Original subtitles

Previously on The West Wing:

And how good is Haffley?

He's better than anyone we've seen

on the other side of the table in a long time.

We don't go out there until we agree on a game plan!

JOSH: How about the voters?

How are we gonna create jobs?

And we can do better,

and we must do better

and we will do better.

How we gonna fix health care?

To ensure that the promise of this country

is the birthright of all the people.

How can we make the lights go on?

How are we gonna protect ourselves?

When we were elected,

I really thought we were gonna own the place.

Hey! Congratulations.

Thank you.

So Leo's turned you into a big-time trade negotiator.

No different than baby-sitting or negotiating with Congress.

You sit there and let 'em wear themselves out.

They're up to 200 tractors now.

Yeah, I know.

200 tractors, that doesn't worry you.

Not being a bale of hay.

You're flying to Brussels in nine hours,

the place is surrounded by tractors,

every pair of overalls in Europe

has come out to protest your trade agreement.

I'll bring you back a straw hat.

For the joint press conference after the signing.

That's not the message.

"Protecting intellectual property

through international copyright enforcement."

Okay, I know what you're talking about,

and I have no idea what you're talking about.

LARRY: Isn't that what we...?

Free trade creates jobs!

it creates better, higher-paying jobs.

We still have to pass this through Congress.

Let's not outsmart ourselves--

as if that were, you know, possible.

They're up to 200 tractors-- it's on TV.

I know.

Bill Parsons called.

What are European farmers so upset about?

That they can't cling to a dying way of life,

that free trade means that some of them may have to wear neckties,

that they can't beat Pentium chips back into plowshares.

Take your pick.

USTR says India's signing on.

You're kidding.

I barely know what that means, how could I be kidding.

India has all kinds of problems with this trade deal, why would they...?

USTR says India's in.

Ask Ed and Larry to poke around the India thing.

I brought my luggage too, you know.

Yeah, I'm still working on that.

PRESIDENT: That's wonderful, Mr. Prime Minister,

I look forward to seeing you in Brussels.

You did a great job wrapping this up,

I've sent a little something over to your office.

LEO: You should've seen him.

Like a bull terrier crossed with a rottweiler

crossed with a Fuller Brush salesman.

Months of work by a lot of people, sir.

I just tossed in some free combs.

Start working on Congressional passage.

I'm meeting with the Speaker today.

He could argue we gave too much to labor in these side agreements.

We'll need Republican votes,

but there's plenty in here Democrats'll like.

Sell it right, and we'll squeak through.

CHARLIE: Reporters are waiting, sir.

Mr. President, you're doing five advance interviews

on the Brussels Round: three domestic print,

plus CNN-FN, plus the International Herald-Tribune.

Foreign press doesn't count.

We haven't globalized pandering yet?

Our audience is Congress, not the Finnish Parliament.

What do you say to the opponents of free trade,

people who say it exports jobs.

That "giant sucking sound."

Any half-decent economist'll tell you to wear earplugs.

JOSH: Sir...

Then file immediately for unemployment.

Sir, have you read the talking points?

I'm an economist, some would say half-decent.

I don't need a primer on this.

Due respect, sir, your answers on economic issues can be a bit...

Polysyllabic?

Academic.

I was gonna go with incomprehensible.

Hey, listen: Any economic advancement

involves what Schumpeter

called "creative destruction."

Bad answer. Not a good answer.

Why? 'Cause that word

"destruction" will

really mollify our critics.

Free trade creates jobs.

Selling our products to the world... ...creates better

higher-paying jobs.

It's gotta be that simple, or we lose the argument.

Anybody have any crayons, so I can color in my Ph.D.?

Josh makes a point.

We're losing old economy jobs in steel

and textiles, all across manufacturing...

In economics.

Clearly, economics...

That's why we fought so hard

in this deal for copyright enforcement:

to protect the fruits of the new economy.

Technology, inventions, ideas-- the stuff

where America can't be beat,

where they can't do it in Malaysia for a dollar a day.

Okay.

What about these tractor protests

in the streets of Brussels?

PRESIDENT: Global economic forces

are unstoppable, just like technology itself.

Should we have banned ATMs to protect bank tellers?

Or digital watches, to prop up the folks who fix grandfather clocks?

JOSH, C.J. and LEO: Free trade creates better,

higher-paying jobs.

JOSH: It's gotta be that simple.

The President bashing the clock industry in here.

India. What?

The Communications union

was close to a new contract for 17,000 programmers.

Jace Computer Networks broke off the talks.

JCN.

ED: The union thinks JCN's moving

17,000 computer programming jobs

to India, and that's why India signed on.

17,000 jobs because of the deal I just negotiated.

That's what they think.

Okay. Who else knows about this?

