Link Turns – Plan Popular w/ GOP
Plan popular- Republicans want space flight
Cohn 11 (Alicia M. Cohn, July 21, 2011, The Hill, “Perry slams Obama for closing down NASA’s space shuttle program”, http://thehill.com/blogs/transportation-report/1093-nasa/172829-perry-slams-obama-for-closing-space-shuttle-program)
Texas Gov. Rick Perry slammed the Obama administration on Thursday following the conclusion of NASA's final space shuttle flight. The Obama administration has left "American astronauts with no alternative but to hitchhike into space," Perry said in a press release. "The Obama administration continues to lead federal agencies and programs astray," Perry said, pushing for the administration to define its vision of NASA's mission and return to what he called the agency's "core purpose of manned space exploration." The Space Shuttle Atlantis landed safely at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida early on Thursday morning, marking the end of almost 30 years of NASA space shuttle flights. Republicans have criticized the Obama administration for closing the program, though the decision to retire the space shuttles was originally made under the administration of former President George W. Bush in 2004. NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement Thursday following the landing of Atlantis that NASA would "continue the grand tradition of exploration" following the conclusion of the space shuttle program. "This final shuttle flight marks the end of an era, but today, we recommit ourselves to continuing human spaceflight and taking the necessary and difficult steps to ensure America's leadership in human spaceflight for years to come," Bolden said. Perry criticized the lack of a clear path forward for NASA. "Unfortunately, with the final landing of the Shuttle Atlantis and no indication of plans for future missions, this administration has set a significantly different milestone by shutting down our nation's legacy of leadership in human spaceflight and exploration," Perry said. NASA is a major employer in Houston, thanks to the presence of Johnson Space Center. However, Perry could also be ramping up his criticism of Obama ahead of a rumored presidential bid. Perry, the longest-serving governor in the U.S., is reportedly considering running for the Republican nomination for president in 2012
The FTA with Korea would worsen economic stability and interfere with labor rights.
PublicCitizen’11, national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress (The Korea FTA is Lose-Lose for the U.S. and Korea: The Facts, http://www.citizen.org/documents/KoreaFTAisLoseLose.pdf, July 26, 2011)
Korean Embassy does not even dispute that the Korea FTA could worsen financial stability and undermine labor rights. Wallach wrote that, “Another issue intensifying opposition to the FTA in Korea is the pact’s pre-crisis era financial deregulation requirements. After the 1997 Asian financial crisis wiped out decades of improvements to Korean living standards, Korea's policy response to the recent global crisis was forceful. Yet, aspects of both Korean and U.S. financial regulation would newly be exposed to direct challenge by the very firms that wrecked the global economy. Finally, the Korean union members on the delegation clearly shocked many of their audiences with their stories of how South Korean labor laws allow for strikers to be arrested for, well, striking and also allow individual strikers to be sued for compensation by their employers for lost profits.” The Korean Embassy does not rebut any of these points in their response to Wallach.
SKFTA will harm U.S. economy as did other ftas
Harrington 7/26/11 (Craig, Economy in Crisis, “Trade Deals Continue to Dominate Washington”, http://economyincrisis.org/content/trade-deals-continue-dominate-washington) Accessed 7/26/11
The Korea-US Free Trade Agreement (KORUS) presents major problems for the United States economy. First and foremost, South Korea is one of the most heavily developed and technologically advanced nations in the world. The United States already operates with a deficit of well over $10 billion annually with South Korea. Opening up a bilateral agreement between these two nations will certainly result in an increase in that trade gap – the Obama administration actually outlined the growth of an annual trade deficit as high as $30 billion yet is still unflinching in its support of the deal. The United States carries very small trade surpluses with every underdeveloped/undeveloped trade partner. The majority of U.S. bilateral agreements are these sort of small-scale treaties – Panama and Colombia would fit in this group. Unfortunately, the U.S. carries enormous trade deficits with every developed country with whom it partners. Our deficits with Mexico, Canada, and China alone nearly match the total export output of the American economy each year. Historically, every time the U.S. has entered into an FTA with a developed nation, like Korea, it has lost jobs and money as an immediate result. Over the long term the job loss eventually stops, when there are no more jobs left to take, and the money loss grows unabated. The United States cannot afford another free trade agreement. They do not promote growth, and they do not create jobs. If free trade agreements were the right decision for America we would not be in the midst of a decade with zero job creation and an overall loss of trillions of dollars to imported goods. The United States is the world's biggest loser to free trade, and the time has come for the American people to tell their free trade representatives in Washington that enough is enough.
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