House Republican leadership plans to bring four bills related to the Trade Promotion Authority to the floor on Friday, including the
poison pill Medicare cuts. The good news is that
Democrats are balking at that, and with enough encouragement, might stave it off.
TAA is lumped together with the TPA and is expected to come to the House floor under a rule that allows separate votes. The rule requires each bill to pass. If TAA fails, the whole package fails. […]
[I]t was clear Wednesday the vote-counting focus had shifted from TPA to the underlying TAA. In the original TAA bill passed by the Senate, the retraining programs were paid for with sequester cuts to Medicare. House Republican leaders agreed to find a different offset to appease revolting Democrats, and they did, achieving savings through "strengthening Federal tax compliance laws."
The problem is that to avoid having to send TAA back to the Senate, they left the original language intact and put the new pay-for in the African trade bill.
The Medicare cuts are taking this down to the wire, with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Speaker John A. Boehner now in talks to figure out the "next steps to prevent a full meltdown." A full meltdown is within our grasp because of those Medicare cuts.
Medicare is not a slush fund, and using as such in this legislation that is totally unrelated to health care sets a very bad and dangerous precedent. There are plenty of reasons to oppose the TPA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership it's tied to. This is one more really big one, and one that has the potential to bring the whole thing down. That's if Democrats will stand tough and vote against it.
Sign and send the petition: Tell your representative to vote NO on Fast Track today.