Trade agreements lower America's living standards to raise others. Angers me.

[kristopher]

31. What if the agreement actually does correct the deficiencies of past agreements?

I know the optics of the process are terrible - having it formed in secret with all the corporate interests at the table while excluding public input looks 100% like a sell-out.

But given the situation with passing legislation, what would it look like if Obama was totally on the side of the little guy?

It would have to look the same way because it would have to be done the same way. The idea that the government entities are incapable of representing the public interest is pure conservative dogma.

I saw Elizabeth Warren interviewed (by either Rachel or Stewart) right after Obama pointed out that Congress has access to the draft. So I tuned into her interview specifically to get her impression of what she had read. Not once did she make any statement that said or implied that she actually knew what was in the draft. All she did was speculate and condemn the TPP because of performance of past agreements. I can agree that is a strong reason to be cautious, but when she has the ability to know rather than speculate I really can't understand why she isn't talking about concrete problems.

It was the first time I've ever seen her in an interview that I walked away feeling that she was being less than forthcoming.

My primary point of worry is that the R's are solidly behind it. But given the fact that the R's are idiot lemmings that have no idea what they are doing 99% of the time, that isn't nearly as satisfying a reason to reject it as having someone I trust (like Warren) speak with knowledge of specific problems with the content.

The main reason I responded to your OP, however, was to say that I think many D's are pointing a finger in the wrong direction. You seem to be blaming the poor in other countries for the losses here at home, and IMO that is placing the blame in entirely the wrong place. It is the 1% that is profiting from lost jobs here, not the poor working in the sweatshops of the 1%.
Trade can be done right and it can deliver on the promises being made. That will inevitably create some degree of social disruption. Whether or not that disruption is properly dealt with by social policies designed to preserve and protect a strong middle class. However, that is the primary area where we have fallen to 3rd world status - and we both know that failure is the deliberate work of the 1% and their wholly owned subsidiary, the Republican Party.