Hurrah, the scintillating spirit of bipartisanship is loose in DC again, per the NYTimes:
…[I]ncreasingly, Congress, under Republican control, is pressing forward on broad aspects of President Obama’s end-of-term agenda.
On a huge trade agreement, Republicans are pursuing legislation with virtually no Democratic support… The forward movement also reflects Republicans’ eagerness for legislative achievements before the 2016 presidential race, and their far larger say in drafting legislation and setting the terms of the debate after gaining full control of Congress last year…
On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold its final hearing on legislation granting the president “fast track” negotiating authority to complete a trade accord with 12 Pacific Rim nations, and it will formally draft the bill on Wednesday. The House Ways and Means Committee will draft similar legislation on Thursday, moving forward on one of the president’s top priorities over the vociferous opposition of much of his party…
The new push on trade promotion authority stems from Mr. Obama’s “strategic pivot” to Asia since the opening months of his presidency and a yearslong effort to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would be the largest trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement….
…[C]onservative groups like Americans for Tax Reform, the Cato Institute and the American Enterprise Institute have come out strongly in favor of the trade authority, as has the editorial board of The Wall Street Journal.
In a first for Mr. Obama, he may achieve a legislative victory on an almost party-line vote in which his party votes no…
So, amazingly, the Grey Lady is cheerleading a “bipartisan” trade agreement that will give megacorporations even more control over our government, and prove a boon to the Republicans and their legislative enablers, while making the lives of us 99%ers that much harder?
Timothy B. Lee Vox has a long comprehensive explanation of the agreement: “The Trans-Pacific Partnership is great for elites. Is it good for anyone else?”
Via Ed Kilgore, at the Washington Monthly, here’s Professor Krugman’s opinion in late February:
… It’s far from clear that the T.P.P. is a good idea. It’s even less clear that it’s something on which President Obama should be spending political capital. I am in general a free trader, but I’ll be undismayed and even a bit relieved if the T.P.P. just fades away…
What the T.P.P. would do, however, is increase the ability of certain corporations to assert control over intellectual property. Again, think drug patents and movie rights.
Is this a good thing from a global point of view? Doubtful. The kind of property rights we’re talking about here can alternatively be described as legal monopolies. True, temporary monopolies are, in fact, how we reward new ideas; but arguing that we need even more monopolization is very dubious — and has nothing at all to do with classical arguments for free trade…
So what I wonder is why the president is pushing the T.P.P. at all. The economic case is weak, at best, and his own party doesn’t like it. Why waste time and political capital on this project?…
And I got an email from my senior Senator this morning:
Have you seen what’s in the new TPP trade deal?
Most likely, you haven’t – and don’t bother trying to Google it. The government doesn’t want you to read this massive new trade agreement. It’s top secret.
Why? Here’s the real answer people have given me: “We can’t make this deal public because if the American people saw what was in it, they would be opposed to it.”
If the American people would be opposed to a trade agreement if they saw it, then that agreement should not become the law of the United States.
Let’s send a loud message to our trade officials: No vote on a fast-track for trade agreements until the American people can see what’s in this TPP deal. Sign this petition right now to make the TPP agreement public…
For more than two years now, giant corporations have had an enormous amount of access to see the parts of the deal that might affect them and to give their views as negotiations progressed. But the doors stayed locked for the regular people whose jobs are on the line.
If most of the trade deal is good for the American economy, but there’s a provision hidden in the fine print that could help multinational corporations ship American jobs overseas or allow for watering down of environmental or labor rules, fast track would mean that Congress couldn’t write an amendment to fix it. It’s all or nothing.
Before we sign on to rush through a deal like that – no amendments, no delays, no ability to block a bad bill – the American people should get to see what’s in it.
Sherrod Brown has been leading this fight, and he points out that TPP isn’t classified military intelligence – it’s a trade agreement among 12 countries that control 40% of the world’s economy. A trade agreement that affects jobs, environmental regulations, and whether workers around the globe are treated humanely. It might even affect the new financial rules we put in place after the 2008 crisis. This trade agreement doesn’t matter to just the biggest corporations – it matters to all of us…
Corner Stone
Anyone who watched Morning Joe this AM saw Paul Ryan try his best to duck and weave around the idea that when they disagree with Obama it is principled and they offer alternatives but when they agree with Obama they want to support him.
They all want this to go through. Should be enough said.
How do we think it’s good to try and sell to countries where the populace can’t afford any of our exports as consumers?
