General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: HRC was critical of TPP before it was cool [View all]cascadiance
(19,537 posts)And she still could come out and say that she supports a lot of things about the TPP, but a few things in it that were put in are show stoppers for her, that she seems to ALREADY HAVE SAID that many are pointing out here!
And she could say that those who are against everything in the TPP who would vote down both the Fast Track and the ultimate TPP bill, would have less to lose than those that have some problems with the TPP and want maybe PART of it passed, which seems to be her position, and perhaps something that could lend some support to what Obama put in to it. But if Fast Track is passed, that is tacitly and endorsement of the things she says she is against in it, or tacitly a statement that it doesn't matter because she rejects the whole thing later. I suspect she is more in the former camp of that statement than the latter.
Voting for and supporting Fast Track is supporting EVERYTHING about the TPP bill as it is written now with no room for change. If she doesn't support the TPP bill completely, she should be advocating that Fast Track gets voted down.
Now just because Obama is a Democrat doesn't mean he can't be criticized for things that he does that are bad policy. And I've praised him on the good things he's done too. He is simply just WRONG on this one. What is motivating him to do this is still an open question, but it's hard for me to find a good reason for him supporting it.
I do think that it is probably no coincidence that the two largest and most damaging trade bills, NAFTA, and what now looks to be bigger in TPP were both signed in to law by Democrats. I think there's a reason for that. I think that if those bills had tried to be pushed through by a Republican president, you would have had a lot harder time getting it passed. Hell Ross Perot got a LOT of Republican support in rejecting NAFTA when he ran against Bush and Clinton who were in the pockets of those who wanted it passed and who were also making a lot of false promises of what it would deliver.