Democrats reject key trade proposal in House vote

Interesting....

Washington (CNN)In a stunning defeat for the White House, the House of Representatives on Friday voted down a measure creating an assistance program for workers displaced by free trade agreements.

The development throws Obama's proposed trade deal with Asia into serious jeopardy. The House is moving to vote to reconsider the defeated Trade Adjustment Assistance measure by Tuesday. That vote will determine if this trade deal is derailed or will just be in limbo until another vote next week.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said she would vote against key elements of President Barack Obama's trade agenda, issuing a fatal blow to the White House just moments before voting began on the House floor.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/12/politics/white-house-tpp-trade-deal-congress/index.html

Poor semi-retired President Obama has to be whining today. Even Democrats are turning against him.

It must be terribly disappointing to not place more citizens on the govt dole.

Free trade is good for everybody.  If America had tariffs at each state, the United States productivity and GDP would have plunged.  However, we are one nation and the fact that corn can be grown in Iowa and Illinois efficiently, and Oregon and Washington state grow potatoes efficiently does not make sense to put a tariff on potatoes in Illinois, or a tariff in oregon on corn.  So we have free trade in America.......but the potato grower in Illinois.....he is out of luck, because we are not going to subsidize the potato farmer in Illinois because he cannot compete.

The problem is when the product is coming from a foreign country and dislocating Americans.......we think the answer is to keep our inefficient industry and lessen productivity and GDP. It is not a one sided equation because Cat, John Deere, Ford, GE, and other American manufacturers can beat the hell out of competitors, but if tariffs protect their native industry by stopping our products from being sold.....it hurts America.  The GATT trade negotiations, NAFTA, and now this.....the devil is in the detail.   It is good politically to debate and review every line item in the trade agreement.....there are no losers here if they find that balance......balance is what makes trade work......cheating has to be attacked......there should ALWAYS be debate.....there are no losers.

You... nor any of we the people know what's in the agreement. That might pass muster with you comrade... but I will never accept that from the politicians elected to represent us. Exactly where does this blind faith come from? What do you base it on... history? And why does Obama want this so bad when it requires special govt assistance to our displaced workers? What leads you to believe he knows a damn thing about negotiating a trade agreement? Or hell... any business deal for that matter?

http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/11/politics/trade-deal-secrecy-tpp/

Washington (CNN)—Two copies of the biggest free trade deal in history are sitting in reading rooms -- one at each end of the Capitol.

The document is classified. Only members of Congress and staffers with security clearance can access it. And they can't make copies or even carry their own handwritten notes out the door.

This is how trade negotiations work. Fearful that they'll undercut their own negotiators, leaders of the countries involved don't want the details of what they're hashing out revealed until the full package is completed. And it's at the heart of the biggest criticism opponents of the deal have made publicly: the secrecy surrounding it.

"I've worked with the Clinton administration and I've worked with the Bush administration. And this administration is more secretive," said Thea Lee, the deputy chief of staff for the AFL-CIO, which is spear heading the left's opposition to the deal -- even though it's being negotiated by a Democratic administration under President Barack Obama.

I wrote a thesis on Latin American free trade associations and did detailed research on tariffs and the negative impact they cause and the advantages of trade.  I understand economic dislocation, which becomes political, but the economist who are involved in actual trade negotiations are not politicians......and unfortunately the politicians always get involved because we are living in a democracy.   Also, there has always been closed negotiations in trade agreements......always, as is the case in most negotiations where a union and management are working on a contract.....the average worker does not get to vote on that contract until the contract comes out of closed negotiations, and then ratifies the same.  There is a simple reason for the closed negotiations.....they work best, and open negotiations will fail.  The American people through our representatives can ratify the same or reject it.  The process works and I am happy to finally see some push back to a trade deal where we have not been diligent in stopping cheating.

Barry has no clue and is hiding nsomethiing