Is this the kind of trade deal we want?

[Jakes Progress]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/09/panama-trade-deal_n_922398.html

President Barack Obama reaffirmed his commitment to raising taxes on the wealthy. But as he pushes to get the rich to pay more into federal coffers, Obama is also urging Congress to approve a trade agreement that would cement a key tax avoidance tactic deployed by some of the richest Americans.

Here is how the Panama haven is described.

"A tax haven . . . has one of three characteristics: It has no income tax or a very low-rate income tax; it has bank secrecy laws; and it has a history of noncooperation with other countries on exchanging information about tax matters," said Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel with Citizens for Tax Justice, a nonpartisan nonprofit dedicated to improving U.S. tax policy. "Panama has all three of those. ... They're probably the worst.

At best it appears the president is again taking advice on what his agenda should be from the wrong kind of advisors.

[AzDar]

1. K & R

:(

[abelenkpe]

2. K & R nt

[chill_wind]

3. See also Columbia

Candidate Obama Vs. President Obama On Trade

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x619157

[Jakes Progress]

4. You gotta wonder at his motives.

Is the the ogre that lies through his teeth on national television so that rich cronies can hide their loot from taxes?

Or is he the naive and timid newbie who feels he has to rely on people that he thinks are so much smarter than him, and in the end finds himself appointing and trusting advisors who have not desire to do the right thing, but love that they can so easily pull the wool over their gullible and foolish boss?

I wouldn't blame a president for not knowing all the details of each of the millions of pieces of paper that make up government, but I think he is a poor leader and a stupid man if he can't tell the difference between honest advice and self-serving toadying. Once any indication that Panama was a tax haven came up, he should be firing whatever advisors suggested this to him. I don't see that happening.

Ogre or fool?