] China’s admission to the WTO was endorsed by the United States in domestic legislation that offered China permanent normal trade relations status.” [Economic Policy Institute, 12/11/14]
2015: Portman Voted To Fast-Track TPP Without Reading It. “Though he hasn’t read the TPP proposal, Portman voted June 24 with the majority in a 60-38 vote to approve fast-track authority. Fast track is a key step in the trade process. It allows the president to give such deals to Congress for only yes-or-no votes without the power for the legislative body to amend them.” [Youngstown Vindicator, 8/3/15; H.R. 2146, Vote 219, 6/24/15]
Which Rob Portman will show up at GOP Lincoln Day Dinner?
2.06.16 – This evening, Rob Portman will speak at the Lucas County Republican Party’s Lincoln Day Dinner just two days after a transparent, election-year attempt to cover up his decades-long support for unfair trade policies. He probably won’t want to remind NW Ohioans that he voted to fast track the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) through Congress just last year, that he called the auto rescue that saved thousands of jobs a “lousy deal, or about his decades long record of supporting unfair trade policies that have hurt NW Ohio’s economy.
Portman is already facing heat from conservative groups and outlets like Breitbart, which called his recent statement on trade a “campaign-trail equivocation,” and the CATO Institute, which blasted Portman’s statement as completely at odds with his voting record.
The question on everyone’s mind is, which Rob Portman will show up tonight? Let’s find out. Here are 5 pressing questions that Portman has not yet answered:
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Between being labeled a “dedicated outsourcer” and a “free-trade disciple,” voting to speed the TPP through Congress last year, and today — when did you change your mind about the trade deal and why specifically?
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How can you explain your vote to grant fast track authority to speed the TPP through Congress?
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How can Congress possibly make changes to make the TPP more palpable since the fast track authority you voted for does not allow for any changes to the deal?
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Why didn’t you not speak out against the TPP sooner if you’re so concerned about the consequences?
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What do you say to press reports that this sudden “change of heart” is a sign of election-year panic?
The truth is, Rob Portman can’t answer these questions because, as the Columbus Dispatch wrote “he has never met a free-trade agreement he didn’t like.” His record is clear: Portman has a long and well documented record of prioritizing the interests of the Washington power brokers and the wealthy special interests he serves, even if it means Ohio’s working people pay the price for the unfair trade policies he has supported.