Posted on 01/31/2015 4:27:21 AM PST by Libloather
PHILADELPHIA – President Obama on Thursday asked wary House Democrats to hold their fire, while the administration negotiates several trade deals opposed by scores of liberal lawmakers.
“Keep your powder a little dry,” he told the Democrats assembled here for an annual retreat, according to a source in the closed-door session.
"Get informed," Obama also advised, "not by reading The Huffington Post."
The president has long sought pacts expanding trade with both Asian and European nations, as well as trade promotion authority, known as "fast-track," from Congress.
The issue has sharply divided the Democrats, as centrists tend to support the president's strategy, while liberals have pushed back hard, citing concerns over currency manipulation, environmental problems, food safety and worker protection, among other things.
Top House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), have drawn an additional line in the sand, saying they won't support any new trade deal before the administration can demonstrate that the result will be higher wages for American workers.
"The impact on the paychecks of America’s workers is the standard that we will use," Pelosi told reporters Wednesday.
Fielding private questions from the Democrats after a fiery speech before the caucus Thursday, Obama tried to defuse those concerns, saying his administration will make a "substantive case" for the new pacts.
"We share same values and are looking out for the same people," he said, according to the source.
It remains to be seen if that message resonates with the Democratic critics.
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said Thursday that the current draft of the Asian pact, known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, is a nonstarter with liberals.
"As it is right now … it would be unacceptable," Schakowsky told reporters a few hours before Obama's arrival.
"None of us … oppose a trade agreement," she added. "What we want is a good and fair trade agreement. And so if the president is willing to share, and come back to the table, and we can make some changes, I think we would support that."
You know, if Pelosi is all busted up about “living wage”, the first place to look is the bottomless pit of labor that will work for less than the federally mandated minimum wage. Of course, none of the sock puppets in DC give a rip about the crap they spew beyond making sure they hit their marks and don’t stumble on their lines.
Bring back jobs to America.
We have given away everything, in the name of “free trade”.
Time for American trade.
It doesn’t matter ........ He will sign what the Republicans craft
Democrats are fools to think the President has or ever had any respect for them, or values at all in common with them.
Free Trade = Industry Free America
Read Drudge and FR instead.
True. Obama only does what his commie boss V.J. tells him to do.
Your position is more in line with the left than the right - and definitely opposed to liberty.
I remember the great ceremony with which he personally welcomed the Huffington post “reporter” to his first news conference. May even have given him the first question. Also, 2009, speaking to Univ. of Michigan, maybe commencement, telling them they should read Huffington Post. I hope they turn on him over this slight like the bunch of losers they are.
Liberty screw your fellow Americans.
Your grammar is off or something as I can’t understand your post.
Yes you can make money using third world slaves. Yo can shave a few pennies of of every retail dollar and pocket the difference. You can also kill wealth creation in this country which is dying. You can have the lowest labor participation rate in 40 years.
But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favor of free trade.
Maybe you can understand this law passed by the first congress,
"Whereas it is necessary for that support of government, for the discharge of the debts of the United States, and the encouragement and protection of manufactures, that duties be laid on goods, wares and merchandise:"[1]
< sarc > Those evil founding fathers weren't good gloBULLists. Man, who knew. < /sarc >
I agree with Marx that free trade upends things...that it can upend the social order. It, for example, led to the fall of Communism in many countries when we won the Cold War.
It can also lead to high income middle aged American men finding out that their skills are obsolete.
The founding fathers believed revenue was needed. The historically easiest way to do this was tariffs. Other ways are available to us.
She is only worried about how much taxing she can do to the American wage. You can’t have Marxism without producers.
Pray America is waking
Well I for one am an American citizen care not one wit about the middle class of China or any other country. You make me sick. Good day.
not by reading The Huffington Post
Since he does the opposite of what he says, I take that comment as an endorsement.
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