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Thread: Obama Ready to Defy Base in Order to Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership

  1. #1

    Obama Ready to Defy Base in Order to Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership

    In a speech before CEOs of major U.S. corporations, Obama indicates he's ready to go head-to-head with Democrats, labor unions, and environmentalists on trade deals
    by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer Common Dreams.org


    "In a recent Pew poll, a mere 17 percent of the U.S. public thought that trade has boosted U.S. wages, while 45 percent, across the political spectrum, saw trade as contributing to falling wages for U.S. workers." (Photo: Global Trade Watch/flickr/cc)

    President Barack Obama is ready to buck his liberal base in order to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the pro-corporate international trade deal currently being negotiated in secret by the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries.

    In a speech before the Business Roundtable, an association of conservative CEOs of major U.S. corporations, Obama indicated that he was ready to go head-to-head with Democrats, labor unions, and environmentalists—core groups that oppose the TPP and other so-called "free trade" pacts—in order to move the controversial deal forward. He listed trade as one of his top four economic priorities for the remainder of his presidency, along with tax reform, immigration, and investment in infrastructure.

    "With respect to trade, we hope to be able to not simply finalize an agreement with the various parties in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but also to be able to explain it to the public, and to engage in all the stakeholders and to publicly engage with the critics, because I think some of the criticism of what we’ve been doing on the Trans-Pacific Partnership is groups fighting the last war as opposed to looking forward," Obama said, referring to trade deals such as NAFTA that have been strongly opposed by the same constituencies.

    "Those who oppose these trade deals ironically are accepting a status quo that is more damaging to American workers," he continued. "And I’m going to have to engage directly with our friends in labor and our environmental organizations and try to get from them why it is that they think that."

    U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who helped introduce 'Fast Track' legislation earlier this year that would hand over the power to negotiate trade agreements from Congress to the president, praised Obama's remarks: “This is long overdue," he said. "The president’s influence, particularly among members of his own party, will be a vital component to congressional efforts."

    Previewing the arguments he'll make to Democrats and progressive leaders, Obama suggested that the TPP could have a positive effect on labor and environmental regulations both in the U.S. and abroad. "[I]f we are able to get Trans-Pacific Partnership done, then we’re actually forcing some countries to boost their labor standards, boost their environmental standards, boost transparency, reduce corruption, increase intellectual property protection," he said.

    But convincing his opponents of these alleged benefits will be an uphill battle.

    "It’s a little bit insulting for him to say anybody who is not in agreement with a particularly flawed trade deal he put on the table wants to maintain the status quo," Thea Lee, deputy chief of staff for the AFL-CIO, told the Washington Post.

    In response to Obama's statements to the executives, Ben Beachy posted on Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch Eyes on Trade blog:

    Obama knew his audience—corporate representatives eager to expand the status quo trade model by Fast Tracking through Congress the controversial Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) are probably keen to deny that this model has been exacerbating inequality.

    But such denial defies a consensus position among economists that recent trade flows have indeed contributed to today's yawning gap between rich and poor— the only debate is how big of a role status quo trade has played.

    It also defies U.S. public opinion—in a recent Pew poll, a mere 17 percent of the U.S. public thought that trade has boosted U.S. wages, while 45 percent, across the political spectrum, saw trade as contributing to falling wages for U.S. workers.

    Obama acknowledged yesterday that TPP proponents will have a tough time arguing that this time is different—that reviving Fast Track authority in attempt to push through Congress another more-of-the-same trade pact would not fuel further inequality growth. Fast Track was the Nixon-created maneuver that allowed the executive branch to railroad through Congress controversial, inequality-spurring pacts like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) by negotiating and signing the pacts before Congress got an expedited, no-amendments, limited-debate vote. A study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research finds that were the TPP to be Fast Tracked through Congress, all but the wealthiest among us would lose more to inequality increases than we would gain in cheaper goods, spelling a pay cut for 90 percent of U.S. workers.

    Next week, trade negotiators from throughout the Pacific Rim will gather in Washington, D.C. to continue closed-door talks on the TPP. They'll be met by rallies on Sunday and Monday outside the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, calling for increased transparency and rejection of Fast Track authority.
    Source: http://www.commondreams.org/news/201...ic-partnership

    Note to Mods: This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

    Reminder: Obama talks about NAFTA while lying to gullible supporters, trying to steal votes.



    This is a man who obviously gets off on saying one thing and doing another (in secret), and still his supporters love him. It's beyond disgusting.



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  3. #2
    The GOP is defying indies, moderates and conservatives who oppose TPP.
    BOWLING GREEN, Kentucky – Washington liberals are trying to push through the so-called DREAM Act, which creates an official path to Democrat voter registration for 2 million college-age illegal immigrants.
    Rand Paul 2010

    Booker T. Washington:
    Cast it down among the eight millions of Negroes whose habits you know, whose
    fidelity and love you have tested in days when to have proved treacherous meant the ruin of your firesides.

  4. #3
    Hooray for free(er) trade!
    Last edited by r3volution 3.0; 12-04-2014 at 05:26 PM. Reason: typo, Hooray (f)or...

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by r3volution 3.0 View Post
    Hooray or free(er) trade!
    If you bother to educate yourself on this issue you will see that you are being taken for yet another ride.