LARRY: No one.

Don't...

Leo.

We may have a situation.

Congress?

Where were we?

Creating better, higher-paying jobs.

17,000 programming jobs.

That's what they're saying.

Because of the deal we just negotiated.

We don't know that for sure yet.

Those are new economy jobs.

Yeah.

Not like putting beads on an abacus.

Which I'm gonna say is a lot harder than it sounds.

This could kill the deal on the Hill.

In this economic climate,

I gotta think both parties are gonna run pretty fast.

"Send your job to Southeast Asia--"

not the best slogan for globalization.

There's another problem.

The programmers are represented

by the Communications Workers of America.

The CWA.

Yeah.

I already got a message from Parsons-- If this is real...

You've been working with JCN on these talks.

All the tech companies,

I can't believe they'd sandbag me like this.

Talk to JCN.

You did a great job on this.

I was serious about the rottweiler thing.

Thanks.

How are the President's interviews going?

Oh, let's see.

He used the phrase "market inelasticity" three times,

"direct entitlement failure" two times.

I was waiting for him to start waving a piece of chalk,

maybe a piece of the Gross National Product.

Professor-in-Chief.

More like Professor Incoherent.

What're we hearing from the press?

How come they're staying at a two-star hotel in Brussels,

where are the Speaker and the Majority Leader

on this trade deal,

plus Counsel sent some press guidance

on their new FCC ruling.

The FCC reached a compromise with Congress

on media consolidation-- happened about an hour ago.

Media consolidation?

You know, that plan to let corporations

buy up more and more local TV stations.

So they backed off.

Yeah, 'cause who wants the same bunch of big-shots

controlling the media.

Those are talking points on the VP's energy speech,

so you can help me... control the media.

What's the compromise?

Instead of letting one company

own stations reaching 45%

of all the viewers, the FCC's agreed

they can only reach 39.37%.

39.37%?

This stuff can be very scientific.

I'm going to need a slide rule in my briefing-- 39.37%?

On the energy speech, if you get questions, you'll help me...

Control the media. Thanks.

Today's my last day at the White House.

Thank you.

I was hoping you'd give a toast at my going-away party.

How about a plaque, for best impersonation of a blue blazer.

So you're coming to the party.

I'm having my own celebration,

with five cloves of garlic and the cast of The Exorcist.

The Speaker's coming in at 3:15,

Parsons called again twice,

plus the President sent you a gift.

Make sure Ed and Larry are calling Democrats.

I want some votes in my pocket when I meet with the Speaker.

He's gonna hate these labor side agreements.

My charts...

The JCN lobbyist is coming in.

I need those charts on everything we gave tech

versus light industry in this trade round.

If you're all out of joint

'cause we favored tech over light industry...

You're leaving in eight hours.

Any progress getting me on the trip?

You don't want to go to Brussels.

Which is why I asked 15 times.

It's Presidential hand-holding.

It's a motorcade to a hotel room

to a battle of the balding Belgian finance ministers.

It's Pittsburgh with an accent.

Which I'd known if you'd taken me on the Pittsburgh trip.

This isn't taxpayer- funded tourism.

We got jobs to do.

And I'm trying to grow in mine.

I've been helping on these trade talks for months.

How are you going to manage by yourself?

I'll grab someone off advance staff. I'll be fine.

The charts.

Grab someone off the advance staff,

maybe they can find them for you.

I didn't mean to... I'm busy, okay?

Maybe if you shackled me to my desk, it'd speed up my typing.

This isn't a workers' collective.

Don't get all Woody Guthrie on me.

I got a situation here.

You're the oppressor.

That's Latin for "boss."

I'm not talking to you.

Fine.

Katherine Harper, this is Debbie Fiderer,

the President's personal secretary.

Kate's our new NSC Deputy.

I'm bringing her in to see the President.

Very nice to meet you.

The President's been running quite a bit late today.

That's okay, ma'am.

Please call me Debbie.

Thank you, ma'am.

Top of her class at Annapolis.

Once an ensign, always an ensign.

Uh, your locator box.

Why, yes, this is so we know

where the First Family are at all times.

Forgive me for... do you think you should have it facing out?

Excuse me?

Secret Service locator boxes

are code-word clearance or higher.

Guests in this wing of the building just need an absence

of felony charges.

Some Congressmen don't even meet that standard.

NANCY: We've been looking for a reason

to keep out the Congressmen.

Just trying to be helpful, ma'am-- Debbie.

On second thought, feel free to call me ma'am.

NANCY: You'll let us know when the President's free.

Yes.

So nice to meet you.

Mm-hmm.

All packed and ready for Brussels?

Let's talk about India.

Bit out of the way for a layover.

