would be created in the United States than would be lost to Mexico... [T]he American automobile industry will grow substantially, and the net effect will be an increase in automobile jobs." He further argued that trade liberalization following World War II had led to the "biggest increase in jobs and standard of living among the industrialized nations [in] history. " In a September 1993 to the Center for National Policy think tank, Reich said, "Great change demands great flexibility -- the capacity to adapt quickly and continuously, to change jobs, change directions, gain new skills. But the sad irony is that massive change on the scale we are now facing may be inviting the opposite reaction: a politics of preservation, grounded in fear." Reich specifically said opposition to NAFTA "has little to do with the agreement and much to do with the pervasive anxieties arising from economic changes that are already affecting Americans." In October, Reich addressed the biannual AFL-CIO convention in San Francisco, where Economic Policy Institute economist Thea Lea mocked Reich's view as a "field-of-dreams" theory of job creation. His remarks were generally well-received, though only briefly mentioning NAFTA; he focused on the Clinton administration's approach to the National Labor Relations Board and day-to-day business regulation and management-labor relations. In advance of the final vote, Reich personally lobbied members of Congress to support the Agreement. The bill passed the House 234–200 on November 17 and the Senate 61–38 on November 20; President Clinton signed it in to law on December 8. Over twenty years later, in opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership as "NAFTA on steroids," Reich repudiated his position. He further admitted that he regretted "not doing more to strengthen [NAFTA]'s labor and environmental side-agreements," though he denied supporting an expedited "fast-track" legislative process without opportunity for amendment. Return to influence (1995–1997) By August 1994, Reich had largely been sidelined on policy by the deficit hawks in the administration. With the approval of the White House, he delivered the first of four major speeches on the emergence of a new "anxious class" of Americans concerned with increased global competition and technological change. After a disastrous showing for the Democratic Party in the November 1994 midterm elections, Reich returned to the forefront of the Clinton economic team. Clinton reframed his agenda around a set of Reich proposals: middle-class tax cuts, a boost in the minimum wage, tax deductions for college