Who's telling the truth: Sanders/Warren, or Obama/Third Way/most Republicans*?

[Jim Lane]

67. That's simply not true.

Outside critics -- NGOs and members of Congress -- don't know the exact text of the final proposal: True.

No one with the possible exception of President Obama has the slightest idea what the agreement's verbiage will be: False.

The TPP has been in negotiation since early 2010. Drafts that have been leaked are "only" drafts but, come on, let's be practical -- the final product is unlikely to represent a huge change.

There's the additional factor that we know the pro-corporate orientation of the negotiators, and we know that big MNCs have been involved in the drafting while NGOs (unions, environmentalists, etc.) have been excluded.

Overall, although our current knowledge of the final agreement is not perfect, it's still likely to prove to be pretty good. Fortunately, the Obama administration's evident plan -- to keep the negotiations completely secret, and then unveil a long and complex text that must be voted on within a tight time frame -- has been only partially successful. We do have some information about the forthcoming proposal. Also, the request for fast track authority may founder on a combination of Democrats' populism and Republicans' ODS. If this agreement were being proposed by a Republican President, so that party loyalty and the parties' normal political alignments cut the same way, we'd be seeing solid Republican support and almost-solid Democratic opposition.