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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThat's all she wrote: Pelosi to support TAA
Earlier in the month, Pelosi and other liberal House Democrats blocked legislation extending the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) program as a tactical move to sink the bill granting President Obama trade promotion authority (TPA), known as fast-track, to which it was tied.
But with the Senate set to send a stand-alone fast-track bill to the White House on Wednesday, House Democrats say they no longer have any reason to block the TAA, which they've long championed as a protection for workers harmed by trade deals.
"Im disappointed that the TAA bill isnt nearly as robust as it should be in light of a trade agreement that encompasses 40 percent of the global economy," Pelosi wrote Wednesday morning in a Dear Colleague letter.
"While we may not all vote in the same manner on TAA, I will support its passage because it can open the door to a full debate on TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership]."
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/245967-pelosi-house-dems-lining-up-behind-workers-aid-bill
TAA is a good bill, by itself (though it could be more robust); but it was the last thing needed to fast-track TPP. They're breaking out the champagne and cigars on K Street...
99th_Monkey
(19,326 posts)Oh wait. Obama's already for this TPP reaming of US workers. never mind.
Autumn
(45,107 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)The People have just been royally screwn again.
And this will turn into some vague promise to put lipstick on an as yet nonexistent pig at some unspecified future date.
InAbLuEsTaTe
(24,122 posts)Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Translation: "Great Leader (on the right) is opposed by Warren, Sanders, and Brown (on the left), as the Republicans in the background cheer on Great Leader"
djean111
(14,255 posts)And that is how I feel about any of them needing my, or my family's, or my friends' votes. Not happening.
markpkessinger
(8,401 posts)frylock
(34,825 posts)senseandsensibility
(17,066 posts)with everyone playing their part.
nc4bo
(17,651 posts)No one is surprised, are they?
We have all read this dark comedy before, several times.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)Agnosticsherbet
(11,619 posts)So, yes, this is a domocracy.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)but the people are assuredly not their owners. And we know who are.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Proud Public Servant
(2,097 posts)He would not sign the fast track bill unless TAA was also on his desk -- and now it will be.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)He wanted TAA and he wanted TPA. If I want ice cream and I want cake, I'm not going to refuse to eat ice cream if I don't get cake.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)They passed TPA without the TAA, so the House Dems could decide to get TPA with TAA or get the TPA without the TAA.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)Said this weeks ago.
Romulox
(25,960 posts)while pretending to oppose it herself and "allowing" more vulnerable members to oppose it (once a tally shows it will pass without their support.)
HFRN
(1,469 posts)protecting congress from accountability
Recursion
(56,582 posts)They should be able to wring a clean TAA out of Ryan...
Proud Public Servant
(2,097 posts)Recursion
(56,582 posts)Or if Ryan honestly thought he had the votes a week ago.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)Agony
(2,605 posts)imagine that
job training paid for with ??? for people who then won't have any jobs that they re-trained for.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)Proud Public Servant
(2,097 posts)They struck that provision, though it's not clear to me how they're paying for it now.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)Does anyone think a Repuke congress will spend a penny to help working people?
Nite Owl
(11,303 posts)like privatizing Social Security.
hobbit709
(41,694 posts)when it comes to giving the corporations what they want, they're practically identical.
TwilightGardener
(46,416 posts)truebrit71
(20,805 posts)...
Buns_of_Fire
(17,183 posts)Lesson 1. Watch this video:
Lesson 2. Repeat after me: "Do you want fries with that?"
Lesson 3. Repeat after me: "Is that for here or to go?"
Lesson 4: Don't oversalt the fries, and always use the scoop to put fries in the sleeves.
Lesson 5: Since ordering stations vary, ask your manager/supervisor/trainer for specific instructions.
For those entering the exciting world of retail, watch this video:
Substitute the name of your new employer for "Costco" where appropriate.
There. You are now retrained.
And I've just saved the government at least $500 million. Where do I write to claim my 10%?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Because TAA has utterly failed after every previous "free trade" bill, and there's no reason to suspect this one will work.
