Obama says he willing to defy Democrats on his support of Trans-Pacific Partnership

[grahamhgreen]

President Obama signaled Wednesday that, at least on international trade, he is willing to defy his fellow Democrats and his own liberal base to pursue a partnership with Republicans. Trade represents one of Obama’s best chances for a legacy-building achievement in the final two years of his presidency, but he acknowledged that it is an idea he still has to sell to many of his traditional allies.

Speaking at a gathering of business leaders, Obama offered his strongest public defense of his administration’s pursuit of a major 12-nation trade deal in the Asia Pacific, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), that has been opposed by Democrats, labor unions and environmental groups.

The administration has argued that the trade deals will boost U.S. exports and lower tariffs for American goods in the fast-growing Asia-Pacific region, where the United States has faced increasing economic competition from China.

“Those who oppose these trade deals ironically are accepting a status quo that is more damaging to American workers,” Obama said at the Business Roundtable. “There are folks in my own party and in my own constituency that have legitimate complaints about some of the trend lines of inequality, but are barking up the wrong tree when it comes to opposing TPP, and I’m going to have to make that argument.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-says-he-willing-to-defy-democrats-on-his-support-of-trans-pacific-partnership/2014/12/03/25edcaf4-7b30-11e4-84d4-7c896b90abdc_story.html

[easychoice]

1. If TPP is so sweet why is it a big secret?

I can't believe this will end well.

[grahamhgreen]

35. +1

[CJCRANE]

2. We need to return to the concept of sovereign nations

where the citizens have democratic control over all aspects of their country, including economics, immigration, defense etc.

Each citizen should be equal under the law and each country equal under international law.

Turning the whole world into a huge free trade zone ruled by corporate oligarchs is not the way to go.

[kelliekat44]

3. Why not wait to see how it really turns out? Many people speaking out against it don't even

know what is really in it.

[newthinking]

5. now why is that? Maybe because the process is secretive?

[kelliekat44]

8. Most treaties are "secretive" until a deal is agreed upon by all sides...history, maybe?

Anything this President does is condemned BEFORE folks know anything about it. For example, his immigration action was roundly criticized by the GOP even though it contains some of the strongest border protection measures in our history. The TPP is really and unknown to us right now. This is how most US treaties have been handled since inception.

I would rather spend more time criticizing and trying to change policies we do know something about that affect us right now...like policing in America.

[aspirant]

19. Is it a treaty or trade deal? big difference

[djean111]

23. We can actually think about two things at the same time. Multitasking!

Enough of the "trade" deal has been leaked for me to know it reeks.
Waiting until after it is signed is way too late.

[merrily]

29. I disagree that most treaties were kept that secret until all parties agreed.

[Enthusiast]

13. Wait? We waited until NAFTA was enacted and witnessed hundreds of thousands

of manufacturing jobs lost forever.

These job losses were life disrupting. There were no replacement jobs to go to. At least none that paid equal to the jobs that were lost.

We heard every sales pitch from the NAFTA cheerleaders. It is eerily similar to the words of President Obama's TPP sales pitch. "We'll provide training for the new technically sophisticated jobs of the future. Everything will be wonderful!"

LMAO! We were nailed!

The American worker has lost time and again, every time we agree to these trade deals.

The citizens of our new trade partners also suffer. Suddenly small scale farmers are faced with an influx of cheap imported food that they cannot compete with.

What we know about the TPP is ALL BAD.

[grahamhgreen]

15. What costly trade deal has had a positive effect?

[Scootaloo]

16. Here. Let me whow you why not, in a simple thought exercise

Name one person - one - below the poverty line demanding this trade deal. Wishing on it. Hoping and praying it becomes a reality.

Just one person.

Now, name all the people you can think of making seven digits or better, who are hoping for this trade deal.

I'll bet you struggle to think of even one poor person who wants it, but were able to come up with at least ten rich people right out the gate.

That's why it's not something we "wait to see how it turns out."

[Andy823]

43. Well

Can you name me one person who is against it that has read the whole thing? You can go to the site listed in a post below and read about it, have you done that yet? Has any of those who are against read the information on the site? Just curious.

[madville]

21. Gotta pass it

Before we can know what's in it lol.

[BrotherIvan]

25. He is working with REPUBLICANS to make the deal

How bad do you think it will be?

