2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumCables Show Hillary Clinton's State Department Deeply Involved in Trans-Pacific Partnership
"I did not work on TPP," she said after a meeting with leaders of labor unions who oppose the pact. "I advocated for a multinational trade agreement that would 'be the gold standard.' But that was the responsibility of the United States Trade Representative."
But at a congressional hearing in 2011, Clinton told lawmakers that "with respect to the TPP, although the State Department does not have the lead on this -- it is the United States Trade Representative -- we work closely with the USTR." Additionally, State Department cables reviewed by International Business Times show that her agency -- including her top aides -- were deeply involved in the diplomatic deliberations over the trade deal. The cables from 2009 and 2010, which were among a trove of documents disclosed by the website WikiLeaks, also show that the Clinton-run State Department advised the U.S. Trade Representative’s office on how to negotiate the deal with foreign government officials.
In recent months, labor, environmental, public health and consumer advocacy groups have campaigned against the TPP, saying the pact is a stealth attempt by corporations to tilt the rules of international commerce in their favor. They have specifically criticized provisions in the deal -- which are secret but have periodically leaked -- that they say would empower corporations to use international tribunals to attempt to overturn public interest laws. The groups represent many core Democratic Party constituencies that Clinton has been courting in her White House bid, which explains why in the lead-up to the party's primary she has suddenly depicted herself as a critic of the deal. But the cables show that the Clinton-run State Department was indeed a major player in pushing the initiative.
THE REST:
http://www.ibtimes.com/cables-show-hillary-clintons-state-department-deeply-involved-trans-pacific-2032948
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MaeScott
(878 posts)"You down with TPP?"
Pres. Obama: "You know me!"
Yes, yes we do.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)is seriously involved in promoting the TPP in so many ways.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Imagine that.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)
brooklynite
(94,703 posts)
Live and Learn
(12,769 posts)Armstead
(47,803 posts)Debate is so yucky in a democracy.
brooklynite
(94,703 posts)Triana
(22,666 posts)AntiBank
(1,339 posts)As long as not right winged sourced.
Marr
(20,317 posts)rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)in negotiations over a major international trade agreement.
The horror.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)and our American policy in attempting to negotiate free and fair trade with the 12 nations involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
You do understand Hillary Clinton served at the "pleasure of the president?"
And TPP is "dead in the water" and getting less likely to pass daily?
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)Then you won't be claiming she deserves credit for any of her accomplishments as SOS, much less for setting the table for SOS Kerry and his triumph with the Iran deal -- right?
Can't have it both ways. Either she was a cipher pushing the President's policies; or, as SOS, one of the most powerful positions in the country, she had considerable latitude to define her role and to choose which issues were important to her.
If her role as SOS was merely to serve at the "pleasure of the president", then how in hell does it contribute to her so-called "experience", that has supposedly made her the "most-qualified" presidential candidate ever?
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Old articles, debunked rightwing smears, embarrassing leftwing bait traps put out by rightwing spin machine.
When Hillary left office, nothing in TPP was finalized - not even Congressional approval to pursue TPP!
Only Hillary has the omniscient all-powerful capacity to be credited - or blamed - for something that never occurred on her watch. 
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...this has nothing to do with bashing Hillary, and everything to do with keeping her -- as any public official -- accountable.
The facts are that she supported and helped to negotiate the TPP. Now that it is politically unpopular, she is backing away from it, as per her usual MO.
You are just being unnecessarily defensive, which is odd, to say the least: Your gal won, get over it! 
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)Get it out!
You got two more days, right?
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...based on some arbitrary schedule made by someone else.
Now if DU really wants to limit discussion of our candidates and public servants and what they do vs. what they say, that is surely their choice. I may choose to stop coming here. I have already decided to stop contributing.
So no problem.
As I said, your gal won, you need to get over it. If you can.
yallerdawg
(16,104 posts)This is a Democratic website which supports the Democratic nominee.
We don't work against the nominee.
In two days, I'll happily contribute more to this Democratic website! 
ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...that includes "Underground" in its moniker. Now that "Underground" part strongly implies that criticisms of party and policy are allowed. Unless the site meant to mislead, that is -- now we find out that the founders are a bit plugged in to the Democratic party. Which is okay, they have provided us a great site for discussion over the years. But things change, and this site may change in ways that people like you love -- authoritarian, limiting discussion, rah rah rah for the party and the like. Go for it, it won't hold my attention in that case.
