While Nancy Pelosi decides which 20 or so Democrats could withstand being sacrificed for voting "Yes" to Fast Track so that Pres. Obama won't be "embarrassed" by its non-passage, House Democrats who pass the bill could suffer everything from regretting the damage TPP causes the country to losing their own elections.
Democrats as a whole are congenitally unable to vote for Fast-Track authority--in this case carte-blanche for 6 years--for a President, any President. Basically, if they vote yes, representatives are surrendering their Congressional authority and responsibility to the power of the President. They become his ultimate rubber stamp.
Why should they do that for Pres. Obama and for this massive treaty? Essentially there is nothing the President can offer them that makes it worth it. Since the wraps have been taken off parts of the secret TPP treaty, there are many aspects that one would definitely not like to rubber stamp. And they go beyond the enormously significant fact that TPP actually encourages the off-shoring of well-paying American jobs,* despite Obama's statement to the contrary in his State of the Union speech.
Obama knows that the 2000 plus organizations who signed a letter of protest to the administration on TPP would call their Representatives to vote no. Fast track is his way of getting around that. We are talking about labor, but we are also talking about farmers, fishermen and herders, healthcare providers, and advocates of internet freedom, US food labeling and standards, the environment, Wall Street regulations --there is something for many Americans to care about.
Many ask why the President has expended so much political capital on passing this unpopular treaty. Does he think it is a link to Asian markets, as well as some under-developed countries? If so, there are free trade institutes that see problems with it, as well as many U.S. economists, and it would come at a cost to American families too dear to pay.
The answer to the question has been given to us by Rosa DeLauro, who has stepped into the vacuum left by Nancy Pelosi (she who works daily to foist Fast Track and TPP onto a reluctant caucus). Rosa is leading the real fight for stopping Fast track and TPP. Her answer: “The administration is in bed with the multinational corporations.”
http://www.politico.com/...
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*"The TPP would expand NAFTA’s foreign investor privileges for companies that offshore American jobs to low-wage countries, such as Vietnam, where minimum wages are a fraction of those paid even in China. And like NAFTA, the TPP would ban Buy American procurement preferences that require U.S. tax dollars to be used to create U.S. jobs."
12:43 AM PT: Why has the president worked so hard to foist this treaty on Democrats & sink the middle class with it? Here's an honest answer:
“The administration is in bed with the multinational corporations,” said Democratic Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, one of Mr. Obama’s fiercest critics on trade.
11:58 AM PT: The poll here does not work. I apologize--
Please read the diary and phone your House Rep & urge a NO vote on Fast Track. 202-224-3121 or 888-804-831. If you don't know your Rep's name, please give your zip code and you will be connected.
The calls are making a difference!
(I've contacted Daily Kos for help in fixing or deleting this poll, but no response so far.)
12:23 PM PT: For reliable, thorough information on TPP and Fast Track, see Public Citizen Global Trade Watch at http://www.citizen.org/... and on twitter at
https://twitter.com/...