Why Obama is Happy to Fight Elizabeth Warren on The TPP Trade Deal

[KoKo]

VIDEO INTERVIEW HERE if you have Bandwidth to Watch:

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/why-obama-is-happy-to-fight-elizabeth-warren-on-118537612596.html

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“She’s absolutely wrong,” Barack Obama said, before I could even get the question out of my mouth.

He was talking about Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts senator and populist crusader whom Obama helped elevate to national prominence. Warren generally reserves her more acid critiques for Republicans and Wall Street, but in recent weeks she’s been leading a vocal coalition of leftist groups and lawmakers who oppose the president’s free-trade pact with 12 Asian countries.

This past week, as I had just reminded Obama, Warren launched her heaviest torpedo yet against the trade deal, alleging that some future president might use it as an excuse to undo the reregulation of Wall Street that Obama signed into law in 2010. In fact, as the White House quickly pointed out, language in the pact would expressly prevent that unless Congress voted to allow it.

Three days after that broadside, when we sat down at Nike’s headquarters outside Portland, Ore., Obama still seemed unusually irritated:

“Think about the logic of that, right?” he went on. “The notion that I had this massive fight with Wall Street to make sure that we don’t repeat what happened in 2007, 2008. And then I sign a provision that would unravel it?
“I’d have to be pretty stupid,” Obama said, laughing. “This is pure speculation. She and I both taught law school, and you know, one of the things you do as a law professor is you spin out hypotheticals. And this is all hypothetical, speculative.”

Obama wasn’t through. He wanted me to know, in pointed terms, that for all the talk about her populist convictions, Warren had a personal brand she was trying to promote, too.

“The truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else,” he said. “And you know, she’s got a voice that she wants to get out there. And I understand that. And on most issues, she and I deeply agree. On this one, though, her arguments don’t stand the test of fact and scrutiny.”

This is remarkable stuff for Obama. All presidents are forged, in a sense, by the moments at which they come to public life. Obama entered politics during Bill Clinton’s presidency, when urban liberals were growing disgusted with the president’s strategy of “triangulation,” popularly interpreted as the idea that you can win broad support by picking fights with the ideologues in your own party. Obama has always been reflexively averse to anything that might be construed as him pushing back against his friends to score political points with everyone else.

---snip

But like a marriage in which the spouses pretend to be happier than they really are, Obama’s polite alliance with the populist left appears to be suddenly crumbling under the weight of free trade. The more Warren and Senate colleagues like Bernie Sanders and Sherrod Brown attack the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership, joined by big unions and environmental groups, the more liberated Obama seems to feel in portraying them as reckless and backward-looking, much as Clinton might have done. He evidences none of the self-doubt or conflicted loyalty that seemed plain when they criticized him for being too cautious on Wall Street reform or health care.

MORE of an INTERESTING READ AT...

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/why-obama-is-happy-to-fight-elizabeth-warren-on-118537612596.html

[Demeter]

1. They Nicknamed Humphrey the Happy Warrior

Try on "Happy Idiot" for size....

[EndElectoral]

2. Bernie Sanders on TPP

10 Ways that TPP would hurt Working Families

1. TPP will allow corporations to outsource even more jobs overseas.
According to the Economic Policy Institute, if the TPP is agreed to, the U.S. will lose more than
130,000 jobs to Vietnam and Japan alone. But that is just the tip of the iceberg.

·∙ Service Sector Jobs will be lost. At a time when corporations have already outsourced over 3
million service sector jobs in the U.S., TPP includes rules that will make it even easier for
corporate America to outsource call centers; computer programming; engineering; accounting;
and medical diagnostic jobs.

·∙ Manufacturing jobs will be lost. As a result of NAFTA, the U.S. lost nearly 700,000 jobs. As
a result of Permanent Normal Trade Relations with China, the U.S. lost over 2.7 million jobs. As
a result of the Korea Free Trade Agreement, the U.S. has lost 70,000 jobs. The TPP would make
matters worse by providing special benefits to firms that offshore jobs and by reducing the risks
associated with operating in low-wage countries.