Frankly, I'm bored of this exchange. You can contribute all you want, no skin off my back. I will continue to express myself as I see fit, regardless of your opinions or of DU's arbitrary rules. If I get the boot, oh well.
TTFN
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)
procon
(15,805 posts)Why does anyone with two functioning dendrites fall for these vacuous articles? The State Department is supposed to be involved -- even "deeply" -- with treaty negotiations as the diplomatic contact point. Hillary, just as any other political appointee, serves at the pleasure of the president, working at his direction, not the other way around.
Pop Quiz:
a). the State Dept is normally involved in diplomatic deliberations
b). people who work at the State Dept are normally involved in diplomatic deliberations
c). the State Department normally advises how to negotiate with foreign governments
d). the State Department normally works to implement the policies of the president.
e). Since its Hillary it must be a sinister plot
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)All in it together
(275 posts)Bye bye to pesky truths about Democrats. Ds get a get a pass on anything they do. And never criticize Hillary. That will teach them to follow the will of the people and never mind about the people's welfare.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)...trash the party and our nominee. I doubt it will be here.
tex-wyo-dem
(3,190 posts)You can actually hear yourself repeated multiple times.
You should have fun, NJ! No uncomfortable facts to deal with
procon
(15,805 posts)All politicians should be viewed with a fair amount of skepticism, but don't embrace these weak tropes that try to make hay out of saying the obvious, that the State Dept was "deeply involved", and then implying something is amiss. You've twisted a commonplace function into a Gordian knot, mixed it all up with the other nutty anti-Hillary conspiracy theories lodged in your noggin, and transformed the stew into something suspicious and sinister to fit your own confirmation biases.
And if you're really all that "concerned" about the will of the people, keep in mind that the majority has spoken, and WE have chosen Hillary. That is our will, which makes you the outlier, someone who denies the will of the people and pays no mind about the people's welfare.
treestar
(82,383 posts)and the one above it. They try to get you going and then we realize that it's routine government.
Odd how many despised the TPP here until Hillary supports it. Then - it's all good.
Much like Trump's supporters, there's nothing Hillary can do or not do, say or not say and no money she can take from anywhere that will change her supporter's minds. She can say/do anything. Same kind of blind spot.
Don't get me wrong, if she's nominee I'll vote for her but I don't trust her and can list the reasons. My eyes are wide open and I know what I'm getting with her. Her cheerleaders here - either don't know or don't care. And I find that very interesting - to say the least.
amborin
(16,631 posts)She is the main person who wrote the TPP terms.
She was the main cheerleader for the TPP for years!
here is one of numerous examples of her promoting TPP:
In 2011, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton penned a piece for Foreign Policy describing this regional policy as a “pivot point.”
Clinton further articulated interest in expanding economic liberalization through agreements such as the Korea-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.
This re-balancing became a cornerstone for the Obama administration’s foreign policy objectives, and the principal economic and foreign policy component of the ‘pivot to Asia’ is the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
The TPP's MAIN BENEFICIARY IS WALL STREET!
The TPP permanently immunizes Wall Street from REGULATIONS. It especially PROTECTS Wall Street from a TRANSACTION TAX, aka a TOBIN TAX.
This earlier post from DU explains:
If you thought the recent bills passed in the house gutting Dodd Frank were bad, it's nothing compared to what the TPP will do to financial regulation.
Not only will it be gutted, but it will be gutted in such a way that prevents future congresses and presidents from ever reinstating it, because it means they can sue us in rigged ISDS tribunals to gut our regulations.
Don't take my word for it. From Elizabeth Warren:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/18/elizabeth-warren-trade-deal_n_6350312.html
This post from DU explains further:
Elwood P Dowd
Wall Street is responsible for TPP, and the point man for it came from Citigroup.
The USTR office that wrote TPP is infested with corporate lawyers and lobbyists. In this case, its former Citigroup executive Michael Froman who worked for Robert Rubin that's in charge. He was given a 4 million dollar bonus to take the job at USTR. TPP is all about making money and giving more power to Wall Street and their corporate business partners.
