Well, state lawmakers tonight are asking tough questions about the Security and Prosperity Partnership, what some call the North American Union. It's a plan devised by the Council of Foreign Relations, supported by big business and government elites to integrate the economies of the United States, Mexico, and Canada, with, of course, no congressional or voter oversight or approval. Christine Romans reports now that more than a dozen states are urging the administration to abandon their plan.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Crawford, Texas, 2005. Cancun, 2006. Ottawa, last month. At the highest levels, the three North American governments are making the Security and Prosperity Partnership a top priority.
Canada's foreign minister last month...
PETER MACKAY, CANADIAN MINISTER OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS: I think it's fitting that for the first time the three of us would meet under the same room that's in the context of the SPP.
ROMANS: They're working with major companies, harmonizing regulations, they say, and working to move goods and people more safely and quickly across borders. Arizona state senator Karen Johnson is convinced it's nothing short of a move toward a European-style North American union. She doesn't buy the government position that the SPP is an effort to make all three countries more efficient and safe.
KAREN JOHNSON (R), ARIZONA STATE SENATE: How can you harmonize and merge laws together with a narco-state? I mea, that is what Mexico is. It's an oligarchy. It has nothing to do with the way we govern. And Canada, as nice a country as it is, is socialistic.
ROMANS: Hers is one of more than a dozen states where lawmakers are considering legislation or passing resolutions opposing the SPP.
In the Illinois general assembly, for example, a House resolution cited the "open borders vision of the SPP" and urged the U.S. to withdraw from any further participation in the Security and Prosperity Partnership.
The administration denies its avail for some sort of North American union.
THOMAS SHANNON, STATE DEPT.: We think that we have kind of created not only a trail of public events, but also a trail of very explicit documents highlighting what it is we're trying to accomplish.
ROMANS: But not everyone supports what they're trying to accomplish.
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ROMANS: Lawmakers like Karen Johnson in Arizona fear an assault on sovereignty and states' rights. And Canada, the liberals fear for their benefits and welfare system, and for their social network that they have there. And from the Mexican press point of view, at the Ottawa event last month some very pointed questions and outright skepticism about whether the United States is thinking about anybody but itself in all of this.
DOBBS: Well, I would think that the Mexican press would give the United States great credit taking care of 20 million of its citizens here. I mean, that's -- that seems like such a harsh view for the Mexican press to adopt.
What kind of idiots are the American people that we put up with this kind of nonsense? That we tolerate a president -- I can't even imagine what the Canadians are thinking.
The Canadians, they've got a wonderful country, wonderful people. They're being rolled over just like we are.
I just can't understand why there isn't an absolute, just straight out statement from every American to the U.S. government, "Stick it, and don't pull this again"?
ROMANS: I'm not sure what -- I can't speak to the intellectual capacity of the American people or their ability to band together, but, you know...
DOBBS: Well, the intellectual capacity -- I can speak to it. We're a wonderful, smart people. But we put up with so much nonsense. It's -- it's getting to the point of disgust.
Anyway, thanks for riling me up.
ROMANS: I'm sorry to rile you up, Lou.
DOBBS: Thank you very much.
ROMANS: Well, the state lawmakers have definitely made their voice heard on this. So...
DOBBS: Well, good. It's time people got riled up in this country.
ROMANS: So maybe that's where the American people's voice is heard, through the state legislature.
DOBBS: Absolutely. I hope that they'll get something done on this for all our sakes.