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the Trans Pacific Partnership

I bet you $1000 we don't have a revolution during this or the next ...two election cycles, Suzy.
 
Revolution is bad for business, which is why I don't see one happening anytime soon
 
Excellent news!

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2015-06-12-14-15-05

thank you to those lawmakers and citizens whom stood up to the tyranny. I'm sure they will be back but for now HOPE! there is still some HOPE after all. glorious day.

That merely delays Obama's ability to fast-track the TPP legislation, and yanno they ain't gonna stop until it gets ramrodded through somehow.

BHO is a lame duck POTUS who only has 1 1/2 years left on his second term, until he can bop-de-bop off to his family's retirement manse in HI as a millionaire. He has spent most of his time in office being unable to work with Republicans in Congress on any meaningful legislation in a bi-partisan manner, but now all of a sudden he has some of the GOP in his corner...esp. in the Senate? Something is rotten and it ain't in Denmark.
 
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I don't know what's in this bill, but my instinct is that making it easier for companies to operate internationally, while good from net world economy standpoint, will be horrible for places with relatively wealthy poor and wealthy middle classes. If you live in the US and aren't rich, you don't actually wan't global equalization.
 
Wait a second .. This article linked from above makes it appear it was the democrats that stopped this bill not the republicans... The article states that most republicans want it to pass.. Nice work Nancy!!!! send it back and get a better deal!!!!

Get rid of these parties...


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Led by union-backed Democrats, the House delivered a stinging blow to President Barack Obama on Friday and left his ambitious global trade agenda in serious doubt.

Republican leaders, who generally support Obama's trade objectives, signaled they might try to revive the package as early as next week. But that could require the shifting of at least 90 votes within either or both parties, a heavy lift.

Friday's setback was deep and personal for Obama, who made a surprise, last-minute trip to the Capitol to ask House Democrats to back him.

Not only did they reject him by the dozens, they were led by party leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who has often expressed deep admiration for the president. She joined in a tactic that even some Democrats called devious and cynical: voting against a favorite job-retraining program in order to imperil the trade package's main component: "fast track" negotiating authority for Obama.

Hours earlier, Obama had specifically asked Democrats not to do that. But in a crowded House chamber, Pelosi urged her colleagues to ignore him.

"Slow down the fast track to get a better deal for the American people," she said, drawing praise from labor unions, liberals and others who say free-trade deals send U.S. jobs abroad. Pelosi added possible new burdens to the legislative package, saying new highway funding and "environmental justice" should be linked to its passage if it's revived.

In a statement, Obama said the job retraining program "would give roughly 100,000 American workers access to vital support each year," and he urged the House to pass it as soon as possible and send the entire trade package for him to sign.

Other presidents have had fast track authority, which lets them propose trade agreements that Congress can ratify or reject but not amend. The administration currently is trying to conclude negotiations with 11 Pacific-rim countries including Japan and Canada. Other trade agreements could follow.

One possible route for pro-trade forces in Congress is to send revised legislation back to the Senate. But senators approved the larger package only narrowly last month after intense battles, and the White House desperately wants to avoid giving opponents there another chance to strangle the legislation.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Friday's vote showed congressional support for fast track, and "our work is not done yet." As for Democrats rejecting the retraining program, he said, the administration will contend "they have registered their objections to (fast track) and it didn't work." Earnest said the administration will urge Democrats to "support a policy that they have strongly supported in the past."

Friday's crucial vote came when 144 House Democrats joined 158 Republicans to reject extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance, or TAA. The program, which helps workers who lose their jobs to international trade, has long been a priority for Democrats and unions.

But the Senate had tied it to the broader fast track negotiating authority for the president, which House Democrats overwhelmingly oppose. Egged on by the AFL-CIO, Pelosi and others, the vast majority of House Democrats voted against the retraining program as a means to scuttle the entire package.

Moments later, the House did vote, 219-211, to endorse the fast track portion of the package, but that could go nowhere without the first part. Only 28 Democrats joined 191 Republicans in voting for it. Voting no were 54 Republicans and 157 Democrats.

Pro-trade forces now must either reverse the retraining program's fate or send a revised fast track bill back to the Senate, and hope for the best. GOP aides said more Republicans might possibly hold their noses and vote for the training in order to save fast track, a mirror-image of the Democrats' counter-intuitive strategy.

House GOP leaders suggested it's up to Democrats to revive the trade package. "The president has some work yet to do with his party to complete this process," said Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., a leading author of the trade legislation. "This isn't over yet."

Yet minutes later, Ryan's staff sent reporters lists of headlines highlighting Democrats' rebuke of Obama, a strategy unlikely to improve hopes of a bipartisan recovery for the trade package.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka hailed Pelosi, saying, "She stood up against corporate interests and, as always, put first the people who are too often left out of trade agreement discussions."

