Heads Up!! "Obama Ready to Defy Base in Order to Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership" [View all]

[99th_Monkey]

While the whole nation reels, protests, and riots about these horrid racist killer-cops murdering black males with impunity, Obama is apparently busy behind the scenes giving away the store to the Koch Bros. et. al.

We are so fucked.

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Obama Ready to Defy Base in Order to Advance Trans-Pacific Partnership
In a speech before CEOs of major U.S. corporations, Obama indicates he's ready to go head-to-head with Democrats, labor unions, and environmentalists on trade deals
by Deirdre Fulton, staff writer * Common Dreams dot org * Dec. 4th, 2014

President Barack Obama is ready to buck his liberal base in order to advance the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the pro-corporate international trade deal currently being negotiated in secret by the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries.

In a speech before the Business Roundtable, an association of conservative CEOs of major U.S. corporations, Obama indicated that he was ready to go head-to-head with Democrats, labor unions, and environmentalists—core groups that oppose the TPP and other so-called "free trade" pacts—in order to move the controversial deal forward. He listed trade as one of his top four economic priorities for the remainder of his presidency, along with tax reform, immigration, and investment in infrastructure.

"With respect to trade, we hope to be able to not simply finalize an agreement with the various parties in the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but also to be able to explain it to the public, and to engage in all the stakeholders and to publicly engage with the critics, because I think some of the criticism of what we’ve been doing on the Trans-Pacific Partnership is groups fighting the last war as opposed to looking forward," Obama said, referring to trade deals such as NAFTA that have been strongly opposed by the same constituencies.

"Were the TPP to be Fast Tracked through Congress, all but the wealthiest among us would lose more to inequality increases than we would gain in cheaper goods, spelling a pay cut for 90 percent of U.S. workers."
—Ben Beachy, Public Citizen
"Those who oppose these trade deals ironically are accepting a status quo that is more damaging to American workers," he continued. "And I’m going to have to engage directly with our friends in labor and our environmental organizations and try to get from them why it is that they think that."

U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who helped introduce 'Fast Track' legislation earlier this year that would hand over the power to negotiate trade agreements from Congress to the president, praised Obama's remarks: “This is long overdue," he said. "The president’s influence, particularly among members of his own party, will be a vital component to congressional efforts."
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2014/12/04/obama-ready-defy-base-order-advance-trans-pacific-partnership