First, you have to get your former employer to admit they sent your job overseas. Very few employers will do this. First, you don't work there anymore, so fuck you. Second, they "outsourced their manufacturing". Your job could have been lost to a US company, they just happened to pick a company that just happened to be located in another country.
Second, "retraining" won't do jack shit for getting a high paying job. You need a minimum of a 4-year-degree or an apprentice-like program for a trade, and TAA doesn't do either.
Third, if we ignore #2 and pretend that retraining was enough, companies are not going to hire older, retrained workers. Why hire a 40-something that will cost your health plan more when you can abuse the hell out of a 20-something?
Finally, people who accepted TAA after previous trade deals have a lower income than those who did not. Kinda demonstrates the program doesn't actually do what is claimed.
TAA is political theater so that Democrats can pretend that they don't want to fuck us over.
Buns_of_Fire
(17,183 posts)The only people who'll really benefit will be the owners of the trade schools that'll pop up everywhere to get a cut of those juicy federal dollars.
HFRN
(1,469 posts)while almost everyone I know has been slammed by these anti-worker/anti-middle class programs
the sole purpose of the 'adjustments' is to make the toxic bill pass
DCBob
(24,689 posts)Workers who are determined to have lost their jobs because of production shifts overseas or import competition can receive benefits such as relocation assistance, subsidized health care insurance, and extended unemployment benefits. Typically, workers must be enrolled in job training programs to receive the unemployment benefits.
Alternately, some workers 50 years and older can receive wage insurance, where the government will cover 50% of the difference in a workers reduced wages, topping out at $12,000 over two years, if theyre reemployed in lower paying jobs. The program also included tax credits that provide health care to displaced workers, but that component expired at the end of 2013.
http://blogs.wsj.com/briefly/2015/06/15/5-questions-on-trade-adjustment-assistance/
Sounds reasonable to me.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Tell me how you prove that. Keep in mind the companies that actually offshore the jobs have a bidding process that includes US companies.
Also, you have 8 weeks to do it, from the day you are laid off.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)I suspect it wont be easy but clearly there will be money and assistance available for those that are legit and can navigate the process.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)You have to get your former employer to admit they "shipped your job to Mexico". In writing.
Except that isn't actually the case. The laid-off are on their own to get a letter from their former employer before TAA does jack shit for them.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)All big government programs tend to be that way. It usually works out if you have the patience and knowledge on how to do it.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)And as I said above, the people who actually took TAA are making less money than the people who did not. Thus, it did not "work out" for the people who actually did know "how to do it".
DCBob
(24,689 posts)What would be the point of the program at all?
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)That program will never ever be funded by Repukes.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)"Sure we voted for a treaty that shipped your job overseas. But we also voted to help you get a better job! So keep voting for me!"
The fact that it doesn't actually work doesn't matter. It's a 100% political maneuver. Same reason that the parts for an F-35 are built in factories sprinkled all over the US.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)I am glad its there. Anyone's job could be at risk... including mine.
brentspeak
(18,290 posts)is that you have no idea what the hell you're talking about.
DCBob
(24,689 posts)Get lost.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)and stocking Wal-Mart with cheap Chinese crap. Shouldn't need much training for that.
What a fucking fraud this whole dog-and-pony show has been.
It was a done deal from the start.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)Medicare cuts still in the bill.
Dont call me Shirley
(10,998 posts)fredamae
(4,458 posts)Cleita
(75,480 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)If this is what the New Democrats are, then I may not be a Democrat much longer. The party has left me.
moondust
(19,993 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)I'm asking rhetorically....the article doesn't make that clear at all.
I seem to recall she was saying something about a massive highway/infrastructure bill in exchange for consideration...was she given any pro quo for her quid?
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Thus Democrats can say "We tried really hard! Honest!".