They are not our customers. They are our emerging workforce.
Corner Stone
There’s just no way we should grant fast track for this.
Major Major Major Major
“The American people are opposed to it” is not actually a policy argument, any more than “the American people are for it.”
That said, thanks for the links. I’ve generally supported this deal because I think free trade is something of a moral responsibility (it often leads to the rich subsidizing the poor, the fact that they’re different countries is irrelevant). But if the details are this toxic, especially the IP stuff, no thanks. That system is broken enough without including other countries.
But like, I’m torn. I’m a librarian so I don’t want things that break international IP even more, but my in laws are vietnamese and I want to help that country be more …not cripplingly poor.
srv
Derp, who do you think is going to pay for that Presidential Library & Foundation?
All those quotes and you missed Obama throwing Liz & Harry under the bus this morning.
Corner Stone
@Major Major Major Major:
I…uhhmmm…what?
Bobby B
The Corporation has made Its will clear and the president will obey his Masters. Thy will be done, O Corporation.
Major Major Major Major
@Corner Stone: hurting your own country’s economy in a way that will benefit multiples more people than you’re hurting here? It’s basic redistribution.
Like, I’m sure we can agree that taxing somebody rich and using that money to provide healthcare for the poor is good.
Free trade, if done non-corruptly, sort of is the same thing, but with nations. But it sounds like this one is kind of nasty. The reason i didn’t know any details is because they weren’t out there. I’m not a goddamned libertarian I just want to minimize suffering and think a vietnamese life is worth as much as an American one.
srv
@Corner Stone:
You have an alternate reality to the Perfect World?
Jeez, get with the program, it’s almost 40 years now.
Zinsky
The thing that galls me about this TPP turd is the way it is being kept from public view. “Trust us”, these assholes say. “It will be good for America”, they say. Yeah, right. Anyone who supports this sort of surreptitious legislation doesn’t deserve to hold elected office in this once great democracy of ours. That includes Mr. Obama.
Howard Beale IV
Naked Capitalism has been doing yeoman’s work covering just how bad TTP and TTIP is. And when Naked Capitalism points out that not only liberals but CATO finds flaws with it-it’s fucking bad deal.
Keith P.
As we speak, I am crafting a letter to all involved Pacific Rim nations that any “fast-track” agreement is subject to repeal by the next Congress/President. Since they don’t have any idea who I am, I included dick pics to get their attention first.
Ripley
I’m not all that good at math, but this just doesn’t add up.
RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac)
This is one of the President’s top 3 flops during his time in office. The others are Arne Duncan as Sec. of Education and staying in Afghanistan.
kindness
Money. I’ll be damned but it’ll be the death of us.
Howard Beale IV
Fuck the TPP and TTIP. When Elizabeth Warren and CATO are on the same side, you know it’s a bad deal.
Major Major Major Major
@RobertDSC (Quad Intel Mac): well we knew about Afghanistan during the campaign.
HRA
If you don’t know what is in it, how can you criticize it?
Karen in GA
Sorry to go OT, but if you could send some healing thoughts towards Smudge, my 16 year old sickly kitty, please do. She hasn’t eaten, her kidneys don’t look great, and her liver isn’t much better. The vet says the odds are slim, and if Smudge were human we’d need to gather the family around — but Smudge is a stubborn girl, and recovery is within the realm of mathematical possibility. So per her regular vet’s recommendation, she’s now at the emergency vet for overnight monitoring. (Meanwhile, I’m home and very sad.)
Chris
@Karen in GA:
Sorry to hear about your kitty. Multiple good thoughts sent your way, and (to the extent that I believe these things work) prayers too. Hope she pulls through.
Mike in NC
So the TPP sounds like the greatest idea to come down the pike since the Greater East Asian Co-Prosperity Sphere.
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen in GA:
You got it. See your FB page, also. Love and light to Smudge, hugs to you.
FlipYrWhig
@Karen in GA: Come on, Smudgey…
Corner Stone
@HRA:
Excelsior!
nellcote
Since when is anything gov to gov negotiated in public? That’s an absurd demand. Sen Warren has an opportunity to read what’s actually been negotiated SO FAR. What exactly are her issues? Aside from hyperbole, she doesn’t really say.
divF
@nellcote: Sen. Warren’s assertion is that it has not been negotiated in strict confidence, government-to-government. Instead, private U.S. corporate interests have had both influence and access to the negotiations.
