If Obama Succeeds With TPP He Will Negate Most Of His Accomplishments.

[TheMastersNemesis]

TPP is a hugely terrible deal and will just about massacre workers and the middle class in the US. It will bring to fruition a further downslide in the standard of living in the US. It will put our workers in an even more severe competition with workers in the global economy. Our workers cannot compete with nations where workers will work for less than $1.00 and hour.

And TPP will make it possible to make our labor laws inert. This mistake is bigger than his going against teachers and NOT aggressively supporting public workers.

[djean111]

1. I am getting the distinct impression that he does not really care about that.

[1StrongBlackMan]

2. I might agree, if ...

the TPP's final agreement contains all (most) of the stuff that folks seem to think have already been agreed to ... (which I doubt).

Our workers cannot compete with nations where workers will work for less than $1.00 and hour.

True ... But that is NOT the Administration's negotiating position. Rather, the Administration's Objective is to negotiate an universal wage, workplace conditions and environmental regulation increase.

[great white snark]

9. This legacy damaging meme is getting lots of mileage.

Maybe if repeated enough while clicking heels and crossing fingers and clutching clovers and on and on...

[1StrongBlackMan]

10. I know ...

Funny, though ... President Obama has done nothing to suggest he is looking to his "legacy" versus what he believes is right for the American people.

[Fumesucker]

22. I for one simply don't believe the regulations that help workers will be enforced in many nations..

While I have no doubt at all that the regulations which help business will be rigidly enforced and the lawsuits will be flying thick and fast if they are not.

In theory theory and practice are identical, in practice they are not.

[sharp_stick]

3. If I had a nickel

for every time someone around here claimed that Obama is going to do something to negate everything else he did I could fund a vacation.

[Joe Turner]

5. You are right

The Obama administration is firmly in the net negative zone and it is going more negative all the time.

[JoePhilly]

7. Yea, DOW up 10k, UE down to around 6%. Very negative ...

... if you are a Republican.

[Joe Turner]

15. While the average bloke stuggles to make ends meet

Real good measuring stick there. I think most republicans like where the market is at. They just don't credit Obama for it...

[JoePhilly]

20. I have a 401k, and a job.

And the people around me who had lost jobs under the Bush recession, now have better jobs.

btw ... I used the STANDARD measuring sticks that have been used to judge a President's performance for DECADES.

There were those who predicted that these same measures would be disasters of Obama won a single term, let alone two terms.

Now that they have been proved wrong, they complain that these measures are not the right measures to be using.

Pretty typical.

[Joe Turner]

25. That's you

and that's me too. That is not the 10s of millions that are unemployed or underemployed thanks to this administration letting corporations do whatever they want. On that, this administration is little different than the one before it. Speaking of being proved wrong, are the voters that voted for Obama truly believing he would bring much needed change into the oval office.

[sharp_stick]

11. Of course

he's the worst President in the history of Presidenting. He's done absolutely nothing positive and it's only a matter of time before he drives our now improving economy (it goes without saying that he had nothing to do with that, because it's a positive) back into the ditch he inherited and at the same time caused because you know... he sucks.

I mean if you could include the Kings and Queens of England you could probably go all the way back to Mary I and she only beats our Barack in the worst category because of her penchant for burning Protestants to death. London was already polluted and there she is adding heretical Protestant smoke into the atmosphere...unbelievable.

The only downside to not having Obama around is that the legions of braying asses would have to find something else to bleat and complain about online and there is little that is more dangerous than a bored whiner.

[Joe Turner]

17. I would not go that far

but you are going in the right direction. Hey, wall street likes him. Now that's a real solid endorsement.

[sharp_stick]

24. That's great

I've been working on my asshole vernacular for awhile now, glad it's starting to take hold.

[1StrongBlackMan]

12. LOL. Yeah Okay! ...

Net negative!

[JoePhilly]

6. The crazies make endless predictions that are wrong ...

... they never acknowledge it.

They just move on to a new manufactured outrage.

[1StrongBlackMan]

13. LOL ...

But not before their "We made him do it!" acknowledgement of that they were wrong.

[Joe Turner]

26. Nothing manufactured about the outrage

many/most Americans feel. Perhaps you don't get out much. Our elected corporate handmaidens do a terrific job all by themselves in pissing people off.

[JoePhilly]

31. The RW outrage is totally manufactured, while some of the left wing outrage ...

... has merit, but sadly, its usually shooting itself in the foot, or cutting off its own nose to spite its face.

Things are far better now than they were 6 years ago. That's just a fact.