The CWA says you're shipping

17,000 computer programming jobs there.

That's proprietary information.

Then why's India signing this trade deal?

India, which hated the agricultural provisions,

hated the light industrial provisions...

There's a chance JCN'll be moving some programmers there.

You can't do this.

After everything I negotiated for you?

You toughened copyright enforcement,

now it's safer for us

to move sensitive programming work overseas.

Over time, fine, but not overnight.

We worked together for months, without one word about this.

It's an internal business decision.

Yet, somehow, the nation of India,

population one billion and rising,

slipped into a JCN board meeting?

We lobbied through our trade association.

That's how these things work.

No-- when I help you on a trade deal,

you don't lobby behind my back.

That's how these things work.

It's economics.

It's politics, and you know it!

Now I got a union problem!

When they go nuts, I got a Congressional problem!

We'll help you lobby; we're good at that.

It's not gonna pass!

17,000 flesh-and-blood families,

spread over who-knows-how-many Congressional districts.

It's more like 3.3 million jobs, over the next ten years.

Industry-wide, of course.

You're... You're... handing out pink slips

when we're popping champagne corks and Brussels sprouts.

We can hold the announcement,

but American programmers make 40 bucks an hour,

in India, it's 10.

How much would you save if you move your CEO to India?

This is how free trade works.

You can't be surprised jobs are moving overseas.

These jobs, yes; $80,000-a-year jobs, yes.

The jobs this deal is supposed to create

on the day we're leaving to sign it...?

If automakers innovated the way we do,

today's cars'd get 100,000 miles per gallon and cost 50 cents.

Yeah, but they'd only be this big.

( wry laugh )

I need you to spread the layoffs over a couple years.

Can't do it. Retrain 'em,

shove 'em in a back office.

We're a business, not a halfway house.

Is that what you told the head of your union?

No.

But feel free to tell him yourself.

I'm sure he's on his way over here right now.

...for many European farmers who say globalization

is destroying a way of life on their continent,

that global corporations will now reap the gains they...

Can you and Josh spend some time with Reuters on the flight to Brussels?

They helped us on that steel story.

You think something's funny

about these new media ownership limits?

Who's-on-first funny?

Something's-rotten-in- the-state-of-Denmark-funny.

Let's you and me never do a stand-up act.

Or a local TV broadcast, if I'm reading this correctly.

Our press guidance says it's a victory.

They were gonna let conglomerates like MertMedia,

Viacom get into 45% of all homes.

Now it's 39.37%,

a number that ought to come with a decoder ring

and a jar of Ovaltine.

What do you want?

There was a public outcry,

they settled for a lower number.

A number no one can explain.

The FCC's totally independent.

These media companies are your constituents.

No, the public are my constituents,

and when big business

can soak up more and more local media...

Ben needs to stop by before you leave for Brussels.

No. Tell him it's a bad day. He can't.

Tell him I'll call him from the plane.

You're going to Belgium.

He wants to make sure you don't sample the endive.

I can't become one of those women who sits around,

eyes a-fluttering, waiting for her man.

"Eyes a-fluttering"?

You know, parasols a-twirling. Ah.

Tell him I'll call him from the plane.

How come no one can explain this number?

Well, you're talking about deregulation.

You want to crack that code?

Follow the money.

I'll take care of your Reuters thing.

C.J.: Carol...

pull the FCC's media ownership records

from last year, will you?

Yes. And you could say Christmas came a bit early this year.

I'm not normally in the business

of doing your investigative reporting.

As opposed to blocking it.

Christmas, and you can throw in Arbor Day.

Is this about the Brussels trip?

This is about the Federal Communications Commission.

They just ruled

that media conglomerates can buy stations

reaching up to 39.37% of all TV viewers.

We wrote about this when they tried to make it 45%.

GEORGE: Why do you think they're rolling it back?

And why, you might ask, to 39.37%?

I have here the FCC media ownership records.

Turns out last year, MertMedia

illegally purchased nine local TV stations,

which brings them up to the magic number of--

drum-roll please-- 39.37%.

And Viacom's at 38.8% and News Corp's at 37.8.

In other words, the FCC is bailing out--

as in, posting bail--

for huge companies that were illegally gobbling up

TV stations like greasy hors d'oeuvres.

Would you like me to draw you a diagram?

Can I ask about the Brussels trip?

No you can't ask about the Brussels trip,

this is a big story.

My business desk is handling this.

Then bang on your editors.

This isn't some technical business story.

This is about diversity on the airwaves--

the market place of ideas, ensuring a healthy exchange of...

( sighs )

You don't want to write this

'cause it's about your corporate owners.

There are a million places to get news.

We compete for every story.

Like you're competing for this one?

Let me walk you through the numbers; talk to your editors.

