Posted on 04/22/2015 7:11:45 PM PDT by Theoria
A full-fledged Democratic trade war has broken out.
"I love Elizabeth. We're allies on a whole host of issues, but she's wrong on this," President Obama said Tuesday night in an interview on MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews, referring to liberal Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Warren and the progressive left, scarred by trade deals past like the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, have launched a vocal fight against granting the president so-called "fast-track" authority to negotiate a 12-country Pacific trade deal.
"Are you ready to fight?" Warren said at a rally April 15 with labor leaders and Vermont liberal Sen. Bernie Sanders standing beside her. "No more secret deals. No more special deals for multi-national corporations. Are you ready to fight? Are you ready to fight any more deals that say we're going to help the rich get richer and leave everyone else behind? Are you ready to fight that?"
Senate Democrats' point man, Harry Reid normally a staunch Obama ally has joined the "Hell no" caucus on trade.
"I have never, ever ... supported a trade agreement, and I'm not going to start now," Reid said Tuesday. "So the answer is not only no, but hell no."
Obama says progressives have it all wrong. He said "understandably" that some in labor and on the left would be "suspicious" because of past problems with NAFTA.
"But my point is," Obama said on MSNBC, "don't fight the last war. Wait and see what we actually have in this deal before you make those judgments."
(Excerpt) Read more at npr.org ...
The deal is awful.
I want someone to tell me why Ted Cruz is supporting TPP, it’s evil cousin TPIP and giving DearLeader “Fast Track.” What am I missing here?
It’s the end times I swear...I find myself AGREEING w/Warren (Bob Casey, Bernie Sanders). What is happening here?
I think he’s less of an outsider than he appears. He’s got all the right background and the Goldman Sachs wife, after all.
Just saying.
If the GOP doesn’t start to support jobs for Americans, we’re going to lose, big. Maybe not this time, but eventually there will not be enough working Americans to re-elect GOP candidates.
Stop sending jobs to China. Bring them back here.
jobs were not sent to China
production location was shifted to maintain competitiveness
Jobs were sent to China.
We now run a 342 billion dollar / year deficit with China, and it is steadily climbing.
Bring jobs back to America.
Damned right.
The function, the ONLY function of any trade policy we have should be to enrich Americans, ensure the fullest employment of Americans and protect American industries. Screw the rest of the world; the entirety of the populations outside of our borders are not worth one drop of American blood or one taxpayer cent.
Replace the income tax with tariffs and make it official policy that any item made in America will be less expensive, after tariffs, than the same or similar items made anywhere else.
Get me someone who is for that and they have my vote.
Here in the real world, the income tax isn’t going anywhere, any consumer-raping tariffs would on top of all other federal taxes.
A better way to help “ensure the fullest employment of Americans and protect American industries” is to cut taxes and regulations and curb union power. Create a pro-business climate in this country again.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.