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On the Downside of Being an Emperor in a Democratic Republic
Here’s some bad news for a Friday: you’re going to spend most of the weekend hearing about Nancy Pelosi. The House Minority Leader, her body temperature slowly elevated to allow full mobility and partial sentience, took to the floor of the lower chamber earlier today to come out against trade adjustment assistance (TAA) in the run-up to the vote to give President Obama fast-track authorization to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement.
Now, TAA, which provides government resources for workers dislocated by international trade, is normally popular with Democrats. But Pelosi didn’t take this position on the merits. Knowing that the passage of TAA would be essential for getting Democrats behind the Trans-Pacific deal, she was trying to smother the effort in the crib. As she said on the House floor,“If TAA slows down the fast-track, I’m prepared to vote against TAA.” And she got her way: it went down handily in the House, losing the vote 126-302.
There are a couple of easy journalistic frames coming here: progressives are abandoning the president in much the same way that conservatives took their leave of George W. Bush towards the end of his administration; The Obama Administration is officially sliding into lame duck territory; With Obama in the home stretch and Harry Reid preparing to retire, Pelosi is now the de facto leader of the Democratic Party. Choose your own adventure.
Those may all be true to an extent, but let’s not overlook another factor: The Democrats are getting just as hacked off as we are with President College Freshman. From a report at the Huffington Post this morning:
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama ventured to Capitol Hill on Friday to make a last-minute plea to House Democrats to support legislation designed to allow him to expedite major trade deals through Congress. It fell on deaf ears.
Obama met privately with Democrats for about 20 minutes in a caucus meeting at the Capitol, just ahead of a vote on a package of bills that will shape U.S. negotiations with countries on major trade deals. One of the trade deals in the queue, the 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership, would encompass over half of the world’s economy.
But the president’s 11th-hour pitch may have backfired. Some of the Democrats leaving the meeting said Obama promptly insulted their integrity, took no questions and left.
“Basically, the president tried to both guilt people and then impugn their integrity,” said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.). “There were a number of us who were insulted by the approach.”
Now, look, there are a lot higher hurdles out there than giving offense to a room full of Democrats. For all we know, Obama lost them when he used a gendered pronoun. But Republicans, having been on the receiving end of the “L’etat, c’est moi” treatment since the earliest days of this presidency, must be chuckling to themselves about how quickly things change when it’s the other side of the aisle feeling the sting of the lash.
So, the president’s in a bit of a free fall right now. Does this mean the whole thing is dead? Maybe. Or maybe it just means that it’s time for President Veruca Salt to step aside and let the adults get down to business.
Maybe it means…it’s time for a closer:
God help us all.
Published in Economics, Politics
Turn to page 354.
I believe in Free Trade. I, however, refuse to be led because a bill is named “Free Trade” despite the fact that I cannot see it and people who have lost my trust and are beholden to crony business interests are telling me to trust them.
When I see a bill that promotes free trade, I will support it. Until then, stop insulting my intelligence or saying ‘trust me’.
For what it is worth, this is the theme of Maureen Dowd’s column this Sunday.
I’m perplexed by why there are conservative sites trying so desperately to muddy the water on this issue (Breitbart and Drudge). It really isn’t so difficult to understand. The TPA sets a list of criteria to fast track trade negotiations. During negotiations congress has rights under the act to all information in the negotiations. Once the a trade pact is made, before it goes into effect, the president has to publish the whole thing for the PUBLIC to be able to read. Congress then has to either approve or disapprove with an up or down vote.
The trade pacts that are currently being worked on are secret right now, but congress has complete access to those negotiations. Should the TPA pass, before those agreements ever go into effect and before they are voted on they will be published and open to the public.
1) NOTIFICATION AND SUBMISSION.—Any agreement entered into under section 3(b) shall enter into force with respect to the United States if (and only if)—
(A) the President, at least 90 calendar days before the day on which the President enters into the trade agreement, notifies the House of Representatives and the Senate of the President’s intention to enter into the agreement, and promptly thereafter publishes notice of such intention in the Federal Register;
(B) the President, at least 60 days before the day on which the President enters into the agreement, publishes the text of the agreement on a publicly available Internet website of the Office of the United States Trade Representative;
I know that nobody with half a brain trusts the president as far as they can throw him, but the idea that this is a pass it and then see what is in it, is a LIE. If you don’t like the idea of fast track trade negotiations, fine, then kill the bill, but don’t lie about what it does or does not do. Also remember, this president is at the end of his term. Should we have a republican president next, and the odds are in our favor IMHO, he (at the risk of using a gendered pronoun that means anyone in a generic group of males and females) will have nearly of a full term of fast track trade negotiations.