President Barack Obama amps up personal trade pitch

[RiverLover]

President Barack Obama amps up personal trade pitch
2/5/15

President Barack Obama is stepping up his effort to push his trade agenda within his party, reaching out personally to House freshmen who have expressed opposition and calling the chamber’s Democratic trade leaders to the White House for some face time.

The president invited Democrats from the powerful House Ways and Means Committee to the White House on Wednesday so they could air their trade-related worries just days after he made the case for new trade deals in a letter to freshman Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona.

“I think you’re going to see a lot more” of that kind of advocacy from the president and his Cabinet, said Rep. Ron Kind of Wisconsin, one of the few House Democrats leading the charge in favor of free trade.

But trade is not an easy sell among Democrats, particularly in the House. Already, two freshmen, including Gallego, have indicated they’re still not buying Obama’s trade pitch.

...Gallego sent a letter to Obama last week indicating his opposition to trade promotion authority, which would allow the president to submit trade deals to Congress for straight up-or-down votes without amendments. It was also signed by fellow freshmen Democratic Reps. Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania, Mark DeSaulnier and Ted Lieu of California, Debbie Dingell and Brenda Lawrence of Michigan, Kathleen Rice of New York, Mark Takai of Hawaii and Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey....

“Congress has a responsibility to the people it represents to fight for policies that protect manufacturing jobs,” Dingell said in a statement to POLITICO. “I continue to be strongly opposed to fast track.” Trade promotion authority has historically been known as fast-track negotiating authority.

The congresswoman went on to highlight one issue that’s not doing the president any favors in winning votes on trade: currency manipulation....

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/02/obama-trade-democrats-congress-114933.html

Thank you Democrats in the House who are standing Up for the People you represent!!!

[MannyGoldstein]

1. I wonder if Jamie Dimon will personally whip votes for TPP

Like he did along with Obama for the rules letting the Big Banks gamble with FDIC insurance money?

[RiverLover]

7. Well, we know the big banks want the TPP or it wouldn't be happening, and Dimon

is probably on speed dial from the WH. That actually could happen. I wonder if he'll get a presidential seal tie this time, to match those cuff links of his?

[woo me with science]

21. Paul Ryan's doing it!

Might as well get all those valuable allies on board!

[djean111]

2. Maybe all the recalcitrants who are listening to their base will get rides on Air Force One!

Face time with Jamie!

[sabrina 1]

11. If such an offer is made, they should accept ONLY if it is recorded for public viewing.

Remember, if they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear.

So meet Dimon, but in public. Bribery should be viewed by the public so they can see how their government works.

Refuse all 'secret' meetings.

This is the People's business and they should be present at all meetings that involve their future.

[jwirr]

3. He is still not answering our real question. If this is so good why is it so secret that you have to

use fast track to get it passed before we or our representatives including union leaders and economists get to see it?

[RiverLover]

4. We remember NAFTA fast track! Watch an awesome Democrat talk about it~

(Marcy Kaptur -The other good one from Ohio)

[lark]

14. Go Marcy GO!!!!

OMG, she totally gets it! Obama is such an embarrassment with pushing this treaty that gives all the power to multinational corporations and puts all of our environment and labor laws at those pirates whims. It makes medicine more expensive for everyone in the world by expanding the time that the patient holds and generics can't be made, it makes profit have priority over everything. Mexico doesn't want to put anti-smog devices on their trucks, they are not in drivable condition per America laws, the American laws are waived and these dangerous trucks get allowed to mega-pollute our air.

Stand fast, true Dems, don't cave in to the bribes/threats sure to be offered. Obama didn't jawbone the Dems on single payer, he's not jawboning on minimum wage, he picks this to really stand for. How disgusting.

FILIBUSTER.FILIBUSTER.FILIBUSTER.

[RiverLover]

16. There is no filibuster in the senate with TPA fast track

The fast track negotiating authority for trade agreements is the authority of the President of the United States to negotiate international agreements that Congress can approve or disapprove but cannot amend or filibuster. Also called trade promotion authority (TPA) since 2002, fast track negotiating authority is a temporary and controversial power granted to the President by Congress. The authority was in effect from 1975 to 1994, pursuant to the Trade Act of 1974, and from 2002 to 2007 by the Trade Act of 2002. Although it expired for new agreements on July 1, 2007, it continued to apply to agreements already under negotiation until they were eventually passed into law in 2011. In 2012, the Obama administration began seeking renewal of the authority.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_track_%28trade%29

[BrotherIvan]

22. That's why he wants it

Gotta pay back those billions. And those sweet sweet speaking fees to come.

[lark]

24. Yes, I know what fast track is.

I was encouraging them to not approve fast track and to filibuster the treaty if it gets to them under regular rules. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

[aspirant]

12. Next question

Why is our reps keeping Obama/Dimon's marketing and propaganda conversations secret? They could be recorded and leaked to US.

[GeorgeGist]

5. Total Pig in a Poke.

[99Forever]

6. Keep plastering lipstick on your pig, Mr President...

... it's still a filthy, stinking, anti-worker, fucking pig.

Jam it thru at the risk of the guaranteed backlash of US. The Democratic Party will suffer the consequences if you do. That's a promise.

