General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWith TPP there's what they say, and what they mean
What they say:
"TPP will create new opportunities to grow our economy."
What they mean:
"We are going to treat workers like livestock."
This is how Washington sees American workers and their families.
Don't keep falling for this shit over and over! Fight back! Stop the madness! Stop TPP!
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)What's that 8 TPP screaming threads, in 20 minutes?
whereisjustice
(2,941 posts)trading 8x10 photoshopped glossies of Obama with his shirt on and off.
Millions of American workers are about to get fucked. I'll take the risk.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)will do ALL of that ... even though no one knows how it will shake out!
JEB
(4,748 posts)that it will shake out any different than the previous trade agreements. NAFTA at 20: One Million U.S. Jobs Lost, Higher Income Inequality.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-wallach/nafta-at-20-one-million-u_b_4550207.html
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)everything under this Administration has shaken out differently from what preceded it.
Lilly Ledbetter Act ... tried, failed ... accomplished under this administration.
Same Sex marriage ... tried, failed ... accomplished under this administration.
Healthcare reform ... tried, failed ... accomplished under this administration.
Wall street regulation ... reversed ... re-regulated under this administration.
The economy in free fall ... ... tried, failed ... accomplished under this administration.
That's why!
JEB
(4,748 posts)Have not Boosted
U.S. Exports
http://www.citizen.org/documents/obama-export-claims-proved-wrong.pdf
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)The incessant propaganda is beyond pathetic.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)And, no, I'm not being snarky. I really want to hear how this has occurred. I would like to know what we have reformed under the present 3rd party reimbursement scheme and where it's occurred.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)Healthcare FINANCING reform accomplished ... the state of healthcare remains the same (or maybe a little bit, though only tangentially related to the ACA).
But if you are serious, here ya go: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119623/obamacare-one-year-seven-charts-show-law-working
Now ... Is it working perfectly for each and every participant, probably not - but that is the nature of any "program", including {insert your financing single here}. Yet it remains, the ACA is working and it is better than what preceded it.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)My health care background is broad in terms of provider application, and much of the ancillary practice and physician practice over a the past 40 years. I'm still a respiratory therapist who works along with the docs to provide physician services. My management hat was only worn a short while, but I was formally educated about management across the range (we call health care continuum).
The amount of services and how costly it is over all those years has brought me worry in terms of how much of the GDP is swallowed up by it. All the while, it is less and less efficient. What we are looking at here is the perfect storm. Had we not gotten caught up by those criminals of the Bush/Cheney years, THIS would be the #1 problem dragging us down into all levels of hell. We simply can't afford to keep delivering health using this model.
I HEAR you when you say it isn't working perfectly but it's better than what preceded it. Yes… But it HAS to become what it should have, and we've lost so much ground in getting there. I don't even want to think of what these assholes in the House and Senate are going to do over the next 2 years.
We need single payer and yet…. here we are. We are so broken. I have to tell you this as an insider. It's getting ready to implode over these next 2 years.
We better hope for some miracle over the next two years.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)however, the frustration does not change the fact that we live within certain political constraints, and the primary constraint is the way we go about making laws ... it requires a majority vote of our elected officials. And as frustrated as we are, there simply (and tragically) were not the votes for single-payer.
I have no doubt that once the people realize that the ACA will not lead to the fall of western civilization (as the doomsayers predicted), they/we will be able to take the next step ... a public option, in the state/federal exchanges; which will lead to the single-payer that we all want.
Social change comes grindingly slow ... but it can be sped along. For example, if Vermont can figure out a way to make it work, or if the people wake up to the fact that we already have 2 different working (and relatively efficient, though not perfect) single-payer models ... Medicare and the Veteran Administration.
But until that happens, single-payer is a long way off.
StopTheTPP
(64 posts)
KoKo
(84,711 posts)This is from the last SOTU ....but, even more relevant since Obama wants to set up FAST TRACK to ram through the TPP as soon as he finishes tonight's speech.
-----------------
SOTU, TPP, TAFTA -- WTF?
Posted: 02/13/2013 1:52 pm EST Updated: 04/15/2013 5:12 am EDT
Did you notice the two rabid skunks President Obama unleashed at the State of the Union picnic?
Creating American jobs! Rebuilding American manufacturing! Boosting American exports! Promoting innovation! Ensuring strong health and environmental protections! Completing an 11-nation NAFTA-style "free trade" agreement (FTA) called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - aka NAFTA with Vietnam? Launch of "free trade" negotiations with Europe long-demanded by multinational corporations to eliminate vital consumer protections - the Trans-Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA)?
Two of these things are not like the others. Indeed, TPP and TAFTA would gut many of the most worthy goals included in Obama's SOTU address if the American public and Congress let them come to fruition.
Says who? Well, the official U.S. government trade and employment data, to start with. Since the implementation of our existing FTAs, more than 60,000 U.S. manufacturing facilities have been shuttered and we have lost five million manufacturing jobs - fully one quarter of America's manufacturing jobs prior to the agreements' implementation. Like TPP, these past pacts include investment rules that actually incentivize the offshoring of American jobs.
