U.S. Democrats set high bar for supporting Obama on trade

[IDemo]

Source: Daily Mail

PHILADELPHIA, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Senior Democrats in the House of Representatives said on Thursday they would insist President Barack Obama provide hard evidence that proposed free trade deals will boost median U.S. incomes, laying out tough terms to support his trade agenda.

The demands, hours before Obama's address to a House Democratic retreat, are part of a renewed focus by the party on middle-class economic issues.

Republicans have made free trade a top priority and have called on Obama to bring Democrats into line.

Obama last week proposed shifting tax breaks from the wealthy to the middle class. He also asked Congress to give him "fast-track" authority to negotiate trade agreements, something many Democrats oppose, fearing American workers would lose more ground.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2932185/U-S-Democrats-set-high-bar-supporting-Obama-trade.html

[forest444]

1. Something tells me the free-traitors will avoid mentioning the last trade pact, KORUS

When the U.S./Korea Free Trade Agreement was completed in 2010, President Obama said that it would increase U.S. goods exports by “$10 billion to $11 billion,” supporting “70,000 American jobs from increased goods exports alone.” He based this claim on estimates from the U.S. International Trade Commission that tariff cuts alone in KORUS would stimulate U.S. exports to South Korea, supporting the president’s goals of doubling U.S. exports in five years, and adding 1 million new manufacturing jobs.

Things are not turning out the way the president predicted. KORUS took effect March 15, 2012. In the year after the agreement took effect (April 2012 to March 2013), U.S. domestic exports to South Korea (of goods made in the United States) fell $3.5 billion, compared with the same period in the previous year, a decline of 8.3 percent. In the same 12-month period, imports from South Korea (which the administration consistently declines to discuss) increased $2.3 billion, an increase of 4%, and the bilateral U.S. trade deficit with South Korea increased $5.8 billion, a whopping 39.8%.

The imbalance, in South Korea's favor, jumped to over $20 billion in 2013, and to a record $25 billion last year. It had been hovering in the $10-13 billion range for years.

http://www.epi.org/publication/trade-pacts-korus-trans-pacific-partnership/
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c5800.html

[Plucketeer]

2. Our esteemed President

IS NOT a friend of labor. He gets his marching orders from the likes of Mittens and his ilk. He mysteriously talks out of both sides of his oration orifice when he crows about America's manufacturing savvy and how we should pull the rug out from under it. There's only MINESCULE opportunity for Steve Jobs type jobs that he seems convinced are just waiting for every job-seeker in the USA.

[forest444]

3. Sad but true

Republicans are right about one thing: many of us didn't vote for him, as much as we voted against the Republican alternative. The disappointing, I suppose, is still preferable to the demonic.

[djean111]

4. And, of course, the free-traders won't talk about what ELSE is n the TPP -

no labeling, no Buy American, contracts offered to all signatories, patents on animals and plants and medical procedures, extension of drug patents on the flimsiest of excuses - Investor States able to overturn sovereign laws and regulations - a real witches brew. Obama must think we are all going to get Big Pharma jobs.

[YOHABLO]

5. No, sorry half measures won't work. Just like Obama Care .. we wanted a single payer. TPP NO NO NO

People do not know what this trade deal entails and they're trying to push it in as fast as they can. BS!

[forest444]

6. Exactly.

I've suspected for a while now that the real reason the media was so brazenly throwing the election for the GOP, was to guarantee passage of the TPP. To wit: major media outlets (not just False News) mentioned Ebola an average of 500 times per channel in the week prior to Election Day, but less than 50 times in the week after.

It's no secret that hysteria, however unfounded or temporary, can dramatically alter election results.

[KoKo]

7. My esteemed "self identifying LIBERAL" Senior House Rep assured us in a meeting two weeks ago

that "Fast Track" would Pass and that they would amend the TPP Afterwards. When asked why NAFTA was STILL not Amended for "Workers Rights" ...he said: "Well, we realize that, but we feel we can get the TPP Amended because it's not like it was back then."

OKAY...........