Posted on 06/24/2015 7:00:33 AM PDT by xzins
Yesterday’s procedural vote in the Republican-controlled Senate to give Obama Trade Promotion Authority, or “fast track” as it used to be called, passed by just one vote – that of Florida’s Republican Senator and presidential aspirant Marco Rubio.
Why would Rubio vote to give Obama more power? No one knows for certain, but Senator Jeff Sessions, in a statement released after the vote gave us some insight into the dynamics of what went on on Capitol Hill prior to the vote.
“Americans increasingly believe that their country isn’t serving its own citizens. They need look no further than a bipartisan vote of Congress that will transfer congressional power to the Executive Branch and, in turn, to a transnational Pacific Union and the global interests who will help write its rules.
"The same routine plays out over and again. We are told a massive bill must be passed, all the business lobbyists and leaders tell how grand it will be, but that it must be rushed through before the voters spoil the plan. As with Obamacare and the Gang of Eight, the politicians meet with the consultants to craft the talking points—not based on what the bill actually does, but what they hope people will believe it does. And when ordinary Americans who never asked for the plan, who don’t want the plan, who want no part of the plan, resist, they are scorned, mocked, and heaped with condescension.
"Washington broke arms and heads to get that 60th vote—not one to spare—to impose on the American people a plan which imperils their jobs, wages, and control over their own affairs. It is remarkable that so much energy has been expended on advancing the things Americans oppose, and preventing the things Americans want.
"For instance: thousands of loyal Americans have been laid off and forced to train the foreign workers brought in to fill their jobs—at Disney, at Southern California Edison, across the country. Does Washington rush to their defense? No, the politicians and the lobbyists rush to move legislation that would double or triple the very program responsible for replacing them,” noted Senator Sessions.
Where were those Disney workers located you might ask? Why in Marco Rubio’s home state of Florida, where some 250 Orlando-based workers were not only let go and replaced by cheaper (and younger) foreign workers – they were also required to train their foreign worker replacements.
"I just couldn't believe they could fly people in to sit at our desks and take over our jobs exactly," one former worker, who wasn't named and is now unemployed, told The New York Times. "It was so humiliating to train somebody else to take over your job. I still can't grasp it."
Neither, apparently, can Marco Rubio.
A New York Times report detailed the situation at Disney and other companies where positions are outsourced to companies that hire foreign workers who come to the United States on H-1B visas.
That particular visa is often described as a way to employ foreign workers when companies can't find enough skilled Americans to do the work.
But that's a lie. In reality, says Beth Kassab of The Orlando Sentinel, companies have come to view workers on these visas like generic drugs —just as effective, but a lot cheaper.
It's all about profit, says Ron Hira of the Economic Policy Institute and who testified before Congress in March about the ramifications of the visa program.
Hira said he made a Freedom of Information Act request for the wages of the employees of the outsourcing firm used by Disney. The median was about $62,000.
But he says he spoke to a laid-off Disney employee who was making about $100,000.
"H-1B guest workers are cheaper than American workers and don't have much bargaining power, and any company would be foolish not to take advantage of this highly lucrative business model that has been inadvertently created by Congress and multiple presidential administrations," writes Hira, who recently published a book on outsourcing and also teaches at Howard University.
Professor Hira is being much too polite or is just plain naïve about how Congress works – Congress didn’t “inadvertently” create this highly lucrative business model – it was lobbied into it and Marco Rubio just voted to expand it, no doubt at the bidding of Disney and other beneficiaries.
As Senator Jeff Sessions noted in his post vote statement, "This ‘econometarian’ ideology holds that if a company can increase its bottom line —whether by insourcing foreign workers or outsourcing production—then it’s always a win, never a downside.
"President Obama, and allies in Congress, have won this fast-track vote. But, in exchange, they may find that they are losing something far greater: the trust of the American people. Americans have a fundamental, decent, and just demand: that the people they elect defend their interests. And every issue to come before us in the coming months will have to pass this test: does this strengthen, or weaken, the position of the everyday, loyal American citizen?”
By providing the final vote to pass TPA Marco Rubio put himself squarely on the economentarian side and against the everyday, loyal American citizen whom, we suspect, will have no trouble remembering how he voted when their turn to vote in a Republican primary election rolls around.
His goose is cooked.
So the next one can do the same damned thing? Wake up.
I thought I mostly agreed with your posts. Maybe I have confused some postings, but I was surprised to read you are comparing Hillary with Cruz?
I guess I am an idiot, but I don’t see Cruz as devious.
As someone here said...love is blind.
He’s just a cheesy Miami ambulance-chaser...
Many of them were forced to sign confidentiality agreements and they were given a buy-out. If they broke the agreement, they would get no compensation and be fired immediately.
And make no mistake, this magic 60th vote was designed so people who were for it a week ago, who wrote op eds in favor of it, could vote against it.
Cruz pulled a fast one on us.
When Rubio’s vote was assured, then Cruz was free to suddenly oppose it. This was nothing but political theater and the GOP just sodomized us again.
When Rubio’s vote was assured, then Cruz was free to suddenly oppose it. This was nothing but political theater and the GOP just sodomized us again.
Just one problem with your theory.
Cruz said several days ago that he was going to vote against TPA this time around.
Well now, I just think that is BS.
The issues aren’t going to be voted on, because Fast Track will force the bill through.
No one cares enough about this, and even my conservative friends who are not on FR don’t understand it. They are busy figuring out what they think about the Confederate flag and then posting about it on the Internet.
We’re not going to have a second chance, because power is shifted to the consortium of corporations with the passage of the Trade Bill. It’s over unless we stop Fast Track and we won’t.
Never did like the bass turd
Him, and the 46 other Pubs who voted 0bama's way.
So the next one can do the same damned thing? Wake up.
I'm open to better ideas - what's yours?
Rubio is done.
Any chance Sessions will throw his hat in the ring?
He truly seems to be someone who cares about average Americans.
Sessions is not too old at 67, but I think he believes he’s more influential in the Senate, or he knows the presidential game and knows a senator from Alabama has a huge hurdle.
I wish it could be Sessions, but I would put the probability at about zero.
That said, I’m in a non-trusting mood at the moment. If the Chief Justice can simply give a finger to the people and say that State means Federal, then to me he’s simply a bald-faced liar who knows that not a damn soul can do anything about it.
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