2. U.S. sovereignty will be undermined by giving corporations the right to challenge our laws
before international tribunals.

The TPP creates a special dispute resolution process that allows corporations to challenge any
domestic laws that could adversely impact their “expected future profits.”
These challenges would be heard before UN and World Bank tribunals which could require taxpayer
compensation to corporations.

This process undermines our sovereignty and subverts democratically passed laws including those
dealing with labor, health, and the environment.

3. Wages, benefits, and collective bargaining will be threatened.

NAFTA, CAFTA, PNTR with China, and other free trade agreements have helped drive down the
wages and benefits of American workers and have eroded collective bargaining rights.
The TPP will make the race to the bottom worse because it forces American workers to compete with
desperate workers in Vietnam where the minimum wage is just 56 cents an hour.

4. Our ability to protect the environment will be undermined.

The TPP will allow corporations to challenge any law that would adversely impact their future
profits. Pending claims worth over $14 billion have been filed based on similar language in other
trade agreements. Most of these claims deal with challenges to environmental laws in a number of
countries. The TPP will make matters even worse by giving corporations the right to sue any of the
nations that sign onto the TPP. These lawsuits would be heard in international tribunals bypassing
domestic courts.

5. Food Safety Standards will be threatened.

The TPP would make it easier for countries like Vietnam to export contaminated fish and seafood into
the U.S. The FDA has already prevented hundreds of seafood imports from TPP countries because of
salmonella, e-coli, methyl-mercury and drug residues. But the FDA only inspects 1-2 percent of food
imports and will be overwhelmed by the vast expansion of these imports if the TPP is agreed to.

6. Buy America laws could come to an end.

The U.S. has several laws on the books that require the federal government to buy goods and services
that are made in America or mostly made in this country. Under TPP, foreign corporations must be
given equal access to compete for these government contracts with companies that make products in
America. Under TPP, the U.S. could not even prevent companies that have horrible human rights
records from receiving government contracts paid by U.S. taxpayers.

7. Prescription drug prices will increase, access to life saving drugs will decrease, and the profits of
drug companies will go up.

Big pharmaceutical companies are working hard to ensure that the TPP extends the monopolies they
have for prescription drugs by extending their patents (which currently can last 20 years or
more). This would expand the profits of big drug companies, keep drug prices artificially high, and
leave millions of people around the world without access to life saving drugs. Doctors without
Borders stated that “the TPP agreement is on track to become the most harmful trade pact ever for
access to medicines in developing countries.”

8. Wall Street would benefit at the expense of everyone else.

Under TPP, governments would be barred from imposing “capital controls” that have been
successfully used to avoid financial crises. These controls range from establishing a financial
speculation tax to limiting the massive flows of speculative capital flowing into and out of countries
responsible for the Asian financial crisis in the 1990s. In other words, the TPP would expand the
rights and power of the same Wall Street firms that nearly destroyed the world economy just five
years ago and would create the conditions for more financial instability in the future.

Last year, I co-sponsored a bill with Sen. Harkin to create a Wall Street speculation tax of just 0.03
percent on trades of derivatives, credit default swaps, and large amounts of stock. If TPP were
enacted, such a financial speculation tax may be in violation of this trade agreement.

9. The TPP would reward authoritarian regimes like Vietnam that systematically violate human
rights.

The State Department, the U.S. Department of Labor, Human Rights Watch, and Amnesty
International have all documented Vietnam’s widespread violations of basic international standards
for human rights. Yet, the TPP would reward Vietnam’s bad behavior by giving it duty free access to
the U.S. market.

10. The TPP has no expiration date, making it virtually impossible to repeal.

Once TPP is agreed to, it has no sunset date and could only be altered by a consensus of all of the countries that
agreed to it. Other countries, like China, could be allowed to join in the future. For example, Canada and
Mexico joined TPP negotiations in 2012 and Japan joined last year.