Trust me, this is a story.

The tractor protests are accelerating.

From four miles an hour to five?

They're up to 230 tractors.

Why do I get the feeling soil's going untilled?

Advance is worried.

They're jamming up the Place de Brouckere.

Just keep the tractors away from the President.

It's two centuries off our message.

How are we doing on Democratic votes?

It's tough with this economy.

They're terrified of losing jobs in their districts.

Well, keep making calls, tell them--

talk about the labor side agreements.

LEO: The President's concerned Andy Wyatt

and these Congressmen'll negotiate on their own.

Are you sure you want me on

a Congressional Delegation to the Middle East?

It'll only lend it legitimacy.

The President wants you to go.

Someone's got to block them

from trying to move the Israeli border

and rename the synagogues

after prominent North Dakotans.

Just meet with him on this.

Of course I'll meet with my President.

We'll get you in this afternoon.

You know I almost don't recognize you

without the hardware store on your chest.

Only way I could shed those extra pounds.

Josh. Admiral.

How'd it go with JCN?

Great, if you write computer code

and live in suburban Bombay.

They're serious about the 17,000 jobs?

They say it's going to be 3.3 million over ten years--

the tech lobby screwed me on this.

They were pressing India the whole time.

Parsons and his guys from the CWA are coming here now.

If I let you down on this,

if I missed some...

I sent you in there to close a deal, no one does it better.

We need a strategy.

For Capitol Hill.

If it becomes a story, yeah,

I'm worried Republicans won't like this deal as it is,

but that's not our biggest problem.

We don't run the computer industry.

No. Look. We have to give something to Parsons,

to the union, to balance this out.

Give them what?

The government only buys software

made in America.

First, foreign countries would retaliate against us.

Second, we buy only the lowest-cost goods

or we burn taxpayers' money.

So we help a few taxpayers earn money.

Congress would laugh us out of the room,

and it'd cost 15, 20 billion a year.

I'm talking short-term,

till the benefits of the trade deal kick in.

Where's your suit made?

I get this in Georgetown.

Where's it made?

Mexico.

I think those "Made in the USA"

labels are sewn in Mexico now.

You want to ask Congress and the OMB to do

what no self-respecting clothes horse would do.

Let's see if this becomes a thing on the Hill.

I'm talking about the union.

The President's right, or Schumpeter, or whoever--

sometimes you destroy to create.

Your 11:00 is here, Mr. President.

It's quarter past 12:00.

Would you please stop calling it my 11:00?

Very well, sir.

Your 11:05 is still waiting outside.

Thank you.

Anyone has a stopwatch, we can boil some eggs.

Sir, this is Kate Harper,

your new Deputy National Security Adviser.

Yes, yes, I have your C.V.-- very impressive.

You're fluent in Arabic.

( speaking Arabic )

Thank you. I always forget the punchline myself.

My own 11:00 is waiting,

so I'll give you two a chance to get acquainted.

Thank you, Nancy.

Four years in Naval Intelligence.

You served at our embassy in Ulan Bator.

Yes, Mr. President.

Ah...

Yeah...

So we're off to Brussels.

Nancy may have told you

about this French bilateral I'm dreading.

They're holding two documented terrorists,

won't extradite them 'cause they don't like our sentencing laws.

We can't even interrogate bloodless murderers

if we don't put the right crease in their linen napkins.

That's one way of looking at it, sir.

You've got another way.

That's not really my job, Mr. President.

I'm asking you.

There's a French side and an American side.

I want your argument.

Officially, I don't have an argument.

Yet we're having one right now.

Well, sir...

I guess what I would say is

that France has a body of law and a constitution

and it's wrong to trample on either,

let alone the extradition process.

They see it as imperialism

and you do it at the risk

of shredding an already-fragile relationship.

Officially, however... PRESIDENT: Debbie...

would you bring in my 11:03-- whatever the hell it is?

Mr. President, I don't mean to...

Thanks for answering.

It was nice meeting you, uh...?

Ma'am. I mean, Kate.

PRESIDENT: By the way, welcome to the White House.

( knocks )

No.

Okay, second question. What?

Trade. These Belgian farmers

think it's going to cost them jobs.

It probably will, 'cause it lets in cheaper produce.

But Belgium's for it anyway?

It might be bad for their farmers,

but it's good for their economy.

Then who's their economy for?

Would you please tell Josh...

Harpo speaks.

Would you please tell Josh that Bill Parsons with the CWA

will be here any minute,

and his 3:30 with Congressman McKenna's been moved to 3:00.

Your 3:30...

McKenna's lucky if I only keep him waiting

a half hour out of spite.

He says Congressman McKenna...

Tell him the Social Office

wants to remind him about your going-away party.

