Question for Hillary backers: how do *you* feel about the TPP?

[Jim Lane]

222. You're still upholding a double standard.

Certainly, Administration insiders have more knowledge.

The double standard is in taking their pro-TPP comments at face value, while anti-TPP comments, even if based on undenied leaks, are dismissed on the basis that the deal might change before it's finalized.

If the final deal might deviate from a draft leaked by Wikileaks, then it might also deviate from whatever version Perez is relying on.

You're correct that, at some point, the final version "will be released to the public, to be debated and (with Fast Track) voted up or down." My point is to oppose the "with Fast Track" part of that. For more than four years, the proponents of the deal, including Administration officials and including the multinational corporations that have helped draft it, have been privy to all that inside information you mention, and have been preparing their arguments in support. The plan contemplated by Fast Track is that hundreds of pages of text will be released to the public, at which point labor unions and environmentalists and others inclined toward opposition can begin the process of analysis.

The tight time constraints of Fast Track would put the opponents at a marked disadvantage. It's offensive that the Obama Administration would seek such an unfairly tilted playing field. It's particularly objectionable in that no good reason for it has been presented, other than the obvious point that the chance of railroading it through is greater if the opposition is handicapped in developing its arguments. There is no screaming urgency to approval of a deal that's been in negotiation since 2010.