[Enthusiast]

6. +1 a whole bunch!

[BrotherIvan]

7. This should be its own post

Good info

[AzDar]

10. If you haven't yet, I urge you to post this as an OP...

[djean111]

28. I would like someone to explain why just one of these points is okay. Just one. Any one. Anyone?

It has really just hit me that either I am a Democrat, or Obama is a Democrat. But not both of us. Same for Hillary.
And now Obama is saying that he and the GOP are the smart guys in the room. Goes to NIKE to push the TPP.
It goes like this, folks - Obama is the president of all the people, and corporations are people. And - corporations have the big money and the good jobs to give those who truckle to them. Game over.

One thing is crystal clear - as I said elsewhere, if this thing passes, and is as bad as it seems to be when we are privileged to see what exactly is in the poke we paid for - then I am done with politics, because there really is no point.

[Johonny]

33. +1

I love Bernie.

[FlatBaroque]

3. maybe the President

Can get the Kock brothers to whip up support among congressional Dems.

[libdem4life]

4. I believe it affects Obama's post presidential opportunities in some way...

...as the last term effects every past president. Probably why Warren did not run for President. But Bernie is, and he has both single payer and no TPP in his sights. Both are monumental and will affect the very heart of our country's direction. It is the perfect time for a Democratic Socialist.

[joshcryer]

13. I don't think it's opportunistic at all.

The US will always attempt to do trade deals. Obama, I think, sincerely believes he's "solved" the problem and realized a way to make a trade deal that works for everyone. I'm not convinced and I believe he is mistaken, but that doesn't make him some opportunistic shill. It means he's human and he's just making a mistake.

If he's not mistaken, if TPP works and doesn't destroy jobs, then it will become a blueprint for all trade agreements going forward. Whether he thinks he will be the "founding father" of future US trade agreements, I can't say. I can't say if that even falls into his motivations.

But he's never been this way over any piece of legislation ever. I think he honestly believes in his advisers and policy wonks behind the TPP. For good or for bad. I think he has that much faith in it.

[cali]

14. I can't bring myself to believe that he doing this for "opportunistic" reasons

However, he's been less than honest. He's tossed some wild accusations out against some of his strongest allies; treating them as badly or worse than he has republican opponents. The vast bulk of the evidence, from history to the leaked chapters of the tpp and other leaked documents, as well as analysis of the 114 pages of the tpa (it's not just legislation limiting Congress to an up or down vote on trade agreements for the next 6 years), weigh against the tpp.

[joshcryer]

17. I think he views it in a vacuum.

I think he genuinely believes he's starting over a trade policy. Most of the trade deals done under Obama started under Bush and he let them continue (hell, even NAFTA started before Clinton). TPP is basically his baby. And I think he believes, again for right or wrong, that it's going to work. Or at least be better, at least let the US pin down how to do trade agreements in the future.

What we must accept is that the US corporate state is not going to give up trying trade agreements, ever, under a Republican or Democrat, it's just not going to stop giving it a go. I'm not willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt from what I know of TPP so far (particularly how IP and environment conflict). But I don't think he's being nefarious, I think he's just mistaken, making a mistake. He's a human, he believes in this thing so much as to throw others of his party under the bus, he must really believe in it.

And yes I think this is unprecedented in his Presidential career. He's never been this way about anything else. He has to believe he's doing the right thing. I can actually admire that human element about it. And hell, I'd love to be wrong, it'd be the best thing ever. And he'd get that one win he never ever gets credit for ever because people just love shitting on him.

But that's highly unlikely to happen. You're right, TPP has way too many things weighing against it for it to actually work.

[cali]

18. that's a good point: He is waaay invested in the TPP

he's been working on it for years. It's easy to become blindered under such circumstances.

