Senate Reaches Deal on Trade

[Freddie Stubbs]

Source: Roll Call

Senate leaders agreed to a deal to get fast-track trade authority back on track Wednesday, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offering votes on two bills accompanying bills demanded by Democrats first.

Those bills include the key customs bill with currency enforcement provisions opposed by the White House as well as a trade preference bill aimed to help developing countries.

Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who himself is a “hell no” on fast-track, nonetheless praised McConnell’s offer as “fair,” although he noted Democrats would still want to offer amendments on the underlying fast-track bill.

The deal also rescues President Barack Obama’s trade agenda just one day after his own party blocked debate on it.

Read more: http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/senate-reaches-deal-on-trade/

[a kennedy]

1. and just heard they leave for ANOTHER RECESS!!!!! WTH!!!

[Freddie Stubbs]

10. How long are they going into recess for?

[turbinetree]

18. Well so far

this year they are scheduled to be in class a grand total of 139 days, yep, 139 days making $174,000 a year, $14,500 a month, and then going off on retreats to smooze with there billionaire and millionaire handlers right along with the right wing majority U.S Supreme Court.
While we has a country are getting rules and laws to become a third rate failed state, because we have a right wing congress that thinks that government is the problem, and think like Ronnie Reagan on the right wing republican side of isle.

Now what do you think?
Take a one day to pass amendments to a trade bill, without any public committee meetings longer that 30 minutes under the Orrin Hatch plan-----look no further than when Sherrod Brown showed up two weeks ago to question the trade representative.

What is wrong with this picture?

[yeoman6987]

27. No different then any Congress in 40 years

They all have raising money to do and constituents to talk with. If only Washinton was the only way art of the job. It would be easier.

[appalachiablue]

25. Forever I hope! We'll take over- ~ THE PEOPLE'S CONGRESS ~

[Hoppy]

2. The nuts and bolts of TPP is, we get screwed.

[Freddie Stubbs]

12. This isn't a vote on the TPP

It is a vote on fast-track for TPP or any other trade agreements which the President submits to Congress.

[stillwaiting]

29. Or the next President. We'll have Fast Track for 6 years.

We stopped it when Bush was President for a reason I thought.

Fast track passing pretty much assures all free trade bills will pass though. Even those that have very little to do with trade, but have a whole lot to do with rewriting regulatory frameworks that are favorable to the bottom lines of Big Business.

[Nite Owl]

3. So nothing on jobs,

nothing on environment
nothing on corporate lawyers making the final decisions in disputes

Damn it's like we don't exist!

[villager]

4. Do you have enough money to "exist" in their eyes, Nite Owl?

Otherwise, no, we are not here at all.

Certainly not as long as we all keep keeping quiet.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. I recall during the regime of Bush the Preppy

Last edited Wed May 13, 2015, 04:05 PM - Edit history (1)

some White House adviser whose name has long since disappeared in my personal memory hole made a remark about "If you don't make (a certain amount of money that seemed like a lot in the early nineties) then you don't have a stake in the system." Things since then have only gotten worse, with Democrats being like Republicans except that they support women's rights and gay marriage.

Actually, those of us who don't make that much still have a big stake in the system, just a big as any gluttonous and greedy oligarch. It's only when we stop electing elitists who pose as populists that we'll see any real progress to a more just society.

Class warfare in not a campaign strategy. It is a fact and we must deal with it. Of course, we are the ones on the defensive because we didn't start the war and one of the oligarchs' weapon is lie the lie that only left wing demagogues wage class warfare.

Don't trust anyone who tells you there is no class warfare or that it's a bad political strategy. Anyone who tells you that is on the oligarchs' side of the barricades.

[daleanime]

19. +1

[Wellstone ruled]

30. Read that statement many times.

Think it was Ari Fleischer. Anyway,friends that have worked on the Hill have made similar statements about the mindset of many of our elected Senators and Representatives. One even said something to the fact that it is nothing more than a dog and pony show.

[Jack Rabbit]

31. Are you sure it was Ari Fleischer?

He's usually associated with Bush the Frat Boy, not Bush the Preppy.

You could be right. If I don't remember who it was, it be because it was low level adviser whom I had never heard of before, which Fleischer's position as deputy as deputy press secretary to the Preppy's re-election campaign might qualify. (Wikipedia is my friend.)

