SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Democratic Trade War: Obama Says Warren 'Wrong' on TPP as Reid Says 'Hell No' to Fast Track
Split among Democratic lawmakers front and center as push for corporate-friendly trade pact heads for key votes in Congress
Apr 22, 2015
President Obama on Tuesday evening said that progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who have called out the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement for being a corporate-power grab and have vowed to defeat legislation designed to ram it through Congress are simply "wrong" when it comes to the pending deal between the U.S. and 11 Asian and Pacific nations.
Specifically singling out Sen. Warren for her steadfast opposition, Obama defended the TPP in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews that aired Tuesday evening.
"I love Elizabeth. We're allies on a whole host of issues, but she's wrong on this," Obama said about the deal.
In op-ed earlier this year, Warren condemned the TPP for its inclusion of a provision known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS, which would allow private corporations to sue governments if they believe laws or regulations are impeding their ability to make profits or adequately compete in a market. "The name may sound mild, but don't be fooled," argued Warren. "Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty."
And last week, Warren spoke at an anti-TPP rally sponsored by the AFL-CIO where she told the crowd: "Are you ready to fight any more deals that say 'we're going to help the rich get richer and leave everybody else behind'? Workers have to fight back. I'm proud to be with you and I'm going to be with you all the way."
Watch:
On Tuesday, Senator Harry Reid, the top-ranking Democrat in the Senate, voiced his strongest opposition yet to pending bills in Congress that would grant the Obama administration what is known as Trade Promotion Authority, or Fast Track, which would give the White House power to finalize the terms of the deal without oversight or input from lawmakers. If Fast Track is approved, the trade deal would receive only an up-or-down vote in Congress without the ability to make changes.
"You couldn't find a person to ask this question who feels more negatively about it than I do," Reid told reporters after being asked whether he supports Fast Track for the TPP. "So the answer is not only no, but hell no."
The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the Fast Track measure, introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
As Politico notes on Wednesday, congressional approval of Fast Track "is seen as integral to both reaching a bilateral agreement with Japan and bringing home the 12-nation TPP agreement -- the largest trade deal in U.S. history. But an indication that the fast-track bill doesn't have enough votes could deal a blow to the negotiations."
For critics of TPP, passage of Fast Track is basically seen as pre-approval of TPP itself.
On Monday, approximately a thousand people representing a coalition of public advocacy groups, environmentalists, and labor unions marched to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative to voice their strong opposition to both TPP and Fast Track. At a rally preceding the march, political activist Jim Hightower said, "The TPP isn't a trade deal. It is a corporate coup d'etat that is about to be rammed down the American people's throats. It would make us poorer and less free and we the people aren't going to stand by and let it happen."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
President Obama on Tuesday evening said that progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who have called out the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement for being a corporate-power grab and have vowed to defeat legislation designed to ram it through Congress are simply "wrong" when it comes to the pending deal between the U.S. and 11 Asian and Pacific nations.
Specifically singling out Sen. Warren for her steadfast opposition, Obama defended the TPP in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews that aired Tuesday evening.
"I love Elizabeth. We're allies on a whole host of issues, but she's wrong on this," Obama said about the deal.
In op-ed earlier this year, Warren condemned the TPP for its inclusion of a provision known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS, which would allow private corporations to sue governments if they believe laws or regulations are impeding their ability to make profits or adequately compete in a market. "The name may sound mild, but don't be fooled," argued Warren. "Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty."
And last week, Warren spoke at an anti-TPP rally sponsored by the AFL-CIO where she told the crowd: "Are you ready to fight any more deals that say 'we're going to help the rich get richer and leave everybody else behind'? Workers have to fight back. I'm proud to be with you and I'm going to be with you all the way."
Watch:
On Tuesday, Senator Harry Reid, the top-ranking Democrat in the Senate, voiced his strongest opposition yet to pending bills in Congress that would grant the Obama administration what is known as Trade Promotion Authority, or Fast Track, which would give the White House power to finalize the terms of the deal without oversight or input from lawmakers. If Fast Track is approved, the trade deal would receive only an up-or-down vote in Congress without the ability to make changes.