The point is not to give up on trade agreements, but to forge trade agreement with more diverse stakeholder advisors, better communication and exchange of ideas with Congress, borrowing some ideals and practices from the fair trade movement.

I also want to point out a couple of things: We already have trade agreements with the majority of the tpp nations and trade extensively with the rest. Tariffs are historically and in reality, low. China already has a trade agreement with 10 Pacific Rim nations, including Malaysia and Vietnam. Nothing in the TPP prevents China from forging other agreements, both in the PR and in other parts of the world.

[joshcryer]

19. I must disagree on one point. This Congress is a nightmare.

Fuck deferring to this congress on the details. Fuck this congress. Fuck it hard. Fuck, I'd be for an up and down vote with this idiotic, teabagger, right wing fascist congress. This congress would be for slave labor and no environmental standards. They are that damn fucked up.

Otherwise I would agree.

[cali]

23. this congress is not the only congress that will be in place over the life of the tpa

and the repukes have NO problem historically with the environmental and labor protections in ftas. The US-Colombian FTA was renegotiated in 2011 to address labor concerns. It was passed largely with repub support. they know that these provisions have proven close to meaningless and are hugely unenforced. They're essentially fig leaves as they lack effective enforcement.

[joshcryer]

26. Not fair, even the UAW championed KORUS labor enforcement.

Proof. Republicans pass anything with the word "trade" in it because it fits their constituency. (Who are, by and large, soundbyte voters.)

One trade deal is not like the other, and I think that's why Obama is so insistent on TPP, he think's he solved it. I don't agree, but I don't malign him for trying. He's just making a mistake, like Bill Clinton, he'll regret in a decade or so. (Though maybe not since TPP is literally nothing compared to the impact automation is about to have.)

[cali]

27. actually, one trade deal has been much like another as regards results

our trade deficits with the trading partners in the ftas always increase- substantially. Job loss in this country (granted it's hard to know how many) is the norm due to ftas.

Again, his motives are irrelevant to me- though clearly of significant importance to you. And honestly, I don't know enough about the coming automation "revolution" to debate it.

[pampango]

20. It is a pleasure to read joshcryer and you discuss this. The two of you largely, but not

totally, disagree on this issue, but you do it in a way that makes DU a better place. Thanks to both of you.

[cali]

24. thanks. I enjoy discussing it with him... and you.

It's not just style, it's the arguments you put forth. I don't agree with them, but they're more than just parroting talking points, and yeah, people on both sides do that.

[pampango]

22. It is a pleasure to read cali and you discuss this. The two of you largely, but not totally,

disagree on this issue, but you do it in a way that makes DU a better place. Thanks to both of you.

[joshcryer]

25. Thanks pampango.

I've been pretty nasty to cali in the past (got a hide lately). I try to be civilized. I'm glad we're on relatively the same page here. I know you personally have bigger hopes for TPP and I respect you for that.

We'll see what happens, though, that's the best part of this.

[libdem4life]

32. I may have intimated that, but let's face it...it's what Presidents do. Bill Clinton didn't get

rich off his salary as President. Thus, the Clinton Foundation. Nor is it dishonest. Based on his unprecedented Republican resistance, even his "wins" have been watered down, and Progressives haven't been all too forgiving about things he wanted to do, but didn't or couldn't.

Also, the Beltway is a giant perpetual megaforce that churns and buns presidents...4 or 8 years. The Supreme Court, ditto.

They All Do It...Rs and Ds alike. I'm not criticizing him for it, merely pointing out that the ONLY people who have come out publicly against it are the Progressives. Everybody else is hopping on the TPP Train. That, in itself, should give cause for pause.

[libdem4life]

31. That's the ONLY reason I can see for him so almost in a panic to separate from those who

have serious questions about the TPP. And to the last paragraph, so did Bill Clinton. The Giant Sucking Sound really did happen, so that didn't work too well for us. Again, follow the money, i.e. those most invested in it. And you won't find a Progressive who is. IMO, it's Smoke and Mirrors.