    Do you think future generations will look kindly upon those who traded their sovereignty for cheap trinkets made in Vietnam?

    The Pacific free trade deal that's anything but free
    http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...ree-trade-deal

    The Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty is the complete opposite of 'free trade'
    http://www.theguardian.com/commentis...usurp-congress

  6. #5
    Obama is a yes-man. He's doing the bidding of the money trust. I would not be surprised if this was all agreed to before he even took office.
    Diversity finds unity in the message of freedom.

    Dilige et quod vis fac. ~ Saint Augustine

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    Above all I think everyone needs to understand that neither the Bundys nor Finicum were militia or had prior military training. They were, first and foremost, Ranchers who had about all the shit they could take.
    Quote Originally Posted by HOLLYWOOD View Post
    If anything, this situation has proved the government is nothing but a dictatorship backed by deadly force... no different than the dictatorships in the banana republics, just more polished and cleverly propagandized.
    "I'll believe in good cops when they start turning bad cops in."

    Quote Originally Posted by tod evans View Post
    In a free society there will be bigotry, and racism, and sexism and religious disputes and, and, and.......
    I don't want to live in a cookie cutter, federally mandated society.
    Give me messy freedom every time!

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by Deborah K View Post
    Obama is a yes-man. He's doing the bidding of the money trust. I would not be surprised if this was all agreed to before he even took office.
    Very true. It's like Woodrow Wilson once said in his book The New Freedom (1913):

    Since I entered politics, I have chiefly had men's views confided to me privately. Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know that there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it.

  8. #7
    He is a full fledged member of the "Republicrat" party, just like all his recent predecessors, the only party we have in this country. They stand for more war, less civil liberties, more immigration, less sovereignty. The parties two wings yammer endlessly over minor stuff to give the illusion they are actually two.
    Summum Jus, Summa Iniuria - More Law, Less Justice

  9. #8
    that explains why there's so many bull$#@! race riots to distract us
    pcosmar's lie : There are more votes than registered Voters..



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  11. #9
    The dollar is going to lose a lot of value soon. The petrodollar is collapsing. They need to find a way to make those monsanto cancer products and failing Chinese products much cheaper. If the fat cats play along they get rewarded.

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    THE FACTS

    What is TPP?

    The Trans-Pacific Partnership would create a super-treaty which would jeopardize the sovereignty of the nations involved by giving that power to large corporations like Wal-Mart, Monsanto, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Halliburton, Philip Morris, GE, GM, Apple.

    • There are currently 11 nations involved: U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada. Japan has shown interest.
    • The economic power of this group is more than 40% larger than the 27- nation European Union.
    • TPP will offshore millions of good-paying jobs to low-wage nations, undercutting working conditions globally and increasing unemployment.
    • TPP will expand pharmaceutical monopoly protections and institute longer patents that will decrease access to affordable medications
    • TPP will limit food GMO labeling and allow the import of goods that do not meet US safe standards.
    • TPP will institute SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA-like regulations and Internet measures which restrict our right to free speech.
    • TPP will roll back Wall Street regulations, and prohibit bans on risky financial services.
    • TPP will give multinational corporations and private investors the right to sue nations in private tribunals. These tribunals have the power to overturn environmental, labor, or any other laws that limit profit, awarding taxpayer funded damages.
    • TPP will encourage the privatization of lands and natural resources in areas where indigenous people live.
    Last edited by muh_roads; 12-04-2014 at 10:04 PM.

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by muh_roads View Post
    The dollar is going to lose a lot of value soon. The petrodollar is collapsing. They need to find a way to make those monsanto cancer products and failing Chinese products much cheaper. If the fat cats play along they get rewarded.

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    THE FACTS

    What is TPP?

    The Trans-Pacific Partnership would create a super-treaty which would jeopardize the sovereignty of the nations involved by giving that power to large corporations like Wal-Mart, Monsanto, Goldman Sachs, Pfizer, Halliburton, Philip Morris, GE, GM, Apple.

    • There are currently 11 nations involved: U.S., New Zealand, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam, Mexico and Canada. Japan has shown interest.
    • The economic power of this group is more than 40% larger than the 27- nation European Union.
    • TPP will offshore millions of good-paying jobs to low-wage nations, undercutting working conditions globally and increasing unemployment.
    • TPP will expand pharmaceutical monopoly protections and institute longer patents that will decrease access to affordable medications
    • TPP will limit food GMO labeling and allow the import of goods that do not meet US safe standards.
    • TPP will institute SOPA, PIPA, and CISPA-like regulations and Internet measures which restrict our right to free speech.
    • TPP will roll back Wall Street regulations, and prohibit bans on risky financial services.
    • TPP will give multinational corporations and private investors the right to sue nations in private tribunals. These tribunals have the power to overturn environmental, labor, or any other laws that limit profit, awarding taxpayer funded damages.
    • TPP will encourage the privatization of lands and natural resources in areas where indigenous people live.
    let me sell my house and buy some gold
    pcosmar's lie : There are more votes than registered Voters..

  13. #11
    Just another flunky sock puppet dancing to the puppet master's tunes.

  14. #12



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