If corporations have access, then why don’t other stakeholders (e.g. environmentalists, labor unions) ?
Corner Stone
@divF:
The contention is that there are no other stakeholders.
Corner Stone
Anyone who can argue with a straight face that this trade deal opens up markets for US MNC’s to better sell their goods is a fucking fool or a shill.
AxelFoley
Sen. Warren is against it so we all have to be against it, amirite? St. Warren is never wrong and President Obama is always wrong according to emos on the left.
Mike G
The Deep Government – corporations and the Security State – always gets what it wants, regardless of which party holds which positions.
nellcote
Does Hillary have anything to say about this trade agreement?
Kropadope
I understand the suspicion, given the lack of details available to the public so far. However, I’m familiar with Obama’s work and I think maybe we should wait until the deal is truly out there with it’s details being debated before judging.
Who knows? Maybe this “fast-track” the Rs are falling over themselves to support is a Trojan horse that will allow Obama to advance a truly sensible trade agreement that the Rs already negotiated away their ability to edit.
Corner Stone
@AxelFoley: When was the last trade deal that benefited the working class of the US?
It wasn’t NAFTA, CAFTA-DR and it’s not this one.
Corner Stone
Man, Bobby Flay. Do you know what kind of a buzz saw you married into?
Tree With Water
Tonight speaking with Rachel Maddow, Warren remarked senators can read the treaty, but not discuss what they’ve read publicly. She looked embarrassed saying it, as she damn well should have. Rules are made to be broken, especially stupid ones. I mean, WTF? The way I see it, at this point it’s not matter of she/they can’t, but that she/they won’t. The full text of the Unseen Treaty would have already been published, were ours a functioning democracy. I challenge any and all congressional democrats to cut the bullshit, and leak the damn report in total. Who the hell do those people think they are anyway?
Carolinus
@divF:
Isn’t this just referring to the the long standing USTR trade advisory committee system where there are all sorts of stakeholder (environmental, industry, infectious disease, etc) committees that are available for input and advice? They’ve solicited input from plenty of non-corporate stakeholders too.
Peale
@Tree With Water: yep. Yep. Yep.
secret treaties? Makes no sense. What are they voting on?
nellcote
@divF:
per the Maddow show Warren asserts corps have 85% participation, presumably enviros, unions, etc have the rest.
btw are these the same unions that support building the Keystone Pipeline?
nellcote
@Tree With Water:
they’re still negotiating it. When they have a final treaty, congress will have an opportunity to debate and shut it down if they want.
Tenar Darell
So, probable crappy secret copyright & patent treaties, with extra added unenforceable environmental and labor clauses in our futures or what? Awesome sauce! Can I get three cheers? Half a cheer? Howzabout no cheers for us?
On another depressing note,
I read this interview with Krakauer in Salon. “Rolling Stone has a lot to answer for”: Jon Krakauer on campus rape, victim backlash and why “Missoula” was the hardest book he’s had to write.
Summary – He wrote a book about two recent rape trials in Missoula. He’s better known for Into Thin Air And Into the Wild, but his book Under the Banner of Heaven about a murder by a fundamentalist Mormon of his wife. If it’s as good, it will be a very worthwhile read, but very very hard to take.
Tree With Water
@nellcote: Thank you, and I stand corrected. It still doesn’t sit right with me, however.
Tenar Darell
Sorry Anne Laurie, I re-read the tags and just realized I went way o/t.
burnspbesq
@Corner Stone:
Way to conflate two issues, dumbfuck.
Fast-track gives our treaty partners the assurance that the deal they thought they negotiated is the actual deal, because there is only one American negotiator at the table, not 536, and that person has the authority to say “yes.” Even you should be able to understand that deals don’t get made if the decision-maker isn’t in the room.
It’s still a treaty, which means that it takes 67 votes for ratification. If it’s a shit sandwich on stale bread (as it very well might be, and if it is, I will be all over Feinstein and Boxer asking them to vote “no”), then it should be child’s play for Warren, Sanders, et al to find 34 “no” votes. And if they can’t, too damn bad, and you can just go suck Erik Loomis’ dick.
jl
I saw the TPP referred to in the blog post and the linked articles as a ‘trade agreement’. Most large media organizations insist on calling it a ‘free trade’ agreement.
Calling a ‘free trade’ agreement is not completely dishonest, since there are a few trade barriers (as conventionally defined, such as tariffs) that can be reduced for eliminated. But Krugman is right, the parts that are about intellectual property rights and extending patent monopolies will have far more impact. And also provisions that create, in effect, very strong de facto investment insurance for large corporations against anything that they claim interferes with their idea of what their profits of a business venture should be.