[Wellstone ruled]

33. Might be totally wrong on this one,

Ari has been and was one of those guys that hung around the White House during several Republican Administrations.

[stuffmatters]

13. Well put. And corporate lawyers making the money too.

Alongside unions, longtime Repub & especially Karl Rove's "bogey men" are class action lawyers...he sees them as big Dem donors. TPP & its ISDS place class action lawsuits into corporate courts and puts the huge payoffs into the pockets of corporate lawyers..Repub donors...instead.

[RKP5637]

17. We're all invisible and transparent for the most part. We don't have enough money or

recognition to step up to the bar. Government by the people for the people has pretty much flown the coop over the years. Now, it's Government by the wealthy for the wealthy. And democracy is available for those that can afford the admission ticket.

[jalan48]

5. Couldn't find the vote breakdown on Roll Call-unless it was a voice vote.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. The vote hasn't taken place yet

[jalan48]

8. Thanks-I misunderstood the headline.

[stuffmatters]

14. Sounds like the vote is tomorrow (Thurs) Still time to call your senator (again)

[jalan48]

28. I called Wyden yesterday-I'll call him again tomorrow. Thank you.

[still_one]

7. I don't think Reid speaks for all Democrats in the Senate. We will see

[Freddie Stubbs]

9. It will only take a handful of Democrats for cloture to pass

[n2doc]

15. Funny, I can't see this thread

Tried to post a similar one in LBN, was immediately locked as a dupe, yet I still can't see this thread in LBN or greatest. Only way I got to it was that someone else posted a link. Curious.

[Ford_Prefect]

16. The Camel's Nose is in the Tent!

The rest is a forgone conclusion.

Damn and Blast!!!!!!!!

[sadoldgirl]

20. So Obama can veto the customs bill,

an sign the other.

Now I wait for the reaction from the unions on Thursday, and I
hope that they will stay strong.

[ucrdem]

21. Sounds like a win-win.

[JDPriestly]

22. CORRUPTION. It's a corporate coup. That's all the TPP is.

THIS IS SO SAD. I COULD CRY. That these people would do that to the American middle class and poor. Incredibly cruel. The TPP will sound a death knell for freedom.

It sounds like hyperbole but it is not.

The currency bill or amendments will do nothing to correct the manipulation of currency. The currency exchanges are free and there is nothing the US can do to lower the value of our currency if others do not want to buy our goods -- and as we have seen with NAFTA -- they don't want to buy products from us.

In fact, at this point, we don't really produce much that we could sell to underdeveloped countries like Viet Nam. What would you suggest that we offer to sell to Viet Nam?

Shoes? They wouldn't be able to afford them no matter how little we charge.

India? If they wanted to buy things from us, they would.

The concept behind the trade agreement, the presumption that other, less developed countries want to buy from us, is absurd. They only want to sell to us. They do not and will not buy our products.

And besides, what do we produce that they could want or afford?

No. It's only about grabbing the wealth of the US. And weakening our country.

[apnu]

26. Sorry but that corruption happened years ago.

In the 1980s. Its been down hill ever since.

[OKNancy]

23. kick

[Arugula Latte]

24. The writing is on the wall. We're screwed royally ... yet again.

[FairWinds]

32. Just to remind you of what we are up against here . .

prior to the NAFTA vote in 1993, 26 Republican Senators pledged to
vote against it if there were ANY protections for working people
or the environment included.

They have not changed a whit.

Anything that they favor must be opposed.

If we give up, they win.

Don't know about you, but I will be in the streets.

[kacekwl]

34. WOW

that didn't take long. WTF

[Stellar]

35. 13 Dems that voted for cloture...

The Senate vote to move forward was 65 to 33.

13 Democrats joined Republicans in voting for cloture.

Michael Bennet (D-CO)
Maria Cantwell (D-WA)
Tom Carper (D-DE)
Chris Coons (D-DE)
Dianne Feinstein (D-CA)
Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND)
Tim Kaine (D-VA)
Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Bill Nelson (D-FL)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH)
Mark Warner (D-VA)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)

These 13 decided to side with their Big Business backers against labor unions, environmentalists, consumer rights advocates, and progressive advocacy groups.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/14/1384791/-Which-13-Democrats-Just-Voted-for-Cloture-on-Fast-Track