And, U.S. export growth to countries that are not FTA partners has exceeded U.S. export growth to countries that are FTA partners by 38 percent over the last decade. The aggregate U.S. trade deficit with FTA partners has increased by more than $144 billion (inflation-adjusted) since the FTAs were implemented. In contrast, the aggregate deficit with all non-FTA countries has decreased by more than $55 billion since 2006 (the median entry date of existing FTAs). Even using the Obama administration's net exports-to-jobs ratio and excluding China trade, the FTA trade deficit surge alone implies the loss of nearly one million American jobs. So, let's do more of the same NAFTA-style pacts, but this time with Vietnam, the low-wage offshoring alternative to China.
Maybe the TPP and TAFTA touting is just pure cynicism. For instance, note that the president did not reiterate his 2010 State of the Union goal of doubling U.S. exports in five years by passing more "free trade" agreements. With two years left, the United States should be 60 percent of the way toward achieving this goal. Instead, the U.S. International Trade Commission annual 2012 trade data released this weekend show that under the sluggish 2012 export growth rate of two percent, we will not achieve the president's goal until 2032.
And, the FTAs that Obama touted in last year's State of the Union address have not created the promised industrial jobs. Rather, U.S. government trade flow data tracking the initial outcomes of FTAs with Korea, Colombia and Panama, which took effect in 2012, show that combined U.S. exports to the three countries during the months of FTA implementation fell four percent relative to the same months of 2011. U.S. goods exports to Korea plummeted by 10 percent and the U.S. trade deficit with Korea grew 26 percent. That equates to thousands of lost U.S. jobs just in the first year of that latest batch of more-of-the-same NAFTA-style deals.
Indeed, the annual U.S. trade deficit in goods excluding oil rose six percent in 2012 to $628 billion, the largest non-oil U.S. trade deficit in the last five years. The U.S. trade deficit with China (even with oil included) broke all past records, topping $321 billion. That Obama more-of-the-same trade agenda is working so well, why not more of the same...
But there's more!
While TPP negotiations have been conducted in extreme secrecy for three years, some texts have leaked, including the intellectual property chapter. It contains extreme SOPA-style copyright enforcement terms that would undermine Internet freedom and innovation. Says who? The Electronic Frontier Foundation and some of Congress' most reliable pro-"free-trade" voters from House Oversight Committee Chair Darrell Issa (R-Cal.) to Senate Trade Subcommittee Chair Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) to Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Cal.).
And, that Trans-Atlantic FTA? That's the pet project of the Trans-Atlantic Business Dialogue a club of financial, agribusiness, pharmaceutical, chemical and other U.S. and European multinationals. TAFTA's focus would not be trade per se - border taxes (tariffs) are already low. Rather, these talks are aimed at eliminating a list of what multinational corporations call "trade irritants" but the rest of us know as strong food safety, environmental and health safeguards.
The target list? The strongest consumer and environmental policies on either side of the Atlantic. U.S. firms want Europe to gut their superior chemical regulation regime, their tougher food safety rules and labeling of genetically modified foods and their tougher climate policies. European firms are targeting aspects of the U.S. financial reregulation regime, our stronger drug and medical device safety and testing standards and more.ger drug and medical device safety and testing standards and more.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lori-wallach/sotu-tpp-tafta-wtf_b_2678523.html
dflprincess
(28,079 posts)and let me add this from Bernie Sanders:
"It is incomprehensible to me that the leaders of major corporate interests who stand to gain enormous financial benefits from this agreement are actively involved in the writing of the TPP while, at the same time, the elected officials of this country, representing the American people, have little or no knowledge as to what is in it"
truedelphi
(32,324 posts)JEB
(4,748 posts)Thanks for posting.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)He seemed to understand prior to tonight where that dirty, filthy oil was headed and how few jobs were created.
djean111
(14,255 posts)Obama is quite stoked about the TPP. Sadly.
MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)I hate both these ideas.
Dirty oil with no jobs is one thing, but this TPP is yet another extension of trade policy that does nothing for labor, net…weakens labor policy further.
Words, words, words… mean nothing without a boost for the jobs, of which there are legitimate reasons for job creation. But, trade policies that benefit international corporations and forget about workers is another nail in the coffin of this terrible economy.
nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)Taking time out from starting threads that jeer at progressives just to count your OPs. That's so adorable!
In any event, a rousing speech is quite wondrous, but the TPP and other agreements like it actually affect livelihoods and lives.
Thanks for the OPs!
CK_John
(10,005 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)It is about extending drug patents for quite a while longer, hampering the access of poor people to drugs. It is about Pharma giving signatory states fucking formularies of what they can use.
Only two parts out of the 26 or 27 or 28 or so have anything to do with access and tariffs. More about not labeling anything with country of origin, things like that. Government contracts will have to be let out for bids by all signatory countries - and if you think the lowest bid from the country that pays the lowest wages won't win, you are dreaming. What do you think will happen to wages here? Greased slide to the bottom.
CK_John
(10,005 posts)them to buy the little we do make. 95% of the the world lives over there.
China sold a million bicycles in their capital alone last month, we don't sell a million bicycles all year. That's what it's all about, numbers.