TAA was the trade-off for TPA.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)The agreements were made before they decided to split the vote. The rest was theater.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)There is some QPQ going on. She wouldn't have given it over otherwise.
joshcryer
(62,276 posts)And to shoot down Ryan's stupid shit.
If anything Pelosi's low balling, she could've went big, but as far as I can tell she's not getting anything huge out of this.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)Not sure you can really trust any stated or rumored position.
Also, why would she be asking for infrastructure spending to pass TAA? She wants TAA. She claimed she didn't want TPA.
MADem
(135,425 posts)The authority that other Presidents enjoyed expired in 2007, and he is the only modern POTUS to not have that tool in the toolbox.
I just don't know what's real and what isn't anymore.
I would like to read the TPP documents. I want to see, for myself, with no spin, what people are praising and/or decrying.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)There is no "TAA authority". TAA is a retraining program. TPA is fast track.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Every modern POTUS before him HAS had it. He was denied it for his entire term, until now.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)And before it was voted on. Because he already had TPA and...needed to get it again...or something.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Clinton was graduating law school when this got fired up. It was institutionalized long before he got to the WH.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)TPA has always been time limited. That's why Bill Clinton had to go get it before sending NAFTA to Congress.
If it wasn't time limited, Obama would still have it.
MADem
(135,425 posts)Bush wasn't going to even try to help out a successor.
And Obama couldn't catch a break.
jeff47
(26,549 posts)had to ask for it.
Uh-huh.
MADem
(135,425 posts)brentspeak
(18,290 posts)if Obama wasn't given his own opportunity to dismantle the nation's middle class on behalf of his own Wall St. benefactors.
TBF
(32,067 posts)I think that's pretty clear. I would've held out for single payer on health care, but as I've said in other threads I'm not Nancy Pelosi. With her wealth she has a much different view of the world than you & I.
MADem
(135,425 posts)I heard her asking for robust infrastructure repair, I was curious if she got that.
TBF
(32,067 posts)but have you ever spent time inside the beltway? When I worked in Washington more deals were done after hours than during business hours. Maybe it has changed in the last 20 years but I kind of doubt it.
Will she get robust infrastructure repair? Perhaps ultimately that will come. I would argue it will have to - you can't send massive amounts of jobs overseas and expect people not to notice. You've got to find something for them to do or they'll be idle in the streets (and that's where serious organizing starts).
MADem
(135,425 posts)My forte used to be crafting Congressional testimony. When I wasn't stuck sitting with the briefcase, I'd go home and get in the barcolounger and watch the festivities on TV. I had to liaise on a routine basis with a number of senior Congressional staffers, some of whom are still on the job. I had met probably half of the House and Senate while in that and previous jobs, where I'd wine and dine the hordes on Middle Eastern and European CODELs.
I probably have more DC time than a lot of DUers. I don't miss that shit. I never worked eight to five in all the years I was working--I'd be lucky to get home by ten at night.
She cut a deal, I saw a snip of her on TV talking around the topic--there was a pro quo for her quid. I just don't know what it was. She does, I'm sure. It had to be something good enough to get a fair chunk of the crew to go along with her.
TBF
(32,067 posts)I will be looking for references as well and will post if I find something.
I honestly don't miss it either. Living in Texas isn't ideal, but DC is a very odd place - so transient and all. I worked in large law firms during the 90s so my experience includes things like watching how the various associations would hire private firms to write legislation and then get it in front of friendly politicians who could make some of what they wanted happen (and other ways of influencing them). It was not pretty. I don't think all of DC is sold out, but some of it really did turn my stomach. It sounds like you were much more involved inside Congress which is cool.
Cha
(297,323 posts)Thank you, Nancy
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)joshcryer
(62,276 posts)restorefreedom
(12,655 posts)only the wealthiest among us have a shot at getting into national office. and at that point they are no longer partisans. they are the ruling class. they will do what it takes to keep their 7.5 slices of an 8 slice pie to leave the crumbs for the rest of us.
onecaliberal
(32,864 posts)What's it going to take to get people to understand that?