Below a youtube clip of Stliglitz, apparently talking to a dissident group of TPP negotiators.
Prof Stiglitz on TPP 2015
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX3-ogcwFQ0
Mike E
@nellcote:
Yeah, prolly under breath, “Thank God nobody gives a shit about this.”
Corner Stone
@burnspbesq: In a strange way, I agree with you, you fucking gaping asshole of assholishness.
I want this fucking deal killed. So to deny fast track should hopefully tell all other parties that it ain’t gonna happen. So go suck burnsie’s cock for a while.
jl
Doesn;t look like the TPP will lead to harmonization, trade or any other wise.
burnspbesq
@Corner Stone:
34 is the magic number. You can count that high, can’t you?
Corner Stone
@burnspbesq: Who said anything about a veto proof anything, you fucking gaping asshole of stupidity?
BobS
@AxelFoley: Since your ability to understand many things seems to be limited to who is for or against, try to remember that most Republicans are for the TPP. @nellcote: Normal procedures, e.g. debate, are set aside with Fast Track.
Corner Stone
Imagine that, the stooge of big tax dodger assholes waking up to talk shit about the trade deal that benefits big biz. Shocking.
kc
Glad people are finally paying attention to this.
Violet
Last Friday I was picking someone up from the airport and had to circle a couple of times so listened to NPR. Bobo and E. J. Dionne were on for their politics segment. They were asked about the TPP. I think it was Bobo who said the good thing about these kinds of trade agreements, as with NAFTA, is that they help lift poor countries and their people out of poverty and said there was no arguing with that. Then either he or EJ (probably him) said the downside is that it hurts low income people in the US and decades down the road we haven’t figured out what to do about that and this agreement will probably do the same thing and make it worse for American workers. And then they all “Hmmmm”-ed and “Uh huh”-ed in agreement and the host changed the subject.
So there’s your Nice Polite Republican take on good jobs going overseas. Lots of Concern Hmmmm-ing.
Corner Stone
@BobS:
ONT’s ability to understand anything comes down to one thing, and one thing only.
kc
@AxelFoley:
Tell us why we should support it, Axel.
PurpleGirl
@Karen in GA: Sorry to hear about Smudge. Hope she gets better. {{{{{Hugs}}}}} for you and skritches for her.
kc
@Karen in GA:
Aw, I’m sorry.
Corner Stone
@kc: AxelFoley: OBAMMMMMAAA!!
Omnes Omnibus
So is the consensus that we are against the treaty, against fast track authority, against both, or something else? Me, these days, if a trade agreement does not contain enforceable labor and environmental clauses, I am opposed.
kc
@Corner Stone:
EMOPROG.
Corner Stone
@kc: *sobs*
BobS
@Corner Stone: I found OBAMMMMMAAA’s!!! remark to Matthews about Warren being wrong particularly classy considering he made it while sitting at a table surrounded by his cheerleaders. I’d have been more impressed if the Salesman-in-Chief had invited Warren to debate the merits of both the TPP and Fast Track authority.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus:
So far it seems that if you’re burnspbesq and/or someone who is overly invested in President Obama then this trade agreement is the best thing that’s happened to America since sliced bread met the George Foreman grill.
Corner Stone
@BobS:
Apparently she’s not allowed to talk about those aspects.
And since none of the proponents are actually voicing those pro talking points…
Hmmm.
Cacti
Well, If Liz Warren reflexively opposes it, that’s good enough for me.
She did recently vouch for the good character of Chuck Schumer after all.
And it only took her to her 40s to realize that Republicans suck.
A veritable John Cole of the US Senate.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: Burnsie is overly invested in the George Foreman grill? I am stunned.
@Cacti: So do you support the agreement?
Tenar Darell
@Karen in GA: Virtual skritches for Smudge, pats for Iggy, and actual good thoughts for you all.
Cacti
@Omnes Omnibus:
I neither support nor oppose it at this point.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: You should not go there. You would not last an hour. You just would not.
BobS
@Cacti: Yeah, there’s Warren. And Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Barbara Mikulski, Al Franken, etc.
Cacti
@BobS:
What exactly are they opposing?
Corner Stone
@Cacti: Trade deals are reflexively bad at this stage of our economy. Can you, or anyone, inform us on the last time a trade deal enured to the benefit of actual people in America?