The Social Secretary'd be mighty... ! Tell Ms. Mozzarella

a pack of wild bison on stilts

couldn't drag me to your party.

He says that, actually, he'd be quite tickled-- stilts?

Tell him McKenna's got an issue with his beloved trade deal.

Tell her McKenna can take a check,

and I can handle a ninth-string Congressman.

Tell him there's something he ought to know about that meeting,

and I've got half a mind to...

Tell Donna wherever Skippy the translator's going,

she ought to go, too.

He says, give that dashing young Ryan a great big...

Harpo can hear, bright boy.

Now can we talk about the Brussels trip?

No, we can't.

Carol tells me you're not even pitching the FCC story.

It's a business story.

Just 'cause I don't agree with your take on it...

I... I don't have a "take." The FCC looked

at how many stations were already owned

by the six or seven biggest companies

and used that as the number,

so nobody'd have to sell anything.

Media monopolies are history.

The Internet's exploding,

TV's every guy with a camcorder and a digital uplink.

Yet one company can now own stations

in 199 of the nation's 210 media markets--

one company can influence the elections of 98 Senators,

382 House members...

It's a free country.

Till Comcast and Clear Channel

puts a big bullhorn in every town square it is.

A free country.

I am not a media critic.

No one in the media is, that's the problem.

You're just trying to knock me off this story

about job losses.

That isn't a story, it's an allegation.

Those are white-collar jobs;

the new-economy jobs the President brags about creating.

People need to know this FCC thing isn't a victory--

it's less, but by the exact amount the companies wanted.

Now you're getting into glass-empty, glass-full territory.

I'm trying to talk about who pours the water.

Then let's talk about it,

'cause when seats come open in your briefing room,

I don't see you giving them to the Pennsauken Post,

or Radio Free Botswana,

or some guy with a digital uplink.

We're not the ones buying up all the media.

But you're the ones giving them access.

How many seats does MertMedia alone have in there? Three?

How many companies are even represented? Seven? Eight?

You want there to be even fewer?

No, I want to talk about Brussels and you don't.

And I'm on a deadline.

( sighs )

Aren't you going to offer us a drink?

Bill, I don't know how this happened.

I do.

You were so desperate to help

a bunch of soft-money- donating CEO's,

that you sold us up the Ganges River.

I'm sorry, but I-I got to ask you

not to go public with this yet.

Hard as it seems,

we're creating jobs, we're growing this economy...

For who? Foreign investors?

I mean, what good is the economy

without the people in it?

You knew we were for free trade.

You knew it when you endorsed us five years ago.

Yeah, 'cause you told us that we might lose old economy jobs--

shoe manufacturing-- to some dirt-poor country,

but if we trained ourselves, we'd get better jobs.

Now they're being vacuumed out of here, too.

We're gonna fight for more job training,

more transition assistance...

I have members on their third and fourth careers,

what do they train for now, nuclear physics?

Cello playing?

Or should they just give up

and bag groceries for minimum wage?

Well, that'd still buy them a nice house in Bangalore.

Well, I've got three kids in college--

a little late for a transfer, isn't it?

You'll have pension assistance,

wage assistance, you name it.

I don't want burial insurance.

My career isn't over yet. I want to keep my job.

WOMAN: You owe us that, Mr. Lyman.

You made that promise five years ago,

to my face, in the Wayfarer Hotel.

They're going to stay right here

till you tell them how you plan to honor it.

Where are you going?

To your press room,

then to Capitol Hill.

One thing about the Communications Workers--

we know how to communicate.

You look a lot better on TV.

17,000 white-collar jobs will be shipped to India.

JCN spokesmen declined comment on...

No, Congressman. Yes, of course.

Yeah, I understand.

...be addressing in the coming weeks, in any case.

What are you doing out here?

Donna's not talking to me, plus there are some

soon-to-be-unemployed workers camped out in my office.

With tractors, I presume.

Something like that.

Think this job story's true?

It's proprietary.

Think it'll give the GOP

an excuse to squash this trade deal?

With midterms coming up?

What do you think?

How'd you become a free-trader?

America has a quarter of the world's wealth

and only two percent of the customers.

You have to sell to others.

So how do you make that case

to people who're going to lose jobs?

Ask them how often they go to Wal-Mart

to buy cheap cardigans

or drill-bits. Drill-bits?

I don't wear cardigans.

Okay.

But I like a nice drill-bit.

So it all comes down to cheap drill-bits.

Pay more for a drill-bit,

you have less to spend on other things.

Keep out cheap foreign drill-bits,

and that country will keep out cheap American something-else.

And that costs us jobs.

Do you ever wonder if we forget the human face of trade,

the blood and muscle?

