What does it mean to support “Fast Track” and the “Trans Pacific Partnership” (Etc.)?

By alan on June 11, 2015 in Uncategorized

To support Fast Track means:

“I believe government should operate behind my back, and should treat me like a child. I do not deserve to participate in the decisions that determine my future, and my votes for political candidates should not really matter.”

To support the “TransPacific Partnership” means:

“I believe big business is more important and should have more rights than I do. That capital (them, the one percent) should prevail over labor (me, the other 99 percent).”

To support either, or both, means:

“I am OK with ‘my’ elected officials betraying me. I am not smart enough, or well-enough educated, to figure out where my interests lie, or what is really going on. I am OK with President Obama acting like a Republican.”

Everybody knows that the TPP could not happen without Fast Track because the deal couldn’t stand the light of day.

Almost all Republicans, and Corporate Democrats like Tom Carper, Amy Klobuchar, Collin Peterson, and John Carney, will support both Fast Track and the TPP unless they receive intense pressure from constituents. That means YOU, NOW. Plenty of fine legislators, from Elizabeth Warren to Keith Ellison, stand strongly opposed on their own initiative. The two issues are a nearly perfect litmus test of fitness for public office.

Not convinced? Of dozens of sources on this, here are a few:

“The TPP is already being negotiated between the United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — but it is also
specifically intended as a “docking agreement” that other Pacific Rim countries would join over time, with Japan, Korea, China and others already expressing some interest.”

Say Anything’ Time to Pass Fast Track

“Some of the world’s largest, most powerful corporations wrote this trade deal behind closed doors. The public has been entirely shut out of the process, without access to the text of the trade deal, and now Congress is being asked to give up what little oversight it may have had. We simply cannot allow corporations to write our laws.”

“Obama is courting Democrats for his trade agenda against vigorous opposition from labor unions, environmental groups and liberal organizations. A majority of Republicans support the legislation, which allows Congress to reject or approve, but not change, trade deals negotiated by the administration.”

“Republicans Use TPP Trade Deal To Slash Medicare”

“Despite the wide-ranging effects on the global population, the TPP is currently being negotiated in total secrecy by 12 countries. Few people, even within the negotiating countries’ governments, have access to the full text of the draft agreement and the public, who it will affect most, none at all. Large corporations, however, are able to see portions of the text, generating a powerful lobby to effect changes on behalf of these groups and bringing developing country members reduced force, while the public at large gets no say.”

“Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) – Environment Consolidated Text”

“Senator Warren Releases Report Highlighting Decades of Broken Promises and Failures to Enforce Labor Standards in Trade Agreements.”

“Leaked documents show that U.S. trade negotiators are pushing hard for the TPP to include so called “investor-state” provisions that would grant transnational corporations the power to challenge virtually any environmental law, regulation or court decision that negatively affects their expectation of profits as a “regulatory taking” through international tribunals that circumvent domestic judicial systems. Consumer safety rules, banking regulations and a host of other public interest policies would also be subject to attack.”

“When it comes down to it, the president has a problem. No one doubts that he is wicked smart. And there’s the rub when it comes to the Trans Pacific Partnership: if he was, say, Sarah Palin-level intelligence, you’d say the whoppers coming out of the White House emanate from a dope. But, if whoppers keep coming from a wicked smart man running the show, you have to say he’s lying.”

“Stop Fast Track & the Trans-Pacific Partnership”