Discussion for article #229610
Oh goody, the only thing they will agree to do is to further screw the American worker. Now why does that not surprise me?
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The operation was successful, but the patient dies.
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… “Trans-Pacific Partnership”
Why not just call it what it is…PAFTA, Son of NAFTA.
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One more reason to GOTV.
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Under President Obama:
National affordable healthcare
Economic expansion
Depression diverted
Deficit reduced by 2/3
2 women on Supreme Court
Bin Laden dead
Stock market at record highs
Unemployment drops from 10.2 to 5.9
Gas prices down
…etc…
Yup! Time to return, ASAP and as much as possible, to Bushland and Baggerville. Give the obscenely rich more and flog the culture wars and yell, “Innnnn-peeeeeeach!” Perhaps we can bring back the days of shedding 800K+ jobs a month and make it to a full scale Great Bush Depression…we did come close! 'Back to the Future!" ___It’s the GOPig way!
“No one in this world, so far as I know—and I have researched the records for years, and employed agents to help me—has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people. Nor has anyone ever lost public office thereby.” _____H. L. Mencken
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PAFTA, son of NAFTA, CAFTA, and SHAFTA.
No, I’m not surprised.
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I could see Obama generaly moving more towards the Right in his last two years to placate the GOP from possible impeachement pressure. He has shown himself to be just another politican, after all. He’s already let down his base and the Rightwingers hate his guts so he has nothing to lose (except maybe a little bit of his soul).
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IMHO,it will be “Checkmate” with a GOP takeover.They will be in a position of not just saying “NO”.it should be interesting.For the “Check” is the VETO PEN !!
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The TPP is about further increasing the power of multinational corporations over nations, and over the citizens of those nations. It is a very bad idea for anyone who cares about progressive ideals. If you like the idea of multinational corporations suing nations to force open their national parks for mineral exploitation (see recent Costa Rica example), then support the TPP. For goodness sake, isn’t it clear enough by now that “free trade” has done more to undermine what used to be a good middle-class life in the USA than it has to improve it?
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Teaser headlines? TPM taking on Yahoo now?
Re: sherlock1’s comment above:
I want Obama to have a successful presidency, but by doing good things for middle-class America. I don’t think Obama’s record has been much to crow about yet – I just have to take the list posted and subject it to a bit of scrutiny.
Under President Obama:
National affordable healthcare
– well, yes, but a semi-mangled Romneycare…imagine what could have been.
– this is Obama’s best accomplishment.
Economic expansion
– seriously?
Depression diverted
– the bank bailouts were Bush’s effort, and they were likely the main driver propping up this mess. The Fed’s QE program is probably the second big one, again mostly not Obama’s policy.
Deficit reduced by 2/3
– more due to gradual recovery of tax receipts than anything else.
2 women on Supreme Court
– good, and both reasonably liberal as well
Bin Laden dead
– would also have happened with Romney in there.
Stock market at record highs
– stocks these days don’t reflect the basic economy like they used to, and instead reflect opportunities to make fast money on Wall Street, esp. in finance. I see this as due to the bailouts and the Fed’s QE program, mainly.
Unemployment drops from 10.2 to 5.9
– seriously? It sounds like much of this is due to people giving up on employment and dropping out of the numbers. We have had a sustained, anemic recovery…hardly something to crow about.
Gas prices down
– they were up for ages, fwiw. Now they are down because of a combination of two bad things – a sagging world economy, and the exploitation of new oil sources. Obama’s role?
Anyway, I’m not saying I argue with the gist of the message – i.e., no way the awful Republicans should be back in power – but we have to keep ourselves on the ground here.
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That’s a lovely fly you’ve picked out of the soup.
The administration views the TPP as strategically important for U.S. outreach to the Asia-Pacific.
This is what makes trade politics so tough for the liberal/labor side: whatever the merits of deals like this as economic policy, they are excellent foreign policy, increasing our influence with the trade partners and earning favors.
Obama is serious about his “Pivot to Asia” vision.
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Yea, why would we need a president to begin with? Is it just imagination that the republican’ts are already there?
Nixon
– resigned
Ford
– appointed, not really in charge, puppet
Reagan
– the great white hope, but just pushing a preordained agenda
H.W.
– idealogical wimp
W.
– anyone calling themselves the decider is not.
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He’s already let down his base
Barack Obama’s approval rating is about 90% among Democrats and about 95% among African-Americans. That is, he is wildly popular among his base.
The people you’re describing as “his base” - left-wing internet commenters - have never been his base. They have never been reliable Obama supporters, and have never made up a meaningful fraction of the people who supported him.
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National affordable healthcare
– well, yes, but a semi-mangled Romneycare…imagine what could have been.
Another failed bill, like Clinton’s and Truman’s and every other effort at health care reform? That’s what could have been, not National Health or Single Payer or other varieties of unicorn.
Economic expansion
– seriously?
Seriously. The US was losing 800,000 jobs a month when he came into office, and is now adding over 200,000. Seriously.
Depression diverted
– the bank bailouts were Bush’s effort
You don’t think the largest stimulus program in American history had anything to do with that?
Bin Laden dead
– would also have happened with Romney in there.
Bin Laden was killed in Obama’s first term. Also from the real world: Obama restored the CIA’s bin Laden unit. Obama overruled most of his advisors when he ordered the operation.
Unemployment drops from 10.2 to 5.9
– seriously? It sounds like much of this is due to people giving up on employment and dropping out of the numbers.
It can only sound like that if you aren’t paying close attention to the data.
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If it’s coming from the Republicans it isn’t meant to help the average working person. That is rock solid fact and should make everyone extremely suspicious of any deal that they agree with.
Their hearts aren’t in the right place first and foremost because they have no heart for us. In my lifetime Republicans have been atrocious and constantly getting worse, why would I begin to believe that they have come around and are now about doing the right thing? They aren’t and their easily accessible and understandable history proves it.
The partners that we truly need are the other half of America. The “conservative” half of America is not on America’s side as a whole, they are for the fictitious, the multi-national faceless corporation, the pie in the sky quest for wealth.
There is so much more to life than that and a goal of greed is so shallow. Wealth comes in many forms, cash value is just one of the slices of the pie.
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“Stock market at record highs.” The economy in total and corporate profits are doing just fine, thank you. It’s just that the working/middle class is not participating. We lost our ability to wage-bargain long ago, due to off-shoring and automation of family-wage jobs, thus boosting profits for the top one percent.
I would be impressed if Obama were to use his last two years leading a national dialogue on the absolute need for re-redistribution of wealth. He’s alluded to boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit, as have Sen. Rubio and Rep. Ryan. Is there a better mechanism for boosting family income? Let’s start talking turkey.
Sharp increases in income and wealth taxes on the fabulously rich could pay for a family-sustaining EITC, plus allow much larger investment in education and other infrastructure needs. We evened the wealth distribution in the '40’s, '50’s, and '60’s to everyone’s benefit. We can do it again.
Need inspiration? Watch Sen. Bernie Sanders on Bill Moyers this week.
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Before we pass such legislation, its provisions need to be made public for an ample period to allow scrutiny and debate on its actual provisions. We need to globalize, but we need to require our partners to observe the same respect for workers and for the environment we expect at home. Full stop.
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