You have to go with what grows

the economy for everyone.

There's blood and muscle in India, too.

Yeah.

Hoynes was pretty critical of free trade

when you worked for him, wasn't he?

That was mostly politics.

So how'd you become a free-trader?

I came to work for one.

Did you need something?

The Vice President is going to distance himself

from this trade deal.

You did a great job.

It's mostly politics.

C.J.: I'm sorry, I can't do this right now.

Do what? This leaving-on-a-jet-plane-

can't-bear-to-be-without-you- for-36-hours bit.

Okay.

I've got labor leaders frothing at the mouth,

making unverified claims, a media conspiracy run amok.

I can't need to see you every 37 seconds

to achieve completion as a human being.

Fine. Are we clear on this?

Sure. Good.

Can I say something? Go right ahead.

You left your passport at my house,

you left your wallet at my house,

you left your driver's license

and all your credit cards at my house.

Have a safe flight.

Are you...?

There's this...

nice little place...

Can I interest you in a late lunch?

LARRY: Josh. Josh.

This jobs story's killing us with the Democrats.

Yeah.

Think the Speaker's going to smell blood in the water

and spike this thing?

Belgian Prime Minister's letting the tractors

into the Place des Palais.

260 tractors, right next to the site of the ceremony.

It's like the Hayseed Olympics out there.

Maybe if we plant a row of corn...

Stop mocking the farmers.

They're just trying to scratch out a living.

This no-talking thing isn't working for me.

You have a 3:00,

I need to brief you.

And they won't leave your office.

I know.

I tried to move them.

Do you want me to call the Secret Service?

( sighing ): No.

I just want to grow in my job, do something meaningful,

do more than earn a paycheck till I die.

Why are you saying that?

I only have one career, and I want it to matter,

or I might as well be a soda jerk.

That's why I wanted to...

Let's go back to not talking for a while.

RYAN: Missed a great party.

I've got bigger problems than your brass parachute.

Where you going?

To meet Congressman McKenna.

That's funny, actually...

No, it isn't funny.

He's a two-bit jerk of a junior House member.

He holds us hostage every time we have a budget or a trade deal,

or enough discretionary authority

to buy an ice cream cone.

I've got the Speaker of the House in ten minutes.

I'm going to smile, bob my head

and stick him in the out box.

Beat it. I've got a meeting.

So do I's the thing.

It's just me and McKenna.

I'm his new Legislative Director.

Hi.

He figured it'd be leverage enough

that he's on two authorizing committees

and can stall half your budget priorities.

Is this the part where you smile and bob your head?

McKenna has a problem with the Brussels Round?

He just wants a seat on the plane.

That question you asked: who's an economy's for...?

I don't care about trade.

If you taught me anything,

it's that my view doesn't matter anyway.

You take your boss's position lock, stock, and sound bite,

and you get what you came for.

Am I right?

BEN: I think there's too many channels as there is.

There's the Cooking Channel, the Botany Channel--

I'm waiting for the channel

that's devoted to explaining the other channels.

We have to do all the news mags.

You know when they passed the laws that limit media ownership?

In the 40's, as a response to fascism in Europe.

Think I saw that on the Fascism Channel.

Laugh now, channel-boy.

Soon it'll be the only one left.

Hi.

Hi, Leo McGarry.

You must be Ben.

C.J.'s just nuts about you.

Not really, actually. Why are you hawking this FCC story?

I got calls from two network news heads.

Of course you have. They're crazy about this ruling,

and the people that aren't, can't get us on the phone.

My problem right now is I'm too easy to get on the phone.

I need you pushing back on the job losses.

Our Caucus is going bananas.

This is a bail-out for MertMedia, and all the big...

The President's against excessive media ownership.

If we think the FCC's not looking out for the little guy,

use the Briefing Room to say it.

No one's writing about it.

They're all afraid of their media-mogul robber-baron bosses.

This is the biggest media conspiracy

since William Randolph Hearst was starting wars

and crushing filmmakers.

We don't run the press.

We certainly don't run the FCC.

They made the ruling.

Local news is getting trampled.

You think corporate media's going to take on

corporate polluters, describe mega-mergers

as anything other than a rising stock price?

BEN: When was the last time you watched local news?

I mean it's just high school ping-pong

and weathermen predicting hailstones

the size of canned hams.

National programming doesn't bother you?

I've spent my entire career living in Moosejaw.

I get my news off CNN.

I like this one.

He's about to become available.

Had to be MertMedia.

MertMedia?

The CEO calls me every few months to offer me a job,

corporate communications.

I'm due for a call next week.

You're not thinking of leaving...

No, I'm not.

And I don't know who the FCC is looking out for,

but I came here to look out for the little guy.