[Fumesucker]

4. Well if Republicans are for it we know it must be great for the working class

Republicans would never screw labor to advantage capital.

[Enthusiast]

14. True.

Maybe the President can appoint a Fast Track Czar, you know, a Republican.

[newthinking]

6. I wonder if this is about the threat to the dollar by the coming competition?

(The seeming desperation to get it passed despite the opposition to it)

This isn't good for the general public. But it certainly would be an attempt to secure the place for corporate and financial domination by current institutions.

[newthinking]

7. TPP will have a bigger (negative) affect on Democracy than Citizen's United did.

If we want to further intrench a world oligarchy and make it much more difficult to restore true democracy this will do the job.

[merrily]

30. What you talk? Everyone knows there was no money in politics before Citizens United!

Before Citizens United, Congress thought it had power to enact campaign finance laws and we got McCain Feingold. While it was "not nothing," it was purely voluntary and even McCain didn't stick to it.

[Prophet 451]

9. Literal Fascism

TPP will result in lower wages and less benefits for Americans. It is an essential step in the corporate plan to create a public so poor and so desperate that they will work for pennies, or a meal, or a dosshouse bed for the night. And if you don't want to work for that, fuck you, there's millions desperate enough to take it.

[easychoice]

36. We have a winner.

This is another huge take away to weaken the public's ability to resist having their country turned into Haiti.
When was the last time the government of the united states of america did anything to improve the lot of all of it's citizens? Never as far as I can recall.

[RiverLover]

10. He wants to 'Fast Track' it

Not allowing our senate to have a say on its terms. Its Yea or Nay. This plus the fact that they've tried to keep it secret(though its been leaked) sort of spells out if its good for the country or not. If we'd love it, it'd be out there in the open...

Just one reason this thing is BAD NEWS~

Latest TPP Leak Reveals Even Harsher Copyright Rules
Oct 2014

Wikileaks has released a new draft of the intellectual property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement, revealing that the US is still pushing for draconian measures on copyright infringement.

“By publishing this text we allow the public to engage in issues that will have such a fundamental impact on their lives,” says Wikileaks editor in chief Julian Assange.

The US has all along wished to introduce features of the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), such as compelling ISPs to alert customers who are accused of illegal downloads and, possibly, take the infringing material down. If they failed to do so, they would themselves be liable for any copyright infringement by their customers.

But the latest draft goes even further: the US wants to see these rules covering not just ISPs, but anyone providing internet services. And, as Alberto Cerda of Georgetown University Law Center points out to TorrentFreak, this means that coffee shops could potentially be held liable for copyright infringement by their customers.

Meanwhile, the copyright itself could be enforced for longer. While the previously-leaked draft showed that some countries were proposing flexibility on copyright terms, it seems that all are now agreed that there should be a universal minimum term, whether life-plus-50-years, life-plus-70 or life-plus-100.///

http://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2014/10/17/latest-tpp-leak-shows-even-harsher-copyright-rules/

[cantbeserious]

11. A Traitor To The People

eom

[secondvariety]

12. If you consider

the destruction of the working class to be a "legacy", then Obama is correct about "legacy-building" but should actually be called "infamy-building".



http://www.citizen.org/TPP

[pampango]

17. AFL-CIO: We promise not to fight the last war if he promises not to put the last version

of the trade deal on the table.” That about sums it up in one sentence.

Obama: “Those who oppose these trade deals ironically are accepting a status quo that is more damaging to American workers. There are folks in my own party and in my own constituency that have legitimate complaints about some of the trend lines of inequality, but are barking up the wrong tree when it comes to opposing TPP, and I’m going to have to make that argument.”

... he has urged Democrats not to view it in the same frame as past deals, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement. The president said the TPP aims to boost workers’ rights and environmental standards for businesses in some Asian nations.

This seems to boil it down quite well. If the TPP is like the "last version" of all the FTA's we have, then the AFL-CIO might accept it. if it really has "workers' rights and environmental standards", then the AFL-CIO might accept it. If it really reverses "trend lines on inequality" then the AFL-CIO might accept it.

I believe the AFL-CIO and Obama would agree that the "status quo" is not acceptable.

