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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn today's email from Elizabeth Warren: No vote on FT until TPP made public
Have you seen whats in the new TPP trade deal?
Most likely, you havent and dont bother trying to Google it. The government doesnt want you to read this massive new trade agreement. Its top secret.
Why? Heres the real answer people have given me: We cant make this deal public because if the American people saw what was in it, they would be opposed to it.
If the American people would be opposed to a trade agreement if they saw it, then that agreement should not become the law of the United States.
Lets send a loud message to our trade officials: No vote on a fast-track for trade agreements until the American people can see whats in this TPP deal. Sign this petition right now to make the TPP agreement public.
The Administration says Im wrong that theres nothing to worry about. They say the deal is nearly done, and they are making a lot of promises about how the deal will affect workers, the environment, and human rights. Promises but people like you cant see the actual deal.
For more than two years now, giant corporations have had an enormous amount of access to see the parts of the deal that might affect them and to give their views as negotiations progressed. But the doors stayed locked for the regular people whose jobs are on the line.
If most of the trade deal is good for the American economy, but theres a provision hidden in the fine print that could help multinational corporations ship American jobs overseas or allow for watering down of environmental or labor rules, fast track would mean that Congress couldnt write an amendment to fix it. Its all or nothing.
Before we sign on to rush through a deal like that no amendments, no delays, no ability to block a bad bill the American people should get to see whats in it.
Sherrod Brown has been leading this fight, and he points out that TPP isnt classified military intelligence its a trade agreement among 12 countries that control 40% of the worlds economy. A trade agreement that affects jobs, environmental regulations, and whether workers around the globe are treated humanely. It might even affect the new financial rules we put in place after the 2008 crisis. This trade agreement doesnt matter to just the biggest corporations it matters to all of us.
When giant corporations get to see the details and the American people dont, we all lose. Lets level the playing field: No vote on fast-tracking trade until the public can read the TPP deal.
Weve all seen the tricks and traps that corporations hide in the fine print of contracts. Weve all seen the provisions they slip into legislation to rig the game in their favor. Now just imagine what they have done working behind closed doors with TPP.
We cant keep the American people in the dark.
Thank you for being a part of this,
Elizabeth
DJ13
(23,671 posts)msongs
(67,395 posts)[
bigwillq
(72,790 posts)libdem4life
(13,877 posts)She's Baaaaaaaaack !! People trust her. She tells it like it is and like they don't want to hear it. I'm so glad she's NOT running for President. She can just focus on the most important issue of our time...the economy, our money, who gets it, and how the little folk can keep a bit more.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)about everything.
libdem4life
(13,877 posts)TheKentuckian
(25,023 posts)prescribed in the Constitution not given a lower hurdle than naming a fucking post office.
Makes it too hard to pass one at all you say? Good, things of such sweeping scope aren't supposed to be easy to pass no matter how much the TeaPubliKlans and the Chamber of Commerce have a hard on for it.
JDPriestly
(57,936 posts)Either get a new Constitution or follow the old one. President Obama, don't cherry-pick which parts of the Constitution you want to follow and which everybody else is supposed to comply with.
2/3 of the votes in the Senate to ratify the TPP. And I hope it never gets that many. And lots of debate before it is adopted.
If we followed those rules, then it would never get through Congress. And that would be a good thing.
NBachers
(17,107 posts)WillyT
(72,631 posts)raindaddy
(1,370 posts)THIS is how a President is supposed to act.
midnight
(26,624 posts)bullwinkle428
(20,629 posts)"Perhaps I should have just made her head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau like she wanted in the first place!"
K&R.