Wall Street Pays Bankers to Work in Government and It Doesn't Want Anyone to Know
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120967/wall-street-pays-bankers-work-government-and-wants-it-secret
Citigroup is one of three Wall Street banks attempting to keep hidden their practice of paying executives multimillion-dollar awards for entering government service. In letters delivered to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over the last month, Citi, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley seek exemption from a shareholder proposal, filed by the AFL-CIO labor coalition, which would force them to identify all executives eligible for these financial rewards, and the specific dollar amounts at stake. Critics argue these “golden parachutes” ensure more financial insiders in policy positions and favorable treatment toward Wall Street.
<snip>
Other banks’ policies are subtler. Banks often defer certain types of compensation in order to retain talent. When an executive terminates employment, unvested stock options and other forms of deferred compensation are usually forfeited. But several companies let executives’ equity options continue to vest if they leave for a government position, or allow them to keep retention bonuses that would otherwise be returned to the firm. A 2004 tax law banned accelerated payments but made an exemption for employees who leave for government service. Critics wonder whether the gifts are intended to fill the government with friendly faces who will act in their former employer’s interests.
“It fuels the revolving door between banks and the government,” said Michael Smallberg, an investigator for the Project On Government Oversight (POGO), whose 2013 report detailed these types of compensation agreements. The average executive branch salary is substantially less than these millions in awards, so the bonuses effectively supplement the lower pay, raising questions about who the government officials actually work for.
Citigroup is a serial user of these practices, if only because so many of its alumni serve in government. Jack Lew, Weiss’ boss at Treasury, had $250,000 to $500,000 in restricted stock vested after he left an executive position at the bank, part of a $1.1 million golden parachute revealed during the confirmation process. Stanley Fischer, currently the vice chair of the Federal Reserve, had a similar clause in his Citigroup employment contract. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman received over $4 million in multiple exit payments from Citigroup when he left for the Obama Administration.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026854944
Here's what Peter de Fazio says:
from:
Mortensen, Camilla. Eugene Weekly [Eugene, Or] 02 Jan 2014: N_A.
DeFazio and others call the TPP "NAFTA on steroids." DeFazio voted against NAFTA, which he says cost the U.S. thousands of jobs. The congressman says an "unholy alliance" of Democrats, Tea Party Republicans and "Republicans who actually care about the economy" could make sure the TPP does not get fast tracked in Congress.
.... The TPP talks about a trade deal will govern 40 percent of U.S. imports and exports as well as affect copyrights, pharmaceuticals and more.
snip
The TPP is being negotiated between the U.S., Canada and about 10 countries in the Asia-Pacific region including Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. It does not currently include China, but DeFazio says that could change. The TPP has been under negotiation for nearly a decade, but is only now coming close to being voted on by Congress. An end of the year deadline for a final version of the TPP has passed.
the agreement would give new political powers to corporations, increase the cost of prescription medications and restrict bank regulation. It would possibly outlaw his proposed Wall Street transaction tax, DeFazio says.
snip
Hillary not only had major input into writing the TPP, but she has been its leading cheerleader:
In one speech, she said the pact would "lower trade barriers while raising standards, creating more and better growth."
from:
U.S. News: Clinton Walking Fine Line on Trade Deal
Nicholas, Peter . Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition [New York, N.Y] 23 Apr 2015: A.4.
Hillary Clinton, herself, wrote a piece in Foreign Policy journal advertising and praising and advocating for TPP:
The future of politics will be decided in Asia, not Afghanistan or Iraq, and the United States will be right at the center of the action.
• By Hillary Clinton
• October 11, 2011
We are also making progress on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), which will bring together economies from across the Pacific — developed and developing alike — into a single trading community.
Our goal is to create not just more growth, but better growth. We believe trade agreements need to include strong protections for workers, the environment, intellectual property, and innovation. They should also promote the free flow of information technology and the spread of green technology, as well as the coherence of our regulatory system and the efficiency of supply chains. Ultimately, our progress will be measured by the quality of people’s lives — whether men and women can work in dignity, earn a decent wage, raise healthy families, educate their children, and take hold of the opportunities to improve their own and the next generation’s fortunes. Our hope is that a TPP agreement with high standards can serve as a benchmark for future agreements — and grow to serve as a platform for broader regional interaction and eventually a free trade area of the Asia-Pacific.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2011/10/11/americas-pacific-century/
Do Hillary's promises of "strong protections for workers" mean anything?