[woo me with science]

9. We live in post-partisan oligarchy. Caring about party is for the proles.

Last edited Sun Feb 8, 2015, 01:54 PM - Edit history (2)

Red versus Blue is a scam, a propaganda act, with the purpose of keeping us divided and convinced we still have a democracy.

Corporatists on both sides are working hard to set the stage to elect a Republican next time, because eight years of corporate Democratic rule have opened too many eyes to the fact that we are an oligarchy rather than a democracy now, and that the predatory corporate agenda continues no matter which party is elected. That awareness is dangerous for the PTB.

They NEED a Republican in office for awhile so that that corporate Democrats can pretend to be against corporate/warmongering/police state policies again. They hope that the country will forget all this silly oligarchy talk and go back to believing that the only thing wrong in Washington is that a Republican is in office and we need to rally to get the Third Way Democrats back in again.

Red vs. Blue = Oligarchy Theater for the masses.

Mass spying on Americans? Both parties support it.
Handing the internet to corporations? Both parties support it.
Austerity for the masses? Both parties support it.
Cutting social safety nets? Both parties support it.
Corporatists in the cabinet? Both parties support it.
Tolling our interstate highways? Both parties support it.
Corporate education policy? Both parties support it.
Bank bailouts? Both parties support it.
Ignoring the trillions stashed overseas? Both parties support it.
Trans-Pacific Job/Wage Killing Secret Agreement? Both parties support it.
TISA corporate overlord agreement? Both parties support it.
Drilling and fracking? Both parties support it.
Wars on medical marijuana instead of corrupt banks? Both parties support it.
Deregulation of the food industry? Both parties support it.
GMO's? Both parties support it.
Privatization of the TVA? Both parties support it.
Immunity for telecoms? Both parties support it.
"Looking forward" and letting war criminals off the hook? Both parties support it.
Deciding torturers are patriots? Both parties support it.
Militarized police and assaults on protesters? Both parties support it.
Indefinite detention? Both parties support it.
Drone wars and kill lists? Both parties support it.
Targeting of journalists and whistleblowers? Both parties support it.
Private prisons replacing public prisons? Both parties support it.
Unions? Both parties view them with contempt.
Trillion dollar increase in nuclear weapons. Both parties support it.
New war in Iraq. Both parties support it.
New war in Syria. Both parties support it.
Carpet bombing of captive population in Gaza. Both parties support it.
Selling off swaths of the Gulf of Mexico for drilling? Both parties support it.
Drilling along the Atlantic Coast? Both parties support it.

[99Forever]

10. Agreed.

The veneer has been peeled off. I can count the number of Washington DC pols that can be trusted on the fingers of one hand. Lying is the norm. Corruption is business as usual.

[sabrina 1]

13. That's what we have learned in a nutshell. And they are getting nervous.

The people are figuring it out. The mid terms, which they are deliberately 'misinterpreting' in reality told them that the scheme has been exposed.

THEY told us, re the HC Bill, 'it's the fault of the Blue Dogs'. Okay, the people said, 'let's dump them then, and they did, in 2010'. Then they 'blamed the voters'.

Same thing in 2014, they ran on no message, and the people sent them a message of their own, again.

Again, they deliberately, in public, 'blamed the voters' again. In private I am sure there is furious discussion about how to go forward with the old scheme, and I believe you are right. Push for a Republican, and the Dems can fall back to pointing at the other party and play the role of the 'good cop' again.

I don't think it will restore faith in the party this time. But you never know. People WANT to believe mainly because there is no other choice. And they know that, see the 'where are you going to go' attitude we see so often?

[freebrew]

15. Not enough people...

until M$M is truly dead, they'll keep winning.

I really fear that the fix is already in for another bush. (really hard to type that last sentence)

Since Dean's 50 state strategy, which worked, there hasn't been a Dem candidate for ANY office in my district.
When I moved here all local offices were Dem. Since 2000, none.
I don't know if the Dems just stay home or if they've fallen for the churches & foxes line of shit.

Wish I knew...

[sabrina 1]

19. I agree completely regarding the Corporate Media. That was their way of taking control, it is

one of the major reasons why they are so successful. But turning back the clock on that isn't going to be easy. We would first have to get good Progressives into Congress and that avenue is blocked now by so much Corporate money.

So it's a catch 22, exactly how they planned it.

As for the Party abandoning the 50 state strategy, which worked, maybe that is WHY they abandoned it. The Corporations who fund all these candidates now only need a certain number of Third Way Dems in the Dem Party to join the Repubs, who they own completely, to get their legislation passed. And the last thing they need are actual Real Democrats screwing things up.

[freebrew]

23. scary stuff...

it's difficult to NOT think everything is a conspiracy.

[stupidicus]

17. well, time is supposed to heal the wounds or wound the heels

and much of your list is in addition to the one I/others made during the BC admin and beyond. So the wounds can never really heal because fresh ones are always arising, and the continuing popularity of the "big dog" only goes to show how badly such wounds the heels responsible for them.

The only source of encouragement for me is the perception that the number of those aware of our plight has increased significantly in the last 15 years.

[aspirant]

18. "Increased significantly"

to the point that the right-wing dems can't even elect their own Blue Dogs without us.

[n2doc]

8. He's got his buddy Paul Ryan working on it too

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026196825

Bipartisanship!

[woo me with science]

20. +1

The veil comes down.