Discussion for article #236276
Score a BIG 1 for Elizabeth!
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A word to the wise to all potential 2016 Dem contenders: Keep Elizabeth Warren on your side!
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Wonder how the GOTPs are receiving the news…
Looks like Ron Wyden Not Liz is calling the shots here.(“Eight pro-trade Senate Democrats emerged from a strategy meeting at 1 to declare their opposition to the motion to take up the bill.”) New York Times.
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I must admit that I have not kept up too much with the details of the trade deal so I’m not sure what to think about this. I find it troubling that a candidate who only got 53% of the vote in MA against Scott Brown while Pres. Obama got 61% of there,would seemingly have so much clout. Seems manufactured.
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It was Sen Warren’s 1st venture in the political arena, as a candidate, and won against the sitting Senator Brown. And she won w/o any help from the WH, zero. I think Biden may have stopped by once. In some way though, it does seemed manufactured but she may indeed be extraordinary in her ability to explain and argue her points. And she does not waiver in her confidence. She’s formidable is what I’m trying to say.
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All but one Senate Democrat defied the president Tuesday by voting to prevent consideration of his request for “fast track” trade authority
Which Democrat?
Congrats to all the senators who stopped fast track authority.
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That does it explain it somewhat but Scott Brown was/is not a particularly good campaigner and there was no need for BHO to be in MA. VA,OH and FLA were ground zero. Again too,I haven’t kept up too much with the TPP coverage,so I’m not sure what the beef is about.
Okay, I accept that’s how you feel. However, I need to ask if this same feeling arises anytime ANY senator flexes their muscle in this way? Say for nominations to judgeships or international posts, etc.? Or for legislation about healthcare or equality, etc.? With regards to the senate’s own rule about a 60-vote threshold on a number of types of legislation, this is the way it’s been for a pretty long time. Warren and her fellow supporters in the Senate are doing nothing out of the ordinary. I don’t see this as manufactured.
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You can’t keep up with the details because they’re being kept secret from the People. Corporations, however, were involved in the negotiations.
Corporations, it turns out, really aren’t people, they’re Übermenschen.
.
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Amen. (Said sourly).
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The president supporting a Democrat running for office with a few platitudes is not nearly the same as showing up at a Warren for Senate Sunday park picnic in Boston.
Of course my paranoid take of Warren for Senate was for her to lose and be left with nothing to hang on to - you know like dick-in-hand. And then there would have been the slow tooth extraction dismantling of Dodd-Frank. Fortunately it didn’t work out as planned and now it’s Warren’s turn to do the WS/WH bitch slapping. LOL! Go Liz!
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The Democrat was Thomas Carper from Delaware.
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60 votes to pass anything didn’t become the rule until January 2009. The way the Senate does business troubles me. You have to understand too that I’m from Texas. We haven’t had any Democrats here in a long time. I don’t think Senate Dems on the East or West Coast give a flying f**k about Texas but we donate a lotta money to Dem POTUS candidates to help them get elected. I’m fiercely loyal to Dem Presidents,especially BHO. Senate Dems? Not so much. .
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They said they are going to try again, maybe in the House so we will see.
Of course, getting a trade deal through was assuredly going to be a heavy lift, given Democrats’ misgivings over trade in light of NAFTA, and the AFL-CIO leader Richard Trumka’s opposition to this bill.
And given the lopsided advantage Republicans enjoy in campaign contributions in a post-Citizens United world, Democrats are understandably reluctant to buck the position of Labor.
However, I feel that Democrats are pandering to scare-mongers and entrenched labor interests who are being short-sighted in guarding their turf.
Some Democrats may be swayed if the Republicans agree to bring up the highway bill and trade adjustment bill, which would address workers impacted by trade.
What this does is undermine Obama’s ability to conclude negotiations with the 11 members of this deal, since it undermines confidence that the measures they agree to would not make it to a final bill, or that US legislators might add amendments and qualifiers that substantively change initially agreed to clauses.
And I have to say that if a deal is not done it will ultimately undermine the interests of American workers. This deal would put a floor and a set of enforceable minimum international standards as far as labor rights and environmental protections, which would decrease the incentives of US firms to outsource in a search for cheap labor or a haven from US regulations.
I feel Democratic Senators are once again being led by optics and sensationalism over “secret deal” and “NAFTA on steroids.”
The fact that the deal is being worked on by US Labor Secretary Tom Perez – the former head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division – did not allay the fears of those who saw TPP as a neoliberal sellout to special interests. Remember, Perez recently resolved a massive work stoppage in our West Coast ports that had the potential to cause significant economic disruption to retailers and the supply chain. He’s no neoliberal, but a true advocate for workers.
Not to be dramatic, but as Obama said, if we don’t write the rules for international trade they will be written by China. And because of our and Europe’s economic sanctions on Russia, China and Russia have recently concluded a number of partnerships for major projects, which could lead to increased American isolation on the global stage.
So maybe the bill will come back, and Democrats can force Republicans to introduce bills authorizing increased spending on domestic projects and worker training. But I still see this as a setback.
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It wouldn[t be the first time Dems shot themselves in the foot.
However, many of those Democrats would still vote for fast track authority if McConnell allowed subsequent movement on the accompanying proposals for worker protections, currency manipulation rules, etc.
Pro-trade agreement Senators like Wyden voted “no” on this - scuttling it for now - because of McConnell’s refusal.
This is hardly the death of the TPP - or even of fast track authority. It is more of a early chess move in a much longer set of legislative maneuvering on the issue.
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No I agree, it’s not the death of this deal, but it will be if Democrats continue to be satisfied with merely symbolic victories and belated recriminations over NAFTA.
On the related items you mentioned, I thought Senator Orrin Hatch was open to introducing a trade adjustment bill, and maybe a highway bill.
The currency manipulation item, though seems problematic from what I hear it could tie our hands as far as Federal Reserve monetary actions such as Qualitative Easing. I think Hatch said he would prefer to treat that separately. And at least two countries, including Japan, oppose including that item in the TPP.
Also I still think it’s too early to game out the nature of the political theater surrounding this issue as far as Congressional Democratic and labor’s opposition. Maybe Obama felt he can position himself and the opposition to his advantage.Maybe, during a session with Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, he said, “Guys, I know you want TPP as much as I do, but in any deal we have to give the other side something. And my guys are afraid this TPP will cost their base jobs. Why don’t you get behind a deal that provides increased funds for job training – or my proposal for free community college? Maybe some increased stimulus spending. We can pay for that by closing up a couple loopholes in the tax code, do a one-time tax cut for expatriated American capital stashed overseas – you both said you want to work on tax reform – or placing a tiny tax on stock transactions. We can help move the American economy and you guys can burnish your credentials with a truly bipartisan initiative.”
And maybe his pointed criticism of Democratic opponents to a trade deal is intended to spur Democrats into the discussion and engage the public – Lord knows they haven’t been engaged, as witnessed by the pitiably low voter turnout last year.
Some Democrats argue that Obama always gets the worst in his dealings with Republicans, while the record has shown he has often made the best of a bad situation. So who knows, maybe as a price for a trade deal Congress can be convinced to fund some important job-creating domestic programs.And maybe the trade deal will be much better for the economy than the critics say. After all, much of the Asian region is either experiencing economic contraction or slowing growth. America’s economy, by contrast,is seeing accelerating growth, which might give us leverage.
This could get interesting.
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