Des Moines Register: "Espey: US deserves better transparency from TPP"
Espey: US deserves better transparency from TPP
Hugh Espey, A Better Iowa contributor, January 13, 2015
Soon this year, Congress will vote on whether to give President Barack Obama "fast track" authority to put in place the massive, and highly secretive, Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). Incoming Representatives David Young and Rod Blum, and Senator Joni Ernst, would serve the Iowans they represent — as well as the U.S. Constitution — by voting no on fast track authority. . . . . . TPP has been shrouded in secrecy from its very beginning. Aside from the 600 advisers from mostly multinational corporations, members of Congress and the American public have been kept in the dark on its contents.
The American people and those we elect to represent us deserve more than the thin promise of job creation and increased economic activity. If the TPP is so good for America and our economy, then its backers would have no need to hide behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz, pulling whatever lever is within reach. . . . . . .Unless, of course, it's all smoke and mirrors and an even bigger corporate giveaway than its predecessor, NAFTA.
We the people deserve to know more about the TPP, and how it will impact our day-to-day lives. Plus, our constitution gives Congress the "authority to regulate commerce with foreign nations," not the president. That's why Iowa's congressional delegation, especially those newly elected by the people of Iowa, need to vote no on fast track authority. It's what lots of Iowans are expecting them to do. . . .
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/abetteriowa/2015/01/13/trans-pacific-partnership-transparency-iowa-votes/21713151/
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hugh Espey, is executive director of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement.
Other work by Hugh Espey:
Espey: Grassley, Ernst at odds with Iowans on tax fairness issues
Espey: Braley, Ernst worlds apart on Social Security
= new reply since forum marked as read
...its predecessor, NAFTA."
Great analogy for the editors to use the manipulative archetype of the Wizard of Oz to describe the prime promoter of this latter day fiasco-in-waiting.
The All-Powerful Oz turned out to actually be just another huckster who had fallen ass-backwards into clover. A blowhard who, through wind and fortune, had luckily found himself the ruler a society full of insecure and incurious people. A people who rarely questioned and who easily fell for razzle-dazzle in the rhetoric of electronic memes.
In the end, symbols were all he had to give. A ticking-clock heart that hadn't known it could work until the day it broke. Like so many have come to know heartbreak today.
Courage in the form of metal trinkets and ribbons that signify a willingness to endure pain, and also inflict it. Now it seems that pain is all we export to other countries.
And diplomas. Ahh yes, the diplomas. Today we have a plethora of diplomas and little intelligence applied to the reason why. There are fewer jobs. Getting a diploma seems more like busy-work to keep the population calmed with the idea that a future with jobs in it exists.
- But don't let that worry you, TPP will take of that fallacy. For good.