Obama drew applause when he walked into the morning meeting with Democrats, but sharp words after he left.

Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., was especially withering.

"He's ignored Congress and disrespected Congress for years," he told reporters, "and then comes to the caucus and lectures us for 40 minutes about his values and whether or not we're being honest by using legislative tactics to try and stop something which we believe is a horrible mistake for the United States of America, and questions our integrity. It wasn't the greatest strategy."
What a second? One of the articles linked above Makes it look like the DEMOCRATS lead by Polioso



Obama says U.S. products must reach more markets. He says unions and others should stop harping on perceived harm from the 1995 North America Free Trade Agreement, of NAFTA, which many critics accuse of shipping American jobs overseas.

Globalization, technological advances and other changes in the past 20 years, Obama says, make expanded trade essential.
 
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It appears that Obama wants to use the TPP also as an export carrot for Pacific Rim nations such as Vietnam and Malaysia, who have a piss-poor record of upholding human rights. Republicans like it b/c it will help the global corporate capitalists to further exploit and profit from cheap labor and far less if any "socialist" health, safety, and environmental regulations.

Pretty noble of Obama if so, but it looks like yet again it will be the US middle and lower classes who will support this lemon with job losses due to off-shoring and maybe outsourcing. Except for perhaps the dockworkers on the West Coast.

The fact that Medicare will be raided in ~9 years to help pay for "retraining" of those US workers who may or will be affected by the TPP is a pretty good indicator that DC already knows this, and exactly what type of jobs would those affected be trained for? For example, stocking shelves @ Wal*Mart or unloading trucks @ Target, both of whom likely stand to reap the benefits from the TPP, doesn't require that much training.

"Obama says U.S. products must reach more markets"

What do we mass-export that is of real value anymore?


Entertainment, technology and music (that are vapor) soft-drinks, Rx drugs, booze, and of course JOBS.


When most products were being made here in the US, consumers BOUGHT the products that they made. We have never really been a big exporter, as indicated by the thousands of empty shipping containers piled up @ seaports, that will eventually need to be returned empty.
 
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It appears that Obama wants to use the TPP also as an export carrot for Pacific Rim nations such as Vietnam and Malaysia, who have a piss-poor record of upholding human rights. Republicans like it b/c it will help the global corporate capitalists to further exploit and profit from cheap labor and far less if any "socialist" health, safety, and environmental regulations.

Pretty noble of Obama if so, but it looks like yet again it will be the US middle and lower classes who will support this lemon with job losses due to off-shoring and maybe outsourcing. Except for perhaps the dockworkers on the West Coast.

The fact that Medicare will be raided in ~9 years to help pay for "retraining" of those US workers who may or will be affected by the TPP is a pretty good indicator that DC already knows this, and exactly what type of jobs would those affected be trained for? For example, stocking shelves @ Wal*Mart or unloading trucks @ Target, both of whom likely stand to reap the benefits from the TPP, doesn't require that much training.

"Obama says U.S. products must reach more markets"

What do we mass-export that is of real value anymore?


Entertainment, technology and music (that are vapor) soft-drinks, Rx drugs, booze, and of course JOBS.


When most products were being made here in the US, consumers BOUGHT the products that they made. We have never really been a big exporter, as indicated by the thousands of empty shipping containers piled up @ seaports, that will eventually need to be returned empty.

I think advocates (like Barack Obama himself) used the Vietnam thing as a example of why the bill is going to be a net positive for workers. But Vietnamese labor leaders oppose it. I read a breakdown somewhere else (can't find the link now) that opined that even though there are procedures in the TPP for airing grievances over unfair & abusive labor practices, in practice they will take years to resolve, if at all, and for workers suffering in unsafe conditions, the long procedural hurdles will be a death sentence.

The procedural hiccup last friday was a good thing... it's amazing to me that in this day and age, something like the TPP may not pass, but I guess there's still hope!

Robert Reich thinks the reason the TPP hasn't made it is that most Americans now oppose free trade agreements in general. Those seeking to pass it probably came on too strong as well, limiting the bill to so few members of Congress. they didn't grease the wheels enough to get a huge clunker like the TPP over the proverbial hill.
 
While much of the nation's attention and headlines were focused on the racist hate-crime murders of 9 Wednesday evening @ a church in Charleston, and the capture of suspect Dylann Roof Thursday afternoon, (which several Republican presidential candidates such as Santorum and Cruz publicly tried to spin as an attack on Christianity/religious freedom) the HoR took advantage and quietly passed the Fast-Track provision 218-208 and the legislation will go back to the Senate for ratification.

