January 08, 2015

MORE ON OBAMA'S DISASTROUS TRADE DEAL, THE TPP

Yesterday, I heard The Nation's Katrina Vanden Heuvel suggesting that Obama will veto the Keystone Pipeline, but give the Republicans something else in the form of a trade deal. Hmmmm, I wonder what trade deal she's referring to? Maybe the TPP, which Obama is trying to pass in secret? Now, Katrina could be wrong. But these pundits are often given info in advance on what the administration is planning and they "float it" on the air to determine if there's any outrage. Ie--if we're currently paying more attention to Bill Cosby and Kim Kardashian's rump than what the government is doing.

I have ranted on about the many ways that Obama's secret trade deal, written by corporations and sealed from public discussion by lawmakers, will damage American jobs, wages, the environment and intellectual property. Some of you may not believe that the president is actively seeking to join with the very Republicans who he's already been inexplicably reaching across the aisle to in order to shaft American workers as Clinton's trade deal NAFTA shattered manufacturing jobs. Well, now  Obama won't have to reach across the aisle since both houses are now GOP--thanks in part to the failure of Democrats and his own leadership--so he can work directly with the new Congress to screw us with the TPP.

I realize that this isn't covered much on the news, but if you don't want to hear what a f#ck-up Obama is from me, maybe you'll listen to Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary.

An excerpt: "Republicans who now run Congress say they want to cooperate with President Obama, and point to the administration’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as the model. The only problem is the TPP would be a disaster.

If you haven’t heard much about the TPP, that’s part of the problem right there. It would be the largest trade deal in history — involving countries stretching from Chile to Japan, representing 792 million people and accounting for 40 percent of the world economy – yet it’s been devised in secret.

Lobbyists from America’s biggest corporations and Wall Street’s biggest banks have been involved but not the American public. That’s a recipe for fatter profits and bigger paychecks at the top, but not a good deal for most of us, or even for most of the rest of the world."

SO WHY IS OBAMA PUSHING SO HARD FOR THIS? Read on.

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