Obama Fast-Track Trade Agenda Risk Comes From Democrat Sander Levin

[Purveyor]

By Laura Litvan - Jan 10, 2014

One of the biggest challenges to President Barack Obama’s trade agenda is a senior House Democrat from Michigan with some of the Capitol’s closest ties to organized labor and his home state’s auto industry.

Representative Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, said he’ll lead opposition to a bipartisan measure unveiled yesterday to allow Obama to negotiate trade deals that lawmakers can’t amend. A fast-track method for advancing trade agreements, which the administration wants, is key to winning passage of some of the largest trade agreements in history.

“I don’t support what they’ve proposed,” Levin told reporters, saying he’ll write a rival measure that expands the role of Congress in overseeing trade deals. “It can’t be the same old business as usual in terms of the role of Congress.”

The move by Levin, House Democrats’ leader on trade policy, comes as Obama faces growing opposition from members of his own party who say the trade deals being negotiated could short-change U.S. workers and some industries. Levin’s expertise on trade gives him the ability to pull his way other members who aren’t decided, said Michael Moore, a professor of economics and international affairs at George Washington University.

His stance also risks expanding the intra-party rift over free trade and U.S. jobs as the party seeks to make income inequality an issue in the 2014 midterm election, Moore said.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-10/obama-fast-track-trade-agenda-risk-comes-from-democrat.html

[msongs]

1. obama's secret behind our backs trade agenda. no fast track for this nt

[Octafish]

2. Aren't secret treaties, you know, un-Democratic?

It's like Secret Government: Zero Accountability and No Telling who Benefits until it's Too Late to Do Anything About It.

[woo me with science]

4. +1 Kind of like mass surveillance.

[Octafish]

5. Wall Street and the Master Race of the Universe

In the old days:

First they build up an enemy.

Then they buy the industries needed to fight said enemy.

Know your BFEE: Spawn of Wall Street and the Third Reich

Now, though, they own the government, too.

Unfortunately for democracy.

[woo me with science]

3. Only as many Democrats as are needed to support it

will end up supporting it. Corporatists are very, very slick at what they do.

The Democratic Party's Deceitful Game
http://www.salon.com/2010/02/23/democrats_34/

Tuesday, Feb 23, 2010 11:24 AM UTC
The Democratic Party’s deceitful game
They are willing to bravely support any progressive bill as long as there's no chance it can pass
By Glenn Greenwald

....
This is what the Democratic Party does...They’re willing to feign support for anything their voters want just as long as there’s no chance that they can pass it. They won control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections by pretending they wanted to compel an end to the Iraq War and Bush surveillance and interrogation abuses because they knew they would not actually do so; and indeed, once they were given the majority, the Democratic-controlled Congress continued to fund the war without conditions, to legalize Bush’s eavesdropping program, and to do nothing to stop Bush’s habeas and interrogation abuses (“Gosh, what can we do? We just don’t have 60 votes).

The primary tactic in this game is Villain Rotation. They always have a handful of Democratic Senators announce that they will be the ones to deviate this time from the ostensible party position and impede success, but the designated Villain constantly shifts, so the Party itself can claim it supports these measures while an always-changing handful of their members invariably prevent it. One minute, it’s Jay Rockefeller as the Prime Villain leading the way in protecting Bush surveillance programs and demanding telecom immunity; the next minute, it’s Dianne Feinstein and Chuck Schumer joining hands and “breaking with their party” to ensure Michael Mukasey’s confirmation as Attorney General; then it’s Big Bad Joe Lieberman single-handedly blocking Medicare expansion; then it’s Blanche Lincoln and Jim Webb joining with Lindsey Graham to support the de-funding of civilian trials for Terrorists; and now that they can’t blame Lieberman or Ben Nelson any longer on health care (since they don’t need 60 votes), Jay Rockefeller voluntarily returns to the Villain Role, stepping up to put an end to the pretend-movement among Senate Democrats to enact the public option via reconciliation.

We need people in the streets. Major corporate assaults *usually* pass with this Congress full of Third Way wolves.

[Kermitt Gribble]

6. +1

First time I've seen that article - Greenwald is spot-on.