And I don’t mean “Real Merkins”. I mean anybody here that wasn’t a major shareholder in the Fortune 500?
NAFTA screwed family owned farms in Mexico, in addition to a number of categories in Central America, and basically gave Big Ag a huge benefit.
CAFTA-DR came right along behind that.
Who thinks this deal isn’t going to be more of the same thing?
Cacti
@Corner Stone:
If you don’t have an answer, that’s fine, just say so.
BobS
@Cacti: The lack of collaboration with Congress for one thing.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone:You’re probably right. You have to understand that my personal military experience means nothing compared to someone’s family military history (Oh, yeah. at the same time, my family’s military history has no bearing on the conversation) and I have a 10,000 acre field across from my house. Or something.
Edited slightly for spelling
Corner Stone
@Cacti: WTF are you babbling about you fucking fool?
Ifsh you dontsh knowsh then dontsh.
Shut the fuck up, dumb ass.
Cacti
@BobS:
Surely there’s a more compelling reason than Senatorial egos.
Corner Stone
@Omnes Omnibus: I thought it was awesome when you got called a troll and then a bully in the same thread.
Omnes Omnibus
@Corner Stone: It was interesting.
nellcote
on labor issues:
https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/labor
on environmental issues:
https://ustr.gov/issue-areas/environment
BobS
@Cacti: You call it “Senatorial egos”, I call it someone to weight the scales a little more for labor and the environment and a little less for the corporate interests who are over-represented in the negotiations. Now, if you wouldn’t mind, go fuck yourself.
Violet
@Corner Stone: That was my favorite part.
Corner Stone
@nellcote: On labor and environmental issues:
http://www.aflcio.org/Issues/Trade/Trans-Pacific-Partnership-Free-Trade-Agreement-TPP
Corner Stone
This Spurs-Clips game is kind of nuts, in a really low key kinda way.
Peale
@Omnes Omnibus: both. On the fast track authority, it was a power congress gave bush and I know why Obama wants to keep it. I don’t think it was good then so why would the democrats flip on that now?
As for the TPP, It would be helpful to know more. But only the IP part has leaked and I honestly Dont care much about that. Mainly because it brings our IP laws to the other partners. Yeah, I think our copyright laws should allow more items into the public domain and patents should expire more quickly than they do but it’s not like our laws are suddenly worse.
Besides Obama, are any Dems supporting this? If not that kind of says there’s a problem. It could be that there isn’t and Obama is somehow tricking the Reboicans into introducing and voting for unpopular legislation that will doom them to electoral defeat…but I doubt that.
Karen in GA
Thanks for the good wishes. She’s hanging in — not much better, but no worse. Hoping tomorrow brings some improvement. Going to try to get some sleep.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
And in the whole history of your family’s military service, “not once” did they ever come home to find a dead body in the house.
Not once. Ponder that.
(couldn’t resist)
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
Heh, that never gets old.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Corner Stone:
He was picking a fight to no purpose.
Suzanne
@Karen in GA: Hugs to you and to Smudge.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: I adore you. Your trolling of Tommy has never failed to amuse me. MORE MORE.
@Corner Stone: Which thread was that? I must read.
On an unrelated note, did anyone watch the “Football Town Nights” skit on Inside Amy Schumer? LMMFAO.
opiejeanne
@Violet: Which thread? I have missed so much today.
opiejeanne
@Omnes Omnibus: OMG! I just realized who you’re talking about.
liberal
@burnspbesq: no, it doesnt require 67 votes, you dumbfuck. It’s not a teaty in that sense. Do some googling on the subject, you ignorant piece of shit.
Tripod
I did have a chuckle at the moronic assertion that those brown people don’t buy any American goods or services – probably because they’re sitting around a grass hut and the women are all topless…
J R in WV
@Corner Stone:
@Omnes Omnibus:
Surely you will both agree that these categories (bully and troll) aren’t mutually exclusive?
;-)
I would think that most trolls are bullies, and vice versa, after all. I think I’m against the TPP, but it is hard to say. How many angels can dance on the head of a pin, a small straight pin, not a giant gay pin?? The TPP and angels both appear to be invisible, after all.
CONGRATULATIONS!
@Tree With Water: In a nation with a functioning liberal opposition party, that would be the end of her career.
How far we have fallen. How desperate have we become, to regard this former Republican as our progressive savior? Fucking ridiculous.
DavidTC
Republicans: Against one world government, unless the corporations are in charge.