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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Battle Over the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Fast-Track Gets Hot
by Dean Baker
President Obama must be having trouble getting the votes for fast-track authority since the administration is now pulling out all the stops to push the deal. This has included a press call where he apparently got testy over the charge by critics that the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a secret trade deal.
Obama insisted the deal is not secret, but googling "TPP" will not get you a copy of the text. Apparently President Obama is using a different definition of "secret" than the ordinary English usage.
But that wasn't the only fun in the last week. The administration got 13 former Democratic governors to sign a letter boasting about the jobs generated by the growth of exports. The letter noted that exports had added "$760 billion to our economy between 2009 and 2014 -- one-third of our total growth." It neglected to mention that imports had grown even faster, diverting $890 billion in demand away from the domestic economy to foreign economies.
Contrary to what the governors were claiming in their letter, trade was a net negative to the tune of more than $130 billion over this five-year period. Instead of adding jobs, the growing trade deficit was drag on growth, slowing job creation and putting downward pressure on wages. The growth in the trade deficit over this period has the same impact on the economy as if people pulled $130 billion out of their paychecks each year and stuffed it under their mattress.
more
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dean-baker/the-battle-over-the-trans_b_7157258.html
cali
(114,904 posts)going on, on both sides of the aisle is obvious and fierce.
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)It was highly unpopular with the public, who put pressure on their representatives; who in turn opposed it on the floor. Clinton whipped and strong armed them because he was a determined to push NAFTA as our own president now is pushing TPP.
WillyT
(72,631 posts)mmonk
(52,589 posts)Which way will it go?
Baitball Blogger
(46,720 posts)It's promising that Obama is experiencing resistance from his own party. That means even if we vote in a Thirdwayer into office in the next election we may still manage to protect the party's platform.
Not Sure
(735 posts)There's a lot riding on this, and not just for the president.
Protalker
(418 posts)The exit of more jobs, diminished power of unions, richer at the top. You don't need a PhD to figure out this is what Baltimore symbolizes.
djean111
(14,255 posts)ood for the US" or some such equivalent. Looks to me like the TPP/TTIP et al. are the natural result of global corporations getting together and borrowing Louis XIV's (apocryphal, I know) ""L'État, c'est moi".
Yes, corporations are now The State, American (or any country's) citizens are not really important. In fact, for citizens, the only important things seem to be how little can they be paid, how little health care can they grudgingly be given, how badly can they be treated before they revolt or cease to be productive. As far as land and air and water - how much can be polluted before there is real penalty involved - not damage, mind you, but any penalty that has not been done away with. Voting - equivalent to the bread and circuses, complete with sponsors.
Fast Track is now, IMO, just a device to keep citizens from having any say in things. Maybe we used to be able to say oh, we can depend on these agreements to be made with the best interests of the people in mind - but only a naive and fucking loony simpleton would believe that a crowd of corporate spokesmen would do anything that benefited anything but themselves.
And that trickle down bullshit is just, well, bullshit. The corporations hoard the profits, they hide the profits, they only reward themselves with the profits.
So I am tired of reading that Fast Track is how we have always done it. Fast Track is now just the device used to ensure that not one bit of what the global corporate community wants for themselves can be altered or changed.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)pampango
(24,692 posts)in things" and conservative republicans oppose it overwhelmingly.
And yet liberal Democrats support it and the TPP and republicans (particularly the tea party wing) oppose it overwhelmingly.
IMHO, the republicans who control congress and would have the ability to rewrite the TPP, without fast track, are "a crowd of corporate spokesmen would" NOT "do anything that benefited anything but themselves".
djean111
(14,255 posts)"And yet liberal Democrats support it and the TPP and republicans (particularly the tea party wing) oppose it overwhelmingly."
http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2015/01/27/gop-wants-to-fast-track-obamas-trade-deals.html
WASHINGTON Six years into his time in office, President Barack Obama rarely has been able to claim Republican support.
But at a hearing of the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday, it was the GOP, not Democrats, who roundly supported giving Obama more authority.
Specifically, Republicans seek to give Obama fast track authority that will allow him to send trade-agreement proposals to Congress for a simple yes or no vote with no amendments. Past presidents beginning with Richard Nixon have been able to use such authority; the last agreement expired in 2007.
Same thing, no matter what source.
???????????
raindaddy
(1,370 posts)Fighting to pass another trade deal that allows global corporations to undermine local, state and federal laws if they feel their never ending search for more profits are effected...
So either the FDR tradition of standing up to Wall Street and rich CEOs, supporting labor and a strong middle class is officially over or
we have to fight back.