Some on the right, and the left HOPE that the economy would collapse. They need the collapse so their particularly version of Utopia can rise from the ashes. The right sees a christian theocracy, some on the left see a socialist system.

Neither is right.

[greatauntoftriplets]

8. In luxury accommodations!

[Sheelanagig]

4. The fact that they are keeping it under such tight wraps is not a good sign.

[1StrongBlackMan]

14. Because every other trade negotiation has been transparent. Right? n/t

[Sheelanagig]

34. I expect more from this president than to be just as bad as his predecessors.

[TheMastersNemesis]

16. Clinton Thought NAFTA Would Be A Plus.

Yet NAFTA has not lived up to what Clinton said. It has cost a lost of jobs and increased offshoring. TPP looks like the same deal. Sure we can negotiate for better working conditions. But the secrecy around TPP is a problem. If it is such a good deal then publish it. Free trade as we have it now has not benefitted working people in the US.

[Fumesucker]

28. The Clintons are worth many many millions of dollars now

NAFTA is still a plus in their eyes, why would they see it otherwise?

[Hoyt]

29. Krugman -- "People I normally agree with, blame NAFTA for things caused by other factors."

Besides, since Mexico and Canada will be part of TPP -- assuming it is ever finalized -- any problems with NAFTA could be rectified.

[Rex]

18. Seriously, someone will have to come along and do better than he did for minorities.

Otherwise he will hold the record for the most social change since LBJ. TPP has nothing on his accomplishments and I'm starting to believe it is part of the overall Rope a Dope policy he's been using since last November when we got our butts kicked.

Nothing is going to negate Obama's accomplishments and many will be left standing for future POTUSes to try and surpass. Seriously, he has earned that NPP that everyone seems to hate that he got when he entered office.

He's earned it and then some by now. TPP is going to fall by the wayside.

[TheKentuckian]

21. Something in process years prior? Aesops and Hans Christian Anderson would have a chuckle

Disney would make a mint.

[99Forever]

19. I see little indication that he gives a shit about us.

Nor do I think ANY of the "New Democrats" or "Third Way Dems" or "Blue Dogs" or whatever name they are hiding behind these days Corporate bought paid for shills, will never again get my support or vote. If that's the kind of shit government I wanted, I'd be just another Republican.

[JoePhilly]

32. Its just like when he cut Social Security!

[Egnever]

23. Yea he is an idiot, good thing we have smart fellers like you

to keep us safe.

[Hoyt]

27. I do not believe he will endorse a bad agreement, despite what I read here.

I believe him when he responded to Matt Yglesias a few weeks ago saying: "Where Americans have a legitimate reason to be concerned is that in part this rise has taken place on the backs of an international system in which China wasn't carrying its own weight or following the rules of the road and we were, and in some cases we got the short end of the stick. This is part of the debate that we're having right now in terms of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade deal that, you know, we've been negotiating. There are a lot of people who look at the last 20 years and say, 'Why would we want another trade deal that hasn't been good for American workers? It allowed outsourcing of American companies locating jobs in low-wage China and then selling it back to Walmart. And, yes, we got cheaper sneakers, but we also lost all our jobs.'"

"And my argument is two-fold. Number one: precisely because that horse is out of the barn, the issue we're trying to deal with right now is, can we make for a higher bar on labor, on environmental standards, et cetera, in that region and write a set of rules where it's fairer, because right now it's not fair, and if you want to improve it, that means we need a new trading regime. We can't just rely on the old one because the old one isn't working for us."

"But the second reason it's important is because the countries we're negotiating with are the same countries that China is trying to negotiate with. And if we don't write the rules out there, China's going to write the rules. And the geopolitical implications of China writing the rules for trade or maritime law or any kind of commercial activity almost inevitably means that we will be cut out or we will be deeply disadvantaged. Our businesses will be disadvantaged, our workers will be disadvantaged. So when I hear, when I talk to labor organizations, I say, right now, we've been hugely disadvantaged. Why would we want to maintain the status quo? If we can organize a new trade deal in which a country like Vietnam for the first time recognizes labor rights and those are enforceable, that's a big deal. It doesn't mean that we're still not going to see wage differentials between us and them, but they're already selling here for the most part. And what we have the opportunity to do is to set long-term trends that keep us in the game in a place that we've got to be. . . . . . ."

http://www.vox.com/a/barack-obama-interview-vox-conversation/obama-foreign-policy-transcript

[DescendantOfMany]

30. Special interests dominate both sides of the debate surrounding the TPP.

And neither have a good track record of honesty.

[Doctor_J]

33. not really. most of his accomplishments have been corporate friendly. This would be

more like the frosting on the cake.