How come only the big guy is trying to hire me?

Call facilities maintenance.

Get me two or three workmen.

CAROL: Workmen.

Carpenters, joiners, quitters,

whatever they've got down there.

May I ask you...?

Like a surgeon wields his scalpel,

like a barrister wields his... whatever it is he wields,

I'm using my Briefing Room.

Mr. Speaker, I guess you've seen this story about the job losses.

I have.

I know it's easy to play politics here,

but it's just an allegation.

This deal will create jobs over time.

No one is more concerned about the dislocation than me,

so, if you've got some issues, we should...

Let's get right to my issues.

Sure.

I have no issues.

Meaning?

Meaning you're home, Josh.

Excuse me?

You're home.

I can get you 200,

maybe 210 Republican votes.

My members love it.

You did a fantastic job.

They love it?

Business lobby loves it, tech lobby loves it,

unions always complain about trade.

The labor side agreements.

Those things aren't even enforceable.

And if there really are white-collar job losses?

We knew there might be.

The tech lobby was pressing India to sign the thing.

You knew about that?

Yeah. So did the White House.

It's the way things were going anyway.

India can have our programming jobs.

We'll give them up like we gave up horses and buggies.

They can't take away what's great about the American spirit.

That's... that's it?

Unless I can interest you in running for Congress as a Republican.

I'm kidding.

Tell the President to have a great trip.

We'll start whipping up votes.

So the Vice President's distancing himself.

Lots of Democrats are.

But things went well with the Speaker.

We knew the tech lobby was leaning on India.

Lots of lobbies lean on lots of people.

You sent me into that room

knowing it might cost the CWA jobs.

I sent you into that room

to close a deal.

No one put you in charge of economic policy.

You didn't tell me 'cause I never would have made the deal.

When the President wants a deal,

it's your job to close it.

We don't sign waivers around here.

We made a promise--

me and the President.

That's how we got the CWA.

The first union to endorse us in the first campaign,

which is how we got the AFL-CIO, how we won Iowa, South Dakota.

That was my job, too.

You think we'd be here without it?

You campaign in poetry, you govern in prose.

We promised that union we would protect their jobs.

We said it right to Parsons' face.

We said we'd try to look out for them.

I'm not parsing words.

That's not what we meant.

We have to strip out the copyright provisions.

We'll give them transition assistance.

They call it burial insurance.

Well, it's all burial insurance, isn't it?

Great. Let's revise those talking points:

the case for sweatshop labor,

send your nine-year-old to a sneaker factory.

Let's just call

this whole trade deal "to hell with everything."

I sent you in there to close a deal, and you did.

Thank you.

There are trade-offs.

Lose 17,000 here, gain 30,000 there.

They're human beings.

You're talking in abstractions.

As opposed to what,

meeting every factory worker in America?

Reviewing every line of computer code

and giving little check-marks?

We run a country, we deal in abstractions.

That's easy for you to say.

You're not the one who just screwed 3.3 million people.

Neither are you.

It's the President's agenda.

And it was the President's promise.

Which you can't break, I can't break,

and I am taking this to him,

if I have to park a tractor on the South Lawn to do it.

Hey.

Hey.

The CWA said some nasty things about you to the press.

Yeah, I saw.

Tell your pals at JCN to buy some TV stations,

shut this down in a hurry.

That's good advice.

All the work you do with the unions,

why'd Leo put you at that negotiating table?

'Cause I asked him.

You spend your whole career trying to get in the room,

as if you're the one who can square every circle.

And it turns out...

A circle's a circle.

There's our geometry lesson for the day.

See you on the plane.

You know what these CODELs are like.

We don't need any dime-store diplomats

gumming up the peace process.

There is no peace process.

Dime-store diplomats may be better than no diplomats at all.

We really need a bunch of Congressman

doing back-seat diplomacy?

You really want me to go all the way

to the Middle East with a whistle around my neck,

teach Congressmen how to make lanyards?

I need you to go so we can stay out of trouble.

It's the best we can do in that region right now.

Come back with some lanyards,

I'll toss in a couple of new medals.

( knocking ) I'll go.

You know I'll do whatever you want, Mr. President,

but I think we should

be more engaged over there, not less.

Thank you, Fitz. I appreciate it.

Thank you so much.

Would you give us a minute, please?

Sure.

Leo's told me about the 17,000 jobs.

We have to fix this thing.

We've talked about creative destruction.

We made a promise.

It's the evolutionary nature of capitalism.

This isn't economic theory.

Where's our allegiance?

To our own people or to Third World plutocracies?

There are children in those plutocracies

who dig through trash heaps for food,

who'd kill for a low-wage job.

You think if they're not sewing sneakers,

they're downing cocktails at a debutante ball?