Democrats in the HoR who voted yea are as follows:


Terri Sewell (AL-07)
Susan Davis (CA-53)
Sam Farr (CA-20)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Ami Bera (CA-07)
Scott Peters (CA-52)
Jared Polis (CO-02)
James Himes (CT-04)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-23)
Mike Quigley (IL-05)
John Delaney (MD-06)
Brad Ashford (NE-02)
Gregory Meeks (NY-05)
Kathleen Rice (NY-04)
Earl Blumenauer (OR-03)
Kurt Schrader (OR-05)
Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01)
Jim Cooper (TN-05)
Rub?n Hinojosa (TX-15)
Eddie Johnson (TX-30)
Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
Beto O'Rourke (TX-16)
Gerald Connolly (VA-11)
Donald Beyer (VA-08)
Rick Larsen (WA-02)
Suzan DelBene (WA-01)
Derek Kilmer (WA-06)
Ron Kind (WI-03)

Not so coincidentally, most of these representatives are from states who have seaports.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/06/18/us-usa-trade-rule-idUSKBN0OY21920150618
 
With a 60-38 vote, the Senate adopted the law giving President Obama the power to “fast-track” talks on free-trade pacts such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after months of fierce debate in both houses of the Congress.

Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), as the measure is called, means that Congress will only get to vote up or down on the treaties in question once they are finalized by the White House, without the ability to offer amendments.

Obama has faced strong opposition from his own Democratic Party, with prominent lawmakers such as Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the House breaking ranks to speak and vote against the measure.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers that usually oppose Obama at every turn by and large backed the president on the issue, though with some notable exceptions. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, voted against closing the debate on TAP on Tuesday.

After the measure barely squeaked by with 60 votes in favor, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) accused the US government of not serving the needs of its citizens, saying the White House “broke arms and heads” to scrape up the required majority.

“When ordinary Americans who never asked for the plan, who don’t want the plan, who want no part of the plan, resist, they are scorned, mocked, and heaped with condescension,” Sessions said in a statement. “It is remarkable that so much energy has been expended on advancing the things Americans oppose, and preventing the things Americans want.”

http://rt.com/usa/269497-senate-tpa-obama-tpp/
 
Looks like the wording of the Pledge of Allegiance will need to be altered:

us_corporate_flag2.gif
 
I feel like he's pushing the TPP because of a previous deal with Republicans. Some sort of "behind closed doors handshake deal". I don't know what he got in exchange for his endorsement of the TPP, but there is absolutely no way (in my mind) that Obama is going against a vast majority of voters (both dem and rep) after being so liberal in the past couple years.

I have nothing to back this up, but why would Obama and Republicans play nice on this one issue? I've never heard Republicans kiss his ass so much. There had to have been some sort of a deal but this is a big fuck you to all of us.
 
I feel like he's pushing the TPP because of a previous deal with Republicans. Some sort of "behind closed doors handshake deal". I don't know what he got in exchange for his endorsement of the TPP, but there is absolutely no way (in my mind) that Obama is going against a vast majority of voters (both dem and rep) after being so liberal in the past couple years.

I have nothing to back this up, but why would Obama and Republicans play nice on this one issue? I've never heard Republicans kiss his ass so much. There had to have been some sort of a deal but this is a big fuck you to all of us.

Immigration. Now he has a back door to re-write immigration policy and import as many Democrats as he wants. And $250k-$500k per pop on the corporate speaking circuit. How else would a community organizer/public servant afford $10mm worth of real estate? Barack Obama - a real man of the people.
 
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With a 60-38 vote, the Senate adopted the law giving President Obama the power to ?fast-track? talks on free-trade pacts such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after months of fierce debate in both houses of the Congress.

Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), as the measure is called, means that Congress will only get to vote up or down on the treaties in question once they are finalized by the White House, without the ability to offer amendments.

Obama has faced strong opposition from his own Democratic Party, with prominent lawmakers such as Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the House breaking ranks to speak and vote against the measure.

Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers that usually oppose Obama at every turn by and large backed the president on the issue, though with some notable exceptions. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), one of the contenders for the Republican presidential nomination, voted against closing the debate on TAP on Tuesday.

After the measure barely squeaked by with 60 votes in favor, Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) accused the US government of not serving the needs of its citizens, saying the White House ?broke arms and heads? to scrape up the required majority.

?When ordinary Americans who never asked for the plan, who don?t want the plan, who want no part of the plan, resist, they are scorned, mocked, and heaped with condescension,? Sessions said in a statement. ?It is remarkable that so much energy has been expended on advancing the things Americans oppose, and preventing the things Americans want.?

http://rt.com/usa/269497-senate-tpa-obama-tpp/

Just out of curiosity because I wasn't on this forum in 2010, were you or any other anti-TPP left-leaning posters making posts like this about Obamacare which also didn't come close to having majority popular support?
 
Just out of curiosity because I wasn't on this forum in 2010, were you or any other anti-TPP left-leaning posters making posts like this about Obamacare which also didn't come close to having majority popular support?

totally irrelevent.
 
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