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Having watched the export of hundreds of jobs over the last decade at a large hi-tech plant in Corvallis, Oregon, Todd Wurster wasn't surprised last year when he was informed that his engineering job was being phased out by the struggling company. Todd's first-hand education in the world of global economic policy and political intrigue had officially begun.
On May 5, 2006, U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao announced an $816,929 grant to assist 496 dislocated workers in Oregon. The grant was secured under the federal government's Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program as a result of the mass layoffs--the layoffs that caught up with Todd. As stated in Elaine Chao's press release, the current TAA program "assists individuals who have become unemployed as a result of increased imports from, or shift in production to foreign countries." Thus, the U.S. government tacitly acknowledges that its trade policies result in job loss.
His job gone, Todd headed to Oregon State University to study business and accounting on the TAA government assistance program. It was not lost on him that he was transferring from the county's second largest employer to its largest employer--government. Todd's engineering intuition suggested to him that what he was experiencing was not likely the result of a random series of economic events or the inevitable progress of history.
"I thought there just had to be more going on here," he told THE NEW AMERICAN. "Last fall, I was searching on the Internet for information on economic news and NAFTA and I ended up on the website of an organization I had not heard of before called the John Birch Society." His eyes were opened. "I started reading about the North American Union," Todd continued, "and decided to ...