This is different.

These programmers have middle-class jobs.

Different how? Because we know them?

Different...

because you and I looked them in the eye, five years ago,

at the Wayfarer Hotel.

I know that we did.

Sometimes I wish I could stick to the theory.

I don't like seeing our friends get hurt.

Then let's not hurt our friends.

By doing what?

Building a wall around the country

so we can keep those jobs a bit longer and never create any new ones?

Passing a law that no one can be fired,

even if they play video games at their desks all day?

I'd probably get a spike in the poll for that one.

The CWA's the reason we're in this room.

And they would prefer a Republican

who'd support free trade

then gut job training and eviscerate unemployment insurance?

We made a promise.

There was a man named Canute,

one of the great Viking kings of the 11th century.

Wanted his subjects to be aware of his limitations,

so he led them down to the sea

and he commanded that the tide roll out.

It didn't.

Who gave us the notion

Presidents can move the economy like a play-toy?

That we can do more than talk it up

or smooth over the rough spots?

It's a lie.

What we really owe that union is the truth.

We're running around saying

free trade creates high-paying jobs.

And it will.

But I've been trying to tell you it's not that simple.

I'll set up a call with Bill Parsons.

Be nice to roll back that tide,

wouldn't it?

Yes, Mr. President, it sure would.

I want you to do me a favor.

What's that?

Start preparing a statement.

Saying what?

Retracting everything I'm about to say to the room.

( lively, indistinct conversation )

Good afternoon, folks.

I have to apologize--

the pre-Brussels briefing won't start

for half an hour or so.

MAN: What happened in here?

We're making adjustments to your seating assignments.

WOMAN: Adjustments?

You're all aware of the FCC's new rules on media ownership.

As you've reported, they're a big victory

for the little guy--

if by little, of course, we mean

transnational multi-billion-dollar conglomerates.

And in that spirit of runaway populism,

the White House Briefing Room will now offer

just one seat per corporate owner.

( grumbling )

One seat for MertMedia,

one for GE, one for Disney, Viacom, News Corp,

Clear Channel, Tribune.

Guess you'll have to flip a coin to see who gets to sit.

Why are you doing this?

'Cause if America's choices are gonna be restricted,

so are yours and everyone's gonna know it.

Brock, see if your business desk'll lend you

a folding chair.

See seven of you in half an hour.

They're still in your office.

Yeah.

What are they doing?

Waiting by the sea.

What's this?

Your diplomatic passport.

You got me a seat on the...

No, I even had to give mine to McKenna.

I'm going on the press plane.

Oh.

Well, you tried.

You're going on a CODEL to the Middle East

with Fitzwallace and Andy.

No presidential hand-holding.

You're gonna see what's going on; brief me and Toby about it.

What I did wrong

wasn't breaking my word.

It was making a promise

I couldn't keep in the first place.

( knocking )

I understand we lost about 39.37% of the seats

in the Briefing Room.

I've retracted that,

and I'm having the government bill me for the carpentry.

I know you have a two-by-four

to pick with the FCC.

You said I could use the Briefing Room.

I did.

Our own press guidance

said it was a victory for the little guy

when it was an amnesty for monopolists.

And when do we stop rewarding it?

Can I ask you a question?

Sure. Who's the little guy?

I'm serious. Who is he?

Do you know of any poor, struggling station owners?

Some guy in hand-me-downs

tying antennas to a pick-up truck?

No.

Even the smallest stations earn tens of millions.

Lots of 'em have no news programming at all.

We're supposed to upend the marketplace

on principle alone?

People need to know what's going on.

They need to know big changes are happening

when no one's looking.

That doesn't mean we can stop them.

It doesn't mean we go down without a fight, either.

Send me that bill.

I'd like to pay for the carpentry myself.

Thanks, but it was worth every nickel.

MAN: I'm educated, I work as hard as anybody,

and this isn't the first time I've lost my job.

Where does it end?

Am I gonna be working at a video rental counter

next to some high school dropout?

The staff vans are leaving.

Ten years ago, I worked for this Senate candidate.

He had this idea that health care, pensions,

even vacation time ought to be portable,

that it should follow you from job to job,

'cause everyone was gonna work 15 jobs in a lifetime.

Might as well fly in the teeth of it.

And we talked him out of it.

We told him he was scaring the bejeesus out of people.

Who wants to know about 15 jobs?

Maybe we should've done that; I don't know.

What do you know, Mr. Lyman?

We can't save your jobs.

We are gonna create more in the long run,

but we can't save your jobs.

It's the short run

we got to figure out.

The world's moving faster, we can't stop it.

I wish we could.

We are gonna do more to prepare you.

We have to.

Is that a promise?

No.

But we're gonna try.