CAFTA: Ron Paul's Comments On How It Passed

In August 2005, your elected representatives passed CAFTA, another of those trade agreements that are good for us if you listen to the powers that be, but happen to come at the expense of middle class workers in this country. The president's press secretary called it a victory for the American people. But most people don't even know it exists, and the ones that do are overwhelmingly opposed to it.
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In his excellent article, Congressman Paul details some of the behind the scenes machinations that the powers that be resorted to in order to pass this legislation. A Couple of Mr. Paul's quotes in this article:
"Leaving aside the arguments for or against CAFTA itself, the process by which the bill ultimately passed should sicken every American who believes in representative government."
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"CAFTA was conceived and created by corporate interests, and to claim otherwise is preposterous. The CAFTA vote had nothing to do with the American public, or even trade policy per se. CAFTA was driven by politics and nothing more. Multinational corporations and political globalists share the same goals, namely the centralization of political power in international bodies and the diminution of national sovereignty. What we witnessed last week was not just the selling of votes, but also a sellout of American control over our own trade regulations."
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...And we keep electing these people who no longer represent us, why? In my own state recently, there was an issue up for vote where our senator acknowledged that the emails and calls were running 20 to 1 against proposed legislation, but that he was going to vote for it anyway.
...Wouldn't things be better if we didn't have career politicians? Term limits might also encourage our representatives in CONgress to make tough choices when necessary. And how about straight up and down votes on all bills, and not sneak them them through in the dark of night by attaching them to some other bill. How may things get passed that most people never even hear about? How many times do we need our CONgressional representatives getting hundreds, and even thousands of pages, of information on a bill just hours before they are supposed to render an intelligent vote on it?
...Would Social Security work better if our elected representatives had to participate in it and give up their own cushy retirement packages?