Handing President Barack Obama another legislative defeat, the president tried to join House Republicans on “fast-track” trade authority primarily with the Pacific Rim. Ignoring objections from Democrats’ libera wing, Barack found common ground with Republicans to land himself a bipartisan success, after watching his legislative agenda go up in smoke signing the Patient Protect and Affordable Care Act March 23, 2010. Contained in the bill were provisions to extend unemployment benefits workers losing jobs because of outsourcing. Defeating the White House-backed trade bill 302-128, Obama notches another defeat in his legislative scorecard, making the case in the 2016 presidential campaign that no Democrat, working with GOP House and Senate, can get anything done. Barack burnt his bridges with Congress when forced Obamacare on a GOP Congress.
Hoping to revise the Trade Promotion Authority [TPA], Barack expects House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) to pass the legislation next Tuesday. Because of the 2016 campaign, the GOP doesn’t want to tell voters that Democrats, especially Obama, can get anything done between now and the Nov. 4, 2016 election. Calling the failed vote a “procedural snafu,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest saw no impediments to next week’s vote, including liberals unwilling to sell out American workers. Conservative head of the House Rules Committee Pete Sessions (R-Texas) was optimistic about getting concessions for displaced American workers. “We’re going to pass TPA,” said Sessions, not sure whether or not TAA or trade protection would go with it. Providing aid to workers raised objections by both parties, with 158 Republicans joining 144 Democrats voting no to TAA.
President Obama finds himself in legislative purgatory, unable to gain much cooperation from the GOP. Democrats don’t like it when Barack joins the GOP purely to find common ground to get something done when it doesn’t match party philosophy. “The question is going to be whether TAA is going to be in it,” said Sessions, not sure Republicans can push through TPA without TAA or help to displaced workers. Pacific Rim countries like Japan want to see the president with “fast track” authority to accelerate trade deals without the slow pace of Congressional approval. Obama hoped that going to Capitol Hill with Labor Secretary Thomas Perez would help persuade enough Democrats and Republicans to pass the Asia-Pacific Trade Pact. Barack’s finding out the hard way that over the last six-plus years he’s been a missing person on Capitol Hill.
Joining conservative to pass Pacific Rim legislation doesn’t sit well with Democratic loyalists, busy figuring out where presidential front-runner former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton fits in. U.S. labor-leaders led by the AFL-CIO want a workers aid program embodied in Trade Adjustment Assistance. Conservatives feels it’s the least important aspect of fast-track trade legislation, permitting U.S. and Asian companies from completing trade deals that don’t pass rigorous U.S. and foreign labor laws. Insisting on TAA could potentially torpedo the current Trade Promotion Authority legislation, allowing the president to move on deals without Congressional approval. Objections from the AFL-CIO mirror traditional demands, allowing collective bargaining to determine conditions for labor contracts. Republicans want free markets to determine trade laws without unions.
Lurking in the background of passing TPA, let alone TAA, is the idea that outsource jobs to Asian labor markets have hurt U.S. workers, promoting more non-labor-union jobs to undocumented workers. Passing legitimate trade deals with demands to protect workers’ rights doesn’t fit the outsourcing model enabling multinational corporations to rake in profits at workers’ expense, especially costing U.S. jobs. Since Obama took office Jan. 20, 2009, there’s been a steady flow of more outsourcing, fitting the import model of Walmart, whose cheap foreign goods fit consumers needs more than sweatshop and child labor violations that would be part of a new Pacific-Rim trade pact. If the U.S. economy continues to outsource manufacturing jobs, it’s going to be a long time before middle class salaries come up to speed to improve the nation’s sluggish Gross Domestic Product.
Between now and the election, the GOP doesn’t want to give Obama a leg up to improve the economy, hoping voters will seek new leadership. GOP 2012 presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney found out the hard way that it’s tough to argue against an improving economy. Unlike the economy when Obama first took office, Wall Street has witnessed a spectacular rise, with the country adding some 10 million private sector jobs Passing the Pacific Rim Trade Pact would only improve the economic outlook, with or without the Trade Adjustment Assistance, compensating workers whose jobs were outsourced. Approving fast-track trade authority gives the president the tools needed to nail down trade deals without waiting for congressional approval. Without some protection for workers, it also could be used to line corporate pockets at the expense of American workers.