"You couldn't find a person to ask this question who feels more negatively about it than I do," Reid told reporters after being asked whether he supports Fast Track for the TPP. "So the answer is not only no, but hell no."
The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the Fast Track measure, introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
As Politico notes on Wednesday, congressional approval of Fast Track "is seen as integral to both reaching a bilateral agreement with Japan and bringing home the 12-nation TPP agreement -- the largest trade deal in U.S. history. But an indication that the fast-track bill doesn't have enough votes could deal a blow to the negotiations."
For critics of TPP, passage of Fast Track is basically seen as pre-approval of TPP itself.
On Monday, approximately a thousand people representing a coalition of public advocacy groups, environmentalists, and labor unions marched to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative to voice their strong opposition to both TPP and Fast Track. At a rally preceding the march, political activist Jim Hightower said, "The TPP isn't a trade deal. It is a corporate coup d'etat that is about to be rammed down the American people's throats. It would make us poorer and less free and we the people aren't going to stand by and let it happen."
President Obama on Tuesday evening said that progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) who have called out the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement for being a corporate-power grab and have vowed to defeat legislation designed to ram it through Congress are simply "wrong" when it comes to the pending deal between the U.S. and 11 Asian and Pacific nations.
Specifically singling out Sen. Warren for her steadfast opposition, Obama defended the TPP in an interview with MSNBC's Chris Matthews that aired Tuesday evening.
"I love Elizabeth. We're allies on a whole host of issues, but she's wrong on this," Obama said about the deal.
In op-ed earlier this year, Warren condemned the TPP for its inclusion of a provision known as Investor-State Dispute Settlement, or ISDS, which would allow private corporations to sue governments if they believe laws or regulations are impeding their ability to make profits or adequately compete in a market. "The name may sound mild, but don't be fooled," argued Warren. "Agreeing to ISDS in this enormous new treaty would tilt the playing field in the United States further in favor of big multinational corporations. Worse, it would undermine U.S. sovereignty."
And last week, Warren spoke at an anti-TPP rally sponsored by the AFL-CIO where she told the crowd: "Are you ready to fight any more deals that say 'we're going to help the rich get richer and leave everybody else behind'? Workers have to fight back. I'm proud to be with you and I'm going to be with you all the way."
Watch:
On Tuesday, Senator Harry Reid, the top-ranking Democrat in the Senate, voiced his strongest opposition yet to pending bills in Congress that would grant the Obama administration what is known as Trade Promotion Authority, or Fast Track, which would give the White House power to finalize the terms of the deal without oversight or input from lawmakers. If Fast Track is approved, the trade deal would receive only an up-or-down vote in Congress without the ability to make changes.
"You couldn't find a person to ask this question who feels more negatively about it than I do," Reid told reporters after being asked whether he supports Fast Track for the TPP. "So the answer is not only no, but hell no."
The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote Wednesday on the Fast Track measure, introduced by Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).
As Politico notes on Wednesday, congressional approval of Fast Track "is seen as integral to both reaching a bilateral agreement with Japan and bringing home the 12-nation TPP agreement -- the largest trade deal in U.S. history. But an indication that the fast-track bill doesn't have enough votes could deal a blow to the negotiations."
For critics of TPP, passage of Fast Track is basically seen as pre-approval of TPP itself.
On Monday, approximately a thousand people representing a coalition of public advocacy groups, environmentalists, and labor unions marched to the office of the U.S. Trade Representative to voice their strong opposition to both TPP and Fast Track. At a rally preceding the march, political activist Jim Hightower said, "The TPP isn't a trade deal. It is a corporate coup d'etat that is about to be rammed down the American people's throats. It would make us poorer and less free and we the people aren't going to stand by and let it happen."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.