NO, according to leading scholars of trade agreements, especially the TPP:
Scholars say that promises of worker protections are essentially an advertising gimmick:
The Myth of the Level Playing Field
Faux, Jeff. The American Prospect 23.3 (Apr 2012): 47-50.
The ILO conventions are specifically excluded from the U.S. draft of the TPP.
....According to the industry newsletter Inside U.S. Trade, the proposal states that TPP countries "should take measures to reduce trade in products made through forced or child labor" and should apply their national worker protections to free-trade and export-processing zones.....
....Unfortunately, for many governments in less developed countries and investors in developed countries, exploiting labor is the point- cheap workers represent these nations' comparative advantage. As then-Peruvian President Alan Garcia told a cheering Chamber of Commerce the night that the U.S. -Peru trade deal was signed: "Come and open your factories in my country so we can sell your own products back to the U.S."
....If under these labor chapters, workers can still be intimidated, fired, or even murdered for trying to form a labor union, how effective can they be?" The answer is, hardly effective at all. Almost 20 years after NAFTA, companies violate Mexico's labor laws with impunity.........
Moreover, even the tiny improvement of the United States' TPP labor proposal over the Peru agreement will certainly be watered down in the negotiations. None of the other governments are enthusiastic. Countries like Malaysia and Singapore are hostile, and the inclusion of Vietnam, where unions are an arm of the government and labor oppression is rampant, and Brunei, which has a large number of mistreated foreign workers and is ruled by a 600-year-old autocratic sultanate, mocks the assumption that governments will take labor-protection rules seriously.
Deputy National Security Adviser Michael Froman assured Inside U.S. Trade in January that the Obama team would push for "a high standard labor agreement" but then suggested that labor protections were not that important because the benefits of free trade to American workers would go far beyond whatever the content of the labor chapter turned out to be.
What would TPP do?
Scholars say:
The offshoring of work will accelerate.
Vietnam-where wages are lower than China- will take from what little is left of the bottom end of U.S. manufacturing.
Malaysia and Singapore will pull from somewhat higher up the value-added ladder.
To keep their jobs, American industrial workers will take cuts in pay and see middle-class benefits like pensions and health care disappear.
The TPP will help accelerate the evolution of a two-tier wage system - whereby younger workers get hired for less- into three tiers and more.
Because labor markets are connected, the downward pressure in manufacturing wages will spread to other sectors as well, and from private to public employment.
Wage depression also will expand out to workers in the large, extended labor force in countries with which we already have free-trade agreements.
Among those dragged down in this quickening race to the bottom will be workers in Mexico, where lack of job opportunities is a major factor in the vicious internal drug wars that have already claimed some 50,000 lives in the last five years.
As hard times there get harder, social instability is bound to spill over our borders in some form.
Under pressure from public opinion and Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton recently flip flopped on TPP, with weasel words.
But Hillary's past record speaks the truth. Hillary will pass TPP:
Arazi
(6,829 posts)Unfortunately the Hillary supporters won't read it but your post is really important. Thanks for this
JEB
(4,748 posts)Thank you for sharing.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)This place will become a fact-free zone this week 
tex-wyo-dem
(3,190 posts)Karmadillo
(9,253 posts)until Thursday when we can believe whatever we want without these Freaks using facts to undermine our position. If I want to believe Hlllary was dead broke when she left the White House to climb Mt. Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary and took Serbian sniper fire as she neared the summit, I'll believe it and there will be nothing anyone can do to stop me!
KoKo
(84,711 posts)
bvar22
(39,909 posts)(Prototype for the TPP)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-cohen/koreaus-free-trade-agreem_b_4965492.html
Meet the TPP: Crony capitalism on a global scale
https://represent.us/action/tpp/
Obama selects former Monsanto lobbyist to be his TPP chief agriculture negotiator
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662210
"Obama Admin’s TPP Trade Officials Received Hefty Bonuses From Big Banks"
http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/20/obama-admin%E2%80%99s-tpp-trade-officials-received-hefty-bonuses-from-big-banks/
Study: "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/09/the-verdict-is-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-a-sweeping-free-trade-deal-under-negotiation-with-11-pacific-rim-coun.html
amborin
(16,631 posts)
tammywammy
(26,582 posts)ljm2002
(10,751 posts)...if you really believe that, then you won't be touting her SOS experience as something that prepares her for the role of President. After all, the President actually has to make decisions; whereas, to hear you tell it, the SOS merely follows directions.
