Now it is about the TAA
Trade Adjustment Assistance, a program designed to help workers displaced by trade and one which Democrats—and organized labor—have overwhelmingly supported in the past.
President Obama while taking heat and some bad articles and headlines about 'being put in check by some in his own party' like this; A Big Win for Big Labor
Atlantic
..has also placed the ball in D's hands - to make or break the deal. One way or the other, this could be their greatest moment to stand for the future of the American workforce.
Given the economics, sooner or later in this administration or the next, this deal will probably be done. As Mr. Paul Krugman wryly alludes.
OK, I didn’t see that coming: even though I have come out as a lukewarm opponent of TPP, I assumed that it would happen anyway — the way trade deals (or in this case, dispute settlement and intellectual property deals that pretend to be about trade) always do.
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If this TPA fails the R-cons will be spending and spinning 'big time' to paint the (D)'s as anti business and growth. 'Unlike President Obama' it will be cynically said, 'they are parochial and unready to deal with global responsibilities.' 'So vote them out.'
Yes, it is unfair. But it is also current political reality. Caused, in big parts, by too many of labor's rank and file, in particular, 'breaking ranks' and voting for R's in recent elections and elections going back to Nixon and Reagan. While CBC voters, for instance, have consistently held the D line.
Sure, Labor's current leadership, can and is pushing up tough on the Congressional Black Caucus and other House members, now. But, where will they be when a billion dollars of dark money drops from the clouds, with ads attacking D's for a failing to close the trade deal. And, giving away the economic future to China.
Even President Obama in the SOTU expressed skepticism about trade deals. And most of us are with Krugman. But the question is, If This President can't pass 'the best Trade deal in history', who can.
And, after what we just saw in '14 all the talk and all the bluster and then the losses? It just seems 'somebody' has to be on it for real going into a Presidential cycle.