With the economy once again in free-fall - President Obama is desperately trying to pivot the debate in Washington away from the economy in free fall and over to jobs - where frankly it should have been since the day he was sworn into office.

Unfortunately - President Obama’s idea of creating jobs won’t ACTUALLY create any jobs… at least, not here in America.

Here’s the common message coming from the White House over the last few days:

President Obama: And I want Congress to pass a set of trade deals — deals we’ve already negotiated — that would help displaced workers looking for new jobs and would allow our businesses to sell more products in countries in Asia and South America

Austan Goolsbee: I think that that calls on us to maybe do some of the bipartisan things you saw Senator Kerry talking about--an infrastructure bank or whether it's the free trade agreements

David Axelrod: The President has proposed a series of steps that he thinks we should take, ... trade treaties that will expand our exports, patent reform ...

Anybody remember Ross Perot? Free Trade, Free Trade, Free Trade… or as I call it - “so-called Free Trade”.

The reason why Free Trade isn’t free is because with each new Free Trade agreement that we sign onto - we get a raw deal.

We open up our borders - foreign business tycoons get a bunch of brand new American customers to sell their televisions, furniture, and cars to - and then they send the profits back home to reinvest in their economies.

Sounds like a great deal for them.

Unfortunately - whether it’s South Korea - India - China - or Mexico, whatever - anywhere in the world - we don’t get the same great deal in return.

They say - 'sure - you can come sell your stuff over here - but you have to meet this long list of regulations - you have to pay this much in tariffs - and you can only sell this much stuff - now good luck competing with our domestic industries that don’t have to meet any of those requirements'.

Of course - there’s a way to get around those regulations - American CEOs just have to ship all their factories overseas and start hiring foreign workers to build stuff - that’s how they avoid all the import taxes.

Not only that - CEOs also have access to much cheaper labor which in turn maximizes profits.

This is what Ross Perot warned us about in 1992 - remember?.

Ross Perot: and you don't care about anything but making money, there will be a giant sucking sound going south.

Yep. As our economy tanks - more and more American CEOs are doing just that - shipping their operations overseas to economies that - unlike here in America - are actually booming and pay their workers far less.

That’s exactly what former DNC Chairman and Bill Clinton buddy Terry McAuliffe is doing - and he boasted about this morning on MSNBC - take a look:

Terry McAuliffe: Well, first and foremost the trade agreements... We need, Chuck, in this country, a long term strategic plan to create what I talk about are manufacturing jobs. We've lost 5 million manufacturing jobs in the last 10 years, 50,000 plants have closed. I'm doing... I just announced a plant in China.. We're ready to go, laid the cornerstone two days ago in China, and we're off and building it.

Tired of seeing jobs shipped overseas - but he's opening up a car factory in China??

Luckily - I wasn't the only one who picked up on that particular hypocrisy:

Chuck Todd: Now explain. You're building a factory in China but this is going to create American jobs. There's a little bit of disconnect.

Terry McAuliffe: What we're doing in China is because of the high tariffs. We have to build there. It's the fastest growing auto market in the world. So the cars will be built there but all the core products, all the core ingredients that go inside the car, the power train, the battery, all made in America and shipped over there. Great news. I am sick and tired of seeing our jobs go to China.

A-freakin-mazing.

Because China has tariffs - that's taxes on imports as we used to have here from 1791 until 1990 - McAuliffe needs to play ball - and give China a brand new factory that will employ Chinese workers - and make profits for the Chinese economy - just so he can open up a much smaller factory in Mississippi to build car parts and employ a few American workers in a so-called right to work for less state.

I guess that's what job creation is about in America nowadays.

My question is - why don't we do the same thing China is doing here? Why not have tariffs here - and force foreign car manufacturers to open factories here in America - and not just cars but computers and TVs and pretty much everything else - and employ Americans? Clothes, toys, furniture, I mean, it's a long list.

The reason we can't, the reason we don't, is because corporate CEOs like Terry McAuliffe have given up in America.

As an article in today's Los Angeles Times entitled, "As U.S. stumbles, companies invest in consumer growth overseas" noted:

Many major U.S. companies are making big plans to expand overseas even as some of them announce new layoffs at home, and there's a chilling reason why: They're beginning to give up on the American consumer as a source of future growth...[A]s the nation's economy stalls and personal incomes stagnate, they see consumers in Asia and Latin America as offering brighter prospects for future sales and profits.

And more and more so-called Free Trade agreements give transnational corporations the tools they need to leave the American consumer behind - and find a new consumer somewhere else in the world.

This isn't a partisan issue - Terry McAuliffe used to be the chair of the freaking DNC!

And Republicans love Free Trade as much anyone.

Both parties are to blame on this.

And I've said it before - and I'll say it again - the first political party that takes on so-called Free Trade - that exposes the myth of it - will see big gains in the next election.

I mean, just think back to Ross Perot. This guy got 20% of the vote and he had a vice presidential candidate, Admiral Stockton, whose famous line was, "who am I, why am I here?" But he got 20% of the vote with no political party, with no political expertise, he looked like a cranky old billionaire which is what he was. He had these funny charts and graphs. But Americans understood the bottom line message.

From the time when Alexander Hamilton in 1791 proposed that we start increasing tariffs, that we put tariffs around our country so that if things are imported into this country there's a tax charged on them.

So if it costs a dollar in labor to make a pare of shoes in Connecticut and you can make it for 20 cents in China, there's an 80 cent tax at the border. You can make it for 50 cents in Mexico, there's a 50 cent tax on the border.

From that time 1791 until finally the Clinton administration in 1996 when we blew that all open by signing NAFTA, GATT and the WTO, we protected our manufacturers. The American people understand that.

I'm telling you, the party that goes back to protectionist trade policies is the party that will never again lose an election.

Let's hope progressives and democrats pick up on that long before the Tea Party does.

That's The Big Picture.