Discussion: Warren Slams Obama For 'Untrue' Statements About Trade Deal

[missliberties]

The compromise deal gives Congress and the American people a full six months - as opposed to 90 days in prior TPA pacts - to consider an agreement. For the first 60 days after an accord is reached and even before the president can sign it, the trade agreement will have no action from Congress but will be fully open to public comments. Following that, Congress would have another 120 days to take an up-or-down vote.

[pluckyinky]

@mwh191

Remember his willingness to sacrifice Social Security cost adjustments as part of the “grand bargain” that he wanted to achieve? Fortunately the republicans were too dysfunctional to negotiate the bargain and it failed, no thanks to President Obama.

The president knew, just as everyone else knew, that he could offer them the moon but with the infrastructure spending and the tax hikes in the package, Republicans were never, ever going to budge. He got exactly what he wanted out of the deal and was able to present himself as the only adult in the room, the one willing to work with Republicans. It very much worked and he got reelected. After his reelection, he then made a show of taking the SSI cost adjustments and any other earned benefit cuts off the table. Republicans know they got played, the media knows they got played, it’s only Democrats who haven’t figured that out yet.

I remember people shouting from the rooftops that Obama’s proposal of the SSI cost adjustments meant he’d touched the third rail, that SSI cuts were forever on the table, that Republicans would pummel him with it in the general. Then his grand bargain proposal was discussed for about three week and everyone agreed Obama was offering up real meat and no one has really spoken about it since.

[martinheldt]

Who can see the TPP deal?

The businessmen who are writing the legislation, Administration officials working with the businesses and members of congress under threat of arrest to not reveal what they’ve been allowed to see.

All journalists and nearly all businesses and public interest groups, and the majority of Congress have been denied effective access to the negotiating texts. However, 600 corporate advisors — including Verizon and Wal-Mart — have been given access. The actual text will not be released until four years after the talks have been concluded or a deal has been reached.More

Why is it that the E.U. can release their TPP negotiations and freedom-shouting America can’t?

As this NY Times storystates:

The level of secrecy employed by the Office of the United States Trade Representative is not typical of how most international agreements are negotiated. It’s not even how our negotiating partners say they want to operate. Yet it is the way that the Obama administration handles trade deals, from a failed anti-counterfeiting agreement more than two years ago to the TPP today. The trade representative’s office keeps trade documents secret as national security information, claiming that negotiating documents — including work produced by United States officials — are “foreign government information.”

[tomanjeri]

@Artemisia

She is challenging him to prove that the deal is everything Obama says it is.

You do know that Warren CAN read the trade agreement, she and all of Congress have access to it. Her argument is that she wants the public, not just Congress, to have access to it, while it’s being negotiated rather than having the public wait until it goes to Congress to vote or, if it’s not fast tracked, amended.

[missliberties]

Exactly.

There will be 2-4 months for public debate ONCE THE DEAL IS MADE!! There are 11 OTHER countries involved.

Labor is falling behind the times by not supporting this deal, because the emphasis is to expand labor rights and environmental protections while opening up trade. The US will be exporting goods creates jobs!

[martinheldt]

@BeattyCat

Obama believes he is doing well by us, but I find it more than just frustrating that the banks and multi-national corps can sit in on and participate in the crafting of this very far-reaching deal–and discuss it amongst themselves and their corporate boards, etc., but the reps for We the People aren’t allowed to do as much.

Indeed!

Why aren’t members of congress on these committees? Why no union people on the committees - if labor interests are truly being taken into consideration?

These folks know that fast track pretty much means that Congress will pass the legislation - no filibusters allowed coupled with the implications of voting against a deal that has already been signed by the president.

[beattycat]

Thank you for those links.

[artemisia]

I know that she and the members of Congress can read it- but they are not allowed to discuss the contents of the agreement, and even the broad strokes of the agreement are not available to the public. How many times have we, the people of the United States, whined about a piece of legislation which was not made available to the public before it was rammed through Congress? Shall we start with the PATRIOT Act?

[beattycat]

Read above, MartinHeldt’s post. Even the citizens of the EU get some summaries.

[artemisia]

I seem to remember hearing those words with regards to most of the trade deals of the last few decades. I wonder why the jobs that they were suppose to create didn’t materialize and why the US’ export of goods didn’t really increase much after those agreements were signed.

[artemisia]

And there was a time when the contents of such agreements, or detailed summaries, were published for the public to read. That was here in the US.

[beattycat]

I really like President Obama, but this is a class fight – and we on the bottom did not start it. If those at the tippy-top can’t be happy with the vast sums of money and power they already possess, I suggest they have far deeper issues and true character flaws they should delve into instead of attempting to hoard even more of the world’s natural resources and expendable human capital.

[missliberties]

When the deal is done it will be open to review by Congress.

[missliberties]

Can everyone please read this so that folks will stop hyperventilating about the deal. It isn’t done yet and Congress will see it.

Remember people this expands labor rights something Unions should promote.

[unabogie]

She slammed him, but did she eviscerate him? Did she destroy him? Are they in a fight to the death?

Saying they are in disagreement on this issue while still liking and respecting each other is just so boring.

As to the substance of her complaints, I don’t see how the President can make the negotiations public until the deal is finalized. This seems like common sense to me. And the fact that Congress knows what’s in the text means it’s not being done in secret and Congress has ample opportunity to chime in on any problematic language.

[beattycat]

@Unabogie

And the fact that Congress knows what’s in the text means it’s not being done in secret and Congress has ample opportunity to chime in on any problematic language

It is my understanding from everything that’s been written is that Congressmembers cannot chime in or make any proposals – that their only “say” is to vote yes or no on what is presented to them. No amendments, proposals, not even filibusters are allowed.

[darcy]

@PluckyInKY

There will be 2-4 months for the public to debate and review the deal once a deal is made,

Right, and everyday eight hours a day five days a week this debate will be front and center in Congress. All breakfast fund raising will stop. All other "people’s business’ will stop! No junkets, no Republican obstruction. At the end of the day It will simply be a courtesy and window dressing called ‘transparency’.

@PluckyInKY

And it’s completely disingenuous to suggest only Obama has the authority to make the negotiations public.

Who suggested that?

@PluckyInKY

There are 11 other countries involved and those countries have an interest in keeping certain factions in their countries from taking apart the deal

“from taking the deal apart”? Really? You’re the only one here who’s being ‘disingenuous’.

[lio]

“As the NY Times story states:”

That is an opinion piece written by a law professor and not a news story written by a reporter.

[trumpdog]

@Unabogie

She slammed him, but did she eviscerate him? Did she destroy him? Are they in a fight to the death?

Next headline will be “trashed”. Then “burned”. Then the next - “pulverized”.

Saying they are in disagreement on this issue while still liking and respecting each other is just so boring.

Indeed.

[darcy]

You’re posts here on this thread are pathetic. If you want to carry water for the president, fine, but to suggest this deal will create jobs and unions have to get on board and come into the 21st century is despicable. You’re a fraud masquerading as a concerned Democrat.

And no you won’t get an apology today like I gave you yesterday. I actually thought I owed you one but today I now see what you’re up to.