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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsObama puts Congress on notice: TPP is coming
Politico.com By ADAM BEHSUDI 08/12/16
The White House put Congress on notice Friday morning that it will be sending lawmakers a bill to implement President Barack Obamas landmark Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement a move intended to infuse new energy into efforts to ratify the flat-lining trade pact.
The move establishes a 30-day minimum before the administration can present the legislation, but the White House is unlikely to do so amid the heated rhetoric of a presidential campaign in which both major party nominees have depicted free trade deals as massive job killers.
Friday's notification is the clearest signal yet that the White House is serious about getting Obamas legacy trade deal the biggest in U.S. history passed by the end of the year, as he has vowed to do despite the misgivings of Republican leaders and the outright opposition of a majority of Democrats in Congress.
Striking a defiant tone, Obama predicted at a press conference last week that the economic centerpiece of his strategic pivot to Asia would pass in the lame-duck session, saying hed like to sit down with lawmakers after the election to discuss the "actual facts" behind the deal, rather than toss it around like a "political football."...snip
Read More: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/08/obama-congress-trade-warning-226952
Candidate Obama: NAFTA was a Mistake
forest444
(5,902 posts)villager
(26,001 posts)CentralMass
(15,265 posts)nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)Here's the late Sir James Goldsmith in 1994. The parts with Laura D'Andrea Tyson are especially interesting (about 15:38m mark)
RIP Sir. You tried.
CentralMass
(15,265 posts)Great interview. I'll finish up watching it.
OnDoutside
(19,970 posts)hour. Goldsmith nailed it 100%. I wonder what Tyson thinks about it now ?
Personally I think trade agreements are good, but for me, how the hell were the likes of the Rust Belt workers just allowed to wither and die ? That was the real issue, there was no attempt to retrain these guys.
P.S. Interesting Sir James mentions about the lack of investment in US infrastructure, 22 years ago !
enough
(13,262 posts)I wish he would stop doing this, but of course he won't.
Hating Trump is going to serve us fine between now and the election, and then, with HRC as President, we will have to get back to the reality of the state of governance/politics in our present time.
It may be, at that point, that the impossibility of criticizing Obama or Clinton, will just shut slowly this site down permanently, as we will have moved seamlessly into one-party rule of the USA.
onecaliberal
(32,895 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)doc03
(35,367 posts)NAFTA. They passed it and Clinton signed it and now Clinton gets 100% of the blame for it. The Democrats have to all
vote it down.
Shandris
(3,447 posts)Tell me it isn't so. Oh, no, the sheer surprise. No, really. I'm totally shocked.
Good thing we voted for more of the same, huh.
ananda
(28,876 posts)TPP is NOT coming anywhere any time.
TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts).
The difference between US business and China is that China acts as a collective state.
When they move into a country, they don't hire locals for their factories, they bring in labor from the mainland.
NAFTA, while nicely premised with good intentions, has caused 7 Central & South American countries to become chief trading partners with China and 6 more nations are about to shift the bulk of their import-exports from the US to China within the next 5-7 years.
China acts as a mercantile nation. They are not bound by the job, financial, and social constructs of NAFTA.
They move into a country and say, deal with us and we won't hold you to the same standards that NAFTA nations do.
They then pay people lesser wages and make 10-20 year or more contracts for guaranteed raw materials that China needs to produce its goods for the world. This completely undercuts NAFTA's goals. Then, China sells those finished goods to the same countries below the costs locals or other imports can provide them. This puts locals out of work. Since they have less money, they become even more dependent on Chinese goods.
(This is the same shit that Wal*Mart does. They move into an area, sell their goods lower than other Wal*Mart stores to undercut and drive local businesses out of competition, which causes people to lose jobs. Wal*Mart benefits from low wages, that force people onto government programs--something local businesses cannot do. As people lose their jobs, they have less buying power and rely more and more on Wal*Mart's goods, feeding this vicious cycle.)
This is why China does not sign onto TPP... because they will undercut TPP and walk away with the keys to the kingdom.
.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)nationalize the fed
(2,169 posts)yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)"Battle lines are being drawn!"
Will we look to the future...or refight the past?
FLPanhandle
(7,107 posts)No way the republicans will pass anything that Obama wants.
No way the Democrats will pass such a trade bill during an election year.
DOA