Posted on 01/17/2020 9:47:46 AM PST by nikos1121
The Senate overwhelmingly passed President Trump's proposed replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Thursday, sending the deal to the president’s desk for his approval.
Passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) represents a rare moment of bipartisanship in a bitterly divided Congress. The deal cleared the Senate by a vote of 89 to 10 on Thursday, close to a month after passing the House by a vote of 385-41.
Republicans were eager to help Trump accomplish a major pillar of his economic agenda despite their preferences for a deal with looser restrictions. Democrats, who broadly shared Trump’s scorn for NAFTA, were eager to revise the deal to enhance labor standard enforcement and scrap protections for high-cost pharmaceuticals.
Even so, nine Democrats opposed the USMCA largely due to environmental concerns, while one Republican rejected the agreement over concerns it would burden international trade.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)
Toomey was the sole Republican to vote against the USMCA despite its importance to the president’s agenda and Trump’s reliance on Pennsylvania in the upcoming November election.
A staunch conservative and opponent of Trump’s trade agenda, Toomey argued that provisions meant to boost wages in Mexico and raise the tariff-free threshold for autos would spike prices for American consumers.
“Outside of a few necessary modernizations and modest market access improvements for Pennsylvania's dairy farmers, USMCA is a step backwards and I could not support its passage,” Toomey said in a Thursday statement.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
Sanders, a fierce critic of trade deals, was the sole 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to oppose the USMCA. While the White House won over some trade hawks with stronger environmental standards, Sanders said the deal fell short of the transformational change needed to protect American workers.
“We need to fundamentally rewrite our disastrous trade agreements and create and protect good-paying American jobs,” Sanders said Wednesday in remarks on the Senate floor.
“This agreement does virtually nothing to stop the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Like many progressive Democrats, Schumer praised the USMCA for including unprecedented labor standards and compliance checks to protect U.S. factory jobs. But the Senate minority leader opposed the deal over a lack of provisions intended to fight climate change.
“Instead of advancing global climate security by outlining binding and enforceable climate commitments from all three countries, the Trump administration provides significant incentives for manufacturers to move their business and their jobs from the U.S. to Mexico, where clean air and clean water regulations are much weaker," Schumer said.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Gillibrand, who briefly ran for president last year, did not share Schumer’s praise for the deal’s new labor provisions.
“Bad trade deals, including NAFTA, hollowed out upstate New York’s manufacturing industry,” Gillibrand said in a statement Thursday. “I don’t believe this agreement will reverse this trend or help the generations of New Yorkers who lost good jobs."
Gillibrand also opposed the deal because it “fails to close loopholes for corporate polluters or set binding, enforceable standards to protect clean air and water.”
Toey the only a Republican. What is he smoking?
https://www.uschamber.com/series/above-the-fold/5-reasons-we-support-the-us-mexico-canada-agreement
Tomey the only Republican. What is he smoking?
““We need to fundamentally rewrite our disastrous trade agreements and create and protect good-paying American jobs,” Sanders said Wednesday in remarks on the Senate floor”
Bernie the nationalist. Who knew?
They are all in with the Globalist Agenda. As is Toomey.
And Graham
And Rubio
And Alexander
Etc., etc., etc.
It should be noted that Gillibrand is not the brightest bulb on the tree and gets confused easily.
I’m shocked! They’re all Democrats.
don’t forget Pittsburgh!
I think it was Carville who Pa Philadelphia on the right, Pittsburgh on the left, Alabama in the middle.
One of the few things I can sort of agree with him on.
I don’t understand how the new deal would be worse than NAFTA - who did he think he was impressing by voting against USMCA?
“Good argument to have Trump in office for life.”
That will take a Constitutional Amendment.
The time to pass that amendment is now.
I didn’t ask if the Chamber supports or opposes Trump. I specifically asked if they support or oppose the USMCA. Learn how to read, dude.
Apparently he thinks we should continue to be the world’s patsy.
Opposing America First as a principle is just stupid, especially for a Republican.
I’d be happy if a real conservative primaried him.
I’m shock that none of the usual RINO’s didn’t vote against it...guess they are not totally brain dead?
nope
I’d hate to think that Trump is only delaying the inevitable death of the Republic. I’d like to think that once he sets the ship aright, others are there that can take the helm. And I’d like to think that it won’t take him a lifetime to do so. It would diminish my opinion of him if it did.
One thing is perfectly clear to me...and probably almost everyone on this forum...Trump probably looks at the majority of people (both parties) as being worthless chumps.
He relies on a few to get things done, and to be sure, he’s been able to unite them for the most part.... but
I think he thought he could work with them, esp Schumer, but that turned out to be a joke...
On our side, people like Paul Ryan sabotaged him...in fact initially they all thought he was going down from the Mueller thing...and I think it was close. They tried very hard to get him, and a lesser man would have gone down.
Now there’s no stopping him, and I see his second term to be amazing right out of the gate unless he loses either house of congress.
PA is another state with two large cities..filth-a-delphia being one of them.
Towns like Williamsport were citified when they brought in a influx of drug addicts who really didn’t come to be rehabilitated but to sell drugs, steal and kill people.
No surprise her. When you are an automatic Senator for Life because your Democrat Party bot voters in your clown states are too stupid to pay attention to the garbage you do in DC, you can engage in these kind of media attention whore acts.
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