(Jim Young/Reuters)
Mitch McConnell devotes a
Washington Post op-ed to pressuring President Obama to send free-trade deals with Colombia, South Korea and Panama to Congress for passage. "What's the real holdup," according to McConnell?
For three years, the administration has delayed finalizing these deals because unions have been extracting concessions in exchange for their support. Early on, they demanded further concessions and political reforms from our trading partners, all of which have been satisfied. Now, they’re demanding taxpayer funds for worker training programs that many believe are not only duplicative and costly but may not even be effective. Still, I and others have told the president we are prepared to allow this program to move ahead for a vote as a sign of good faith and to move the trade deals forward.
Ah, those dastardly unions, holding out for trade deals that include minimal worker protections. The nerve! And asking for inclusion of funding to help workers who lose their jobs because of these allegedly jobs-creating trade deals? An outrage!
Of course, these trade deals will not only cost Americans jobs, but Americans know they will cost jobs, as brooklynbadboy's roundup of polling showed. But Republicans have learned that threats to paint Obama and congressional Democrats as opposing an unpopular policy will usually get them to turn around and support the policy, so McConnell is just going with what works for him, here.