I don't see any quotes from Obama in this article that he intends to "defy" the Democratic base. He is quoted as saying that he "has to make that argument". If you tell me you are going to try to convince me of something that may or may not mean that you will 'defy' me if I remained unconvinced.

Sherrod Brown has an interesting quote in the article:

“They (republicans) don’t want to give him power certainly with the [Environmental Protection Agency]. They don’t want to give him power on human (and labor) rights. They don’t want to give him power on health care. Do they want to give him power on international trade?” Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), who has expressed concerns about the trade deals, said at the Council on Foreign Relations this week.

Brown said that Obama could face opposition from “an interesting coalition of sort of progressive Democrats and anti-Obama tea party Republicans.”

[ucrdem]

18. Thanks, that's my take too.

Incidentally that "secret" trade agreement turns up 1,250 hits on the US State Dept search page, the latest from 12/6/2014, i.e. today:



http://search.state.gov/search?q=trans%20pacific%20partnership%20agreement&site=state_en_stategov&client=state_en_stategov&output=xml_no_dtd&proxystylesheet=state_en_stategov&filter=0&entqr=3&lr=lang_en&oe=UTF-8&ie=utf8&getfields=*&search-button=Search&ulang=en&ip=68.177.49.70&access=p&entqrm=0&wc=200&wc_mc=1&ud=1&sort=date%3AD%3AS%3Ad1

[Andy823]

41. I went to the site just the other day

I read the information, and it didn't sound near as bad as many here claim. I don't really buy into the fact that all the "leaks" coming our are factual, but way to many on DU are willing to jump the gun and condemn the president before all the facts come out.

Thanks for posting.

[ucrdem]

44. Yep. Some folks never miss an opportunity to flog a RW talking point.

Kind of sad really. We should be better than that.

[Andy823]

39. Thanks

Good information and I to did not say any quotes from the president about defying the base, or the party. I also like the quote from Sherrod Brown.

[sendero]

20. Oh it will be a legacy all right.

... just like Clinton's, a legacy of failure for everyone but the 1%.

[merrily]

31. Repeal of Glass Steagall, leading to multinational economic collapse,

NAFTA, Telecommunications Act, DADT, DOMA. And some Democrats love him and can't wait for Hillary.

[sendero]

33. And the banksters are pushing for bail-in legislation...

.. involving the use of FDIC-backed funds AS WE SPEAK. Bail-in is, simply put, where DEPOSITORS BACKSTOP THE GAMBLES OF THE BANKSTERS AND BAIL THEM OUT.

Got an IRA? They are going after it.

[merrily]

34. Yikes. I did not know this. Another piece of the New Deal about to bite the dust?

The FDIC was supposed to give people the confidence to start putting their money back into banks after the crash. (As much as we like to think the New Deal was all about the hoi polloi, a lot of it was to put banks and Wall Street back on their feet--to "save capitalism" as JFK put it on MTP back when he was running for Pres.)

[djean111]

22. Well, it is not like he is defying his own party or base, right? n/t

[99Forever]

24. Don't you just love getting stabbed in the back?

And they wonder why they got their asses handed to them in the last election.

[merrily]

26. I thought Obamacare was his best chance for a legacy building achievement, not trade.

And, oh, goody, another public call out of Democrats by a Democratic President Obama. Great strategy for winning over Democrats who disagree with Obama over TPP.

[easychoice]

37. Mexico & Canada have better health care

Obamacare is a gift to the insurance industry.

[merrily]

38. A number of other countries have better health care, but

health care and how health care gets paid for are two very different issues. And other countries are better in that respect as well.

But I wasn't saying Obamacare was wonderful (though some things about it are). I was saying that it was supposed to be his best shot at a legacy, but this article claims a trade deal is his best shot at a (positive) legacy. Since when?

[easychoice]

40. that trade deal stinks of rotten fish

I don't care how many non-substance articles one can find on google.
What do the citizens of other countries think of it?
I bet I am not alone in my contempt.

[merrily]

42. I am ashamed to say I don't know. I will try to look into that.

[Fumesucker]

28. That's not entirely true, he has put up fights before

This cartoon is hardly new these days.

[merrily]

32. Oh, he's done that before. He went from

"make me do it" to stop focusing on the public option. Meanwhile, his White House was calling the left everything but a child of God.