About the TPP Sir . . . if you are so proud of this piece of legislation why is it secreted from the American Public and why are you Fast-Tracking it ? Americans may seem unsophisticated and unaware, but actually we are just busy trying to survive the carnage of our tax dollars, the savaging of our financial system and the shipping of our jobs over seas. The kind of ' shell and pea game ' that is shoving the TPP through is beneath you Sir.
The thing is, Monsanto and Haliburton are pushing for this trade deal to be passed. And, like most concerned Americans, this is so very scary for me.
First, these are two Corporations that have well documented dark records of damaging this planet and her inhabitants with toxins and war mongering/war profiteering, just to name a few deadly things.
Second, because Americans do not get to read the details of the TPP . . . knowing that these two Oligarchy Giants are for it is just part of what we have to go on to be against it.
I would also just like to say how sad I am Mr. President.
Sad, because I came back to the Democratic Party in 2008 to help get you elected, and then was able to vote for you for two terms. Now it seems, you are not being the man I voted for . . . in this specific instance.
Sad, because you came to the American Presidential Dance with every-day-people like me . . . and now you seem to be leaving the American Presidential Dance with Oligarchy Giants.
Aren't you supposed to go home from the dance with whomever brought you to the dance ?
We love you and support you President Obama. We are so very suspicious of, and do not support, the TPP.
Here is a piece by Public Citizen that will hopefully pop the bubble you are living in regarding this dangerous Trade Deal.
http://www.citizen.org/... :
" Have you heard? The TPP is a massive, controversial "free trade" agreement currently being pushed by big corporations and negotiated behind closed doors by officials from the United States and 11 other countries – Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, and Vietnam.
The TPP would expand the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) "trade" pact model that has spurred massive U.S. trade deficits and job loss, downward pressure on wages, unprecedented levels of inequality and new floods of agricultural imports. The TPP not only replicates, but expands NAFTA's special protections for firms that offshore U.S. jobs. And U.S. TPP negotiators literally used the 2011 Korea FTA – under which exports have fallen and trade deficits have surged – as the template for the TPP.
In one fell swoop, this secretive deal could:
offshore American jobs and increase income inequality,
jack up the cost of medicines,
sneak in SOPA-like threats to Internet freedom,
expose the U.S. to unsafe food and products,
roll back Wall Street reforms,
ban Buy American policies needed to create green jobs,
and empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards.
Although it is called a "free trade" agreement, the TPP is not mainly about trade. Of TPP's 29 draft chapters, only five deal with traditional trade issues. One chapter would provide incentives to offshore jobs to low-wage countries. Many would impose limits on government policies that we rely on in our daily lives for safe food, a clean environment, and more. Our domestic federal, state and local policies would be required to comply with TPP rules.
The TPP would even elevate individual foreign firms to equal status with sovereign nations, empowering them to privately enforce new rights and privileges, provided by the pact, by dragging governments to foreign tribunals to challenge public interest policies that they claim frustrate their expectations. The tribunals would be authorized to order taxpayer compensation to the foreign corporations for the "expected future profits" they surmise would be inhibited by the challenged policies.
We only know about the TPP's threats thanks to leaks – the public is not allowed to see the draft TPP text. Even members of Congress, after being denied the text for years, are now only provided limited access. Meanwhile, more than 500 official corporate "trade advisors" have special access. The TPP has been under negotiation for six years, and the Obama administration wants to sign the deal this year. Opposition to the TPP is growing at home and in many of the other countries involved. . . "