[diabeticman]

29. My wife was just saying that to me last night.

[Art_from_Ark]

5. The TPP will be great

All it takes is faith and trust
But the thing that's a positive must
Is a little bit of pixie dust
The dust is a positive must

[KoKo]

36. And a Unicorn and Rainbow thrown in for good measure!

Thanks for the post. A bit of humor keeps one sane these days! 's

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. Fearing a corporate and wallstreet takeover of our courts and country

Fearing a corporate takeover of our courts and country

Obama goes to a corporate headquarters to complain about why dems don't support his trade deal


I guess there were no union halls available.

Some just don't get the irony

[ibegurpard]

9. there's this head-scratcher:

"Obama has always been reflexively averse to anything that might be construed as him pushing back against his friends to score political points with everyone else."

Was the author of this article not paying attention during the ACA debate? Has he not been paying attention to Obama's education policies?
He ONLY fights this hard against progressives.

[joshcryer]

12. Completely unfair.

[TheKentuckian]

35. Yet true so not actually unfair even if less than charitable.

[joshcryer]

11. I believe he is sincere, if mistaken.

The point of contention here is the ISDS part, which of course, I think Warren is using as a red herring, because ISDS favors the US and the US has never lost an ISDS case.

[cali]

15. No indeed. The ISDS is only ONE point of contention

there are many- from extended drug patents, to environmental concerns to food safety issues.

And the ISDS process has harmed other nations. Furthermore, the tpp signficantly enlarges the number of companies who will have access to the ISDS system- including some with very deep pockets. In addition, many experts who read the LATE draft investment chapter, have concluded that it strengthens the ISDS- for corporations.

[joshcryer]

16. Indeed it should.

The US is a corporate state. For ISDS to weaken corporate influence, I think, would be moving backwards for US hegemony. (Please let it be clear I don't think this is a good thing, in another post I agreed with a poster that US corporations winning ISDS cases means they get to exploit the developing world further and does nothing for US jobs, but no one in politics is making that argument, and it's a valid argument.)

The intellectual property provisions are a killer for me. There's absolutely nothing in there about bargaining power for developing countries. So they are automatically at the back of the queue with regards to negotiating IP costs or rates. That is a killer to basically all sustainable or renewable energy technology. It basically ensures more coal exports rather than exporting capability to build out solar or wind.

[Scuba]

21. Obama had "a massive fight with Wall Street"? You could've fooled me.

[SamKnause]

30. Yes, I found that amusing as well.

I assume he lost that fight since the banks are bigger and

more powerful.

But it appears that president Obama thinks he won that battle.

Maybe his BFF Jamie Dimon could explain it to those of us who

are apparently clueless about everything.

I do not think president Obama is ignorant.

I do not think president Obama is misinformed.

I do think he is lying.

He represents the needs of global corporations, Wall Street, the MIC, and

CEO's.

[hifiguy]

38. And he always has.

Appointing Geithner, one of the chief arsonists of the meltdown of 2008 as fire chief gave the game away before he was even inaugurated. Change, my ass.

[KoKo]

39. Remember when he told the Banksters: "I'm the only thing between you and the Pitchforks?"

That was an interesting comment.

IOWDS he admitted he bailed them out and they should be grateful for it....

[Historic NY]

34. Obama on what others want.....

"What they really want, it seems to him, isn’t a better trade deal, but rather a time machine that can transport us all back to the moment before globalization began".

I have to wonder would this eventually ditch the NAFTA agreement....down the road.

It obvious its not going to change that. Then again we will never know that, if it isn't approved. Will we.

[hifiguy]

37. WHAT Wall $treet reform?

Did I miss something?

The too-big-to-fails are bigger and more powerful/dangerous than ever. No one went to jail or was even prosecuted. Things roll merrily along just as the plutocrats desire them to.

is he talking about?