Either she was a cipher, or, when holding one of this country's most powerful positions, she actually had something to say about her own role and the issues that were important to her.
You can't have it both ways.
Juicy_Bellows
(2,427 posts) procon
(15,805 posts)Her job, just as every other SOS, didn't include talking smack about the President, trying to undermine his authority or wrecking his foreign treaty negotiations. The SOS serves at the pleasure of the president, her only "role" was to promote his policies, not hers, and there is no latitude for anyone to toot their own horn or try to promote a separate agenda at odds with the president.
You definitely can't have it both ways, yeah?
tex-wyo-dem
(3,190 posts)President"
She talked him into Libya, which Obama now considers one of his biggest mistakes.
She hired as an advisor someone Obama explicitly barred from the office of SoS.
She ran communications on a rouge off-the-grid server that no one in government, including the president, has access to.
I would actually consider that disrespect.
NurseJackie
(42,862 posts)
Octafish
(55,745 posts)By Robert Naiman
Truthout | Sunday, 31 January 2016
In an interview from Davos with Bloomberg TV on January 20, Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue - a top lobbyist for the pro-corporate-power Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement - assured viewers that if Hillary Clinton wins the presidential election, she will support the TPP, even though she opposes it now.
Reporting on the interview, Inside U.S. Trade noted:
The Chamber president said he expected Hillary Clinton would ultimately support the TPP if she becomes the Democratic nominee for president and is elected. He argued that she has publicly opposed the deal chiefly because her main challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), has also done so. "If she were to get nominated, if she were to be elected, I have a hunch that what runs in the family is you get a little practical if you ever get the job," he said.
Donohue also said TPP will not be voted on prior to the election because Senate Republicans do not want to do anything that could jeopardize Republican Senators in close races. But he said he believed there was a 75 percent chance that TPP would get done in the lame-duck session after the election.
CONTINUED...
http://www.truth-out.org/opinion/item/34629-chamber-of-commerce-lobbyist-tom-donohue-clinton-will-support-tpp-after-election
Triana
(22,666 posts)JEB
(4,748 posts)Anything to promote the corporate policy desires.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Inconceivable!
Lord Magus
(1,999 posts)Then the negotiations continued after she left office, and the completed produce is something she opposes.
hollysmom
(5,946 posts)
Faux pas
(14,690 posts)appreciate liars. I won't vote for such an OBVIOUS one. 
MyNameGoesHere
(7,638 posts)
tex-wyo-dem
(3,190 posts)Each other repeat themselves.
Oh happy day
MyNameGoesHere
(7,638 posts)You know if that darn delegate/indictment/unicorn fairy shows up Sanders supporters will be magically saved. Keep hope alive, for 2 days
arcane1
(38,613 posts)Lots of credibility going down the drain...
pdsimdars
(6,007 posts)or what policies she supports. She is a woman and that seems to be all they care about.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)their profits.
comradebillyboy
(10,174 posts)negotiating international treaties. Who would have guessed?
pampango
(24,692 posts)
JoePhilly
(27,787 posts)
Demsrule86
(68,643 posts)two days
Skwmom
(12,685 posts) Doctor_J
(36,392 posts)It must be strange to be unable to answer a simple question, to have to try to remember what lie or triangulation you told last time the question was asked, then hope no one discovers the truth. I'e stopped believing anything she says. Whatever is the most corporate-friendly decision on every issue it what she will actually do once elected. TPP will pass. TTIP will pass. Costs (profits) for healthcare will go up - way up. Profits will increase for the entire MIC, the prison industry, the education industry, and the pharmaceutical industry. It's a really easy algorithm.
NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)position adopted during the campaign. Bloomberg News wrote a complete article a few years back about Hillary's deep involvement with drafting TPP, how she knew it was the gold standard and all that, so it was clear to me that she was being more than a tad insincere when saying she needed to "see what's in it before making a decision", while knowing full well what it contained. I realize it's a primary campaign and all, and that campaigns are more lofty non-specific specific rhetoric than actual policy beliefs, but come on.
