Even the most ardent free-marketeers do not support free trade in children, with blonde female babies attracting a hefty premium.
However, despite the Republican majority the bill could not pass without some Democrat votes because not all Republicans support free trade.
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One consistent message among many who support free trade is that the demonstrators are hurting the very people they seek to help.
"The president does support free trade but did not suggest a quid pro quo" with Obama, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Tuesday.
Most Republicans and some Democrats still support free trade.
Mr. Obama's emphasis on pursuing new pacts comes as he makes his way through an export-dependent region that has grown nervous about his trade policy, and skeptical about his willingness to use political capital at home to support free trade.
But the fact that, eight years into an economic boom, only 37% of Americans claim to support free trade also suggests that economic liberalism would have a harder time surviving trial by recession there than it has in much of the rest of the world.
Fred Bergsten of the Institute of International Economics argues that the problems of adjustment - and the huge trade imbalance - will generate growing protectionist pressures in the US and Europe, undermining support for free trade.
It must explain its decisions or risk undermining support for free trade in general.
Trample too much on domestic sovereignty and popular support for free trade will evaporate.
Editors seem to think that support for free trade ideology should trump their duty to tell the truth.
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It has not all disappeared: his support for free trade has never wavered.
Public support for free trade has been withering for a decade, tracking the decline in middle-class American manufacturing jobs.
Support for free trade and free markets tends to come very far down the agenda, if it features at all.
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Mr. McCain's longstanding support for free trade would also seem to be far better for the economy than Mr. Obama's protectionism.
And of eight tea party Republican candidates for the U.S. Senate, only two mention support for free trade on their websites.
Those who would once support every free trade agreement now see that other countries have to play fair and the agreements have to be enforced.
His support for free trade has never been more than tepid.
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From Texas business circles came his unflinching support for free trade and tax-breaks, as well as his unstinting protection of the interests of oil and gas men.
Yet the prime minister, the third in two years of DPJ-led government, has few alternatives other than to put his fragile popularity on the line in support of free trade.
Yet there may be a case for helping out those who lose their jobs or have to manage on lower pay in order to ensure continued political support for free trade.
Presidential and congressional support of free trade is waning.
Although he has spoken in support of free trade in the past (and voted for NAFTA), his more recent record includes "no" votes on the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) and a number of bilateral free trade agreements.
There is an apparent contradiction between most economists' support for free trade, low taxes and less intervention in the market and the low marks many give to Mr McCain, who is generally more supportive of those things than Mr Obama.
Ms. Merkel, acknowledging the failure so far to complete the Doha Round of trade negotiations, also expressed support for a free-trade agreement between the U.S. and the European Union.
The same goes for Mr McCain's support for free-trade agreements.
Mr Obama has expressed more support lately for completing free trade agreements with Panama, Colombia and South Korea, the Doha round of world trade talks, and the Trans Pacific Partnership, but that has not translated into results.
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The argument, based on the bitter experience of 2009, went like this: Better to have 54 or 55 Democrats who might actually want to get something done than to worry about building a super-majority on the "strength" of conservative members who enthusiastically support unnecessary wars, free trade and misguided domestic economic policies.
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