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RiverLover

(7,830 posts)
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 06:17 AM Mar 2015

Ron Wyden(D) joins top republicans on fast tracking TPP

Last month, I read about how important it is that Wyden, who is usually progressive, not side with Orin Hatch(R) on the TPA for fast tracking (bypassing congress & democracy) the TPP~

...After the President’s speech there was a protest at a town hall of Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. Wyden is a key player as the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee. He has played both sides of the debate and the movement needs to monitor him closely and hold him accountable. If he cannot reach agreement with Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch, then Fast Track is unlikely to pass the Senate. This week Senator Grassley said that currently they don’t have 60 votes in support of Fast Track and therefore it could not pass a filibuster. If Wyden demands that Congress sees the text of the TPP and has true involvement in the negotiations before they are finalized, then he and Hatch will not reach agreement and the Republicans will have to go it alone....

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026165179


But then this info comes out~

Are Progressives Willing to Attack One of Their Own on Free Trade?
3/5/15

...Wyden has generally been viewed as a strong advocate for progressive values on Wall Street and social issues. He opposed the 2008 bank bailout on the grounds that it rewarded bad behavior, and this week released a report showing how many high-income earners use various means to avoid paying taxes on capital gains. He was one of the first senators to support gay marriage, having backed it as a candidate in 1995.

Wyden also has been an advocate of progressive issues relating to technology, having long been a supporter of net neutrality. And he's a leading opponent of state secrecy surrounding the National Security Agency, which has earned him praise from civil libertarians.

But Neil Sroka, communications director for Democracy for America, said it was precisely because of Wyden's criticism of state secrecy on surveillance that his support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership is so glaring.

"I don't understand how you can be concerned about egregious concerns of secrecy in the NSA and the shirking of civil liberties and not be brutally concerned about the secrecy among these trade deals," Sroka said.

Fight for the Future, an internet activist organization that supports net neutrality, sent an email on Wednesday to supporters praising Wyden for his support for Internet freedom, but calling for him to back down on the trade deal, which the group says could lead to Internet censorship.

Wyden joins top Republicans—like his counterpart on the Finance Committee, Chairman Orrin Hatch, and Majority Leader Mitch McConnell—in his support for the trade deal.

It's not the first time, or for the only issue, that Wyden has crossed the aisle. In the past, Wyden has consistently tried working on tax reform with Republicans, like Indiana Sen. Dan Coats and former New Hampshire Sen. Judd Gregg. In 2011, Wyden even teamed up with Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan on a Medicare reform plan that would allow recipients to keep traditional Medicare as an option or purchase Medicare-approved private plans.


http://www.nationaljournal.com/economy/are-progressives-willing-to-attack-one-of-their-own-on-free-trade-20150305


Not good!


17 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Ron Wyden(D) joins top republicans on fast tracking TPP (Original Post) RiverLover Mar 2015 OP
He should be ashamed of himself. Vinca Mar 2015 #1
Actually we still do make things in this country, just substantially less & with lower wages RiverLover Mar 2015 #2
Headline is misleading, Wyden has not yet committed on Fast Track one way or the other and Bluenorthwest Mar 2015 #3
Not quite, Wyden has already sided with the GOP & the WH, but it hasn't been voted on RiverLover Mar 2015 #4
No, he has not. I live in Oregon. Right now, it is 9:15 in DC, meaning people could be calling Ron's Bluenorthwest Mar 2015 #5
The president called to thank him. RiverLover Mar 2015 #7
Read the articles I posted. Ron is one of my Senators. This is local politics to me. Where are you? Bluenorthwest Mar 2015 #10
You are discouraging the very activism that is required to halt this process. Bluenorthwest Mar 2015 #14
I don't see how, this ... 1StrongBlackMan Mar 2015 #16
Has anyone thought of asking him why? randome Mar 2015 #6
Or just reporting facts that you don't like. RiverLover Mar 2015 #8
Yes, hundreds of calls every day. Wyden has not in fact sided with the Fast Track, this OP is not Bluenorthwest Mar 2015 #9
Just called his office aspirant Mar 2015 #12
Decision has not been made. I just called, can not get through in Portland, on hold for minutes Bluenorthwest Mar 2015 #13
Don't live in Oregon aspirant Mar 2015 #15
I trust WFA & DFA to protest what Wyden has done ONLY if they were 100% positive that he did it. RiverLover Mar 2015 #17
Wyden? Octafish Mar 2015 #11

Vinca

(50,170 posts)
1. He should be ashamed of himself.
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 08:36 AM
Mar 2015

Maybe he's aware of jobs the U.S. still has to outsource, but here in the real world (people not suckling on the Congressional $175,000-a-year teat), we know there aren't.

RiverLover

(7,830 posts)
2. Actually we still do make things in this country, just substantially less & with lower wages
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 08:52 AM
Mar 2015

And the TPP will makes things even worse.

Robert Reich: How Trade Deals Boost the Top 1% and Bust the Rest

Monday, February 16, 2015

Suppose that by enacting a particular law we’d increase the U.S.Gross Domestic Product. But almost all that growth would go to the richest 1percent. 


The rest of us could buy some products cheaper than before. But those gains would be offset by losses of jobs and wages.

This is pretty much what “free trade” has brought us over the last two decades.

I used to believe in trade agreements. That was before the wages of most Americans stagnated and a relative few at the top captured just about all the economic gains.

Recent trade agreements have been wins for big corporations and Wall Street, along with their executives and major shareholders. They get better access to foreign markets and billions of consumers.

They also get better protection for their intellectual property – patents, trademarks, and copyrights. And for their overseas factories, equipment, and financial assets.

But those deals haven’t been wins for most Americans.

The fact is, trade agreements are no longer really about trade. Worldwide tariffs are already low. Big American corporations no longer make many products in the United States for export abroad.

The biggest things big American corporations sell overseas are ideas, designs, franchises, brands, engineering solutions, instructions, and software.

Google, Apple, Uber, Facebook, Walmart, McDonalds, Microsoft, and Pfizer, for example, are making huge profits all over the world.

But those profits don’t depend on American labor — apart from a tiny group of managers, designers, and researchers in the U.S.

To the extent big American-based corporations any longer make stuff for export, they make most of it abroad and then export it from there, for sale all over the world — including for sale back here in the United States.

The Apple iPhone is assembled in China from components made in Japan, Singapore, and a half-dozen other locales. The only things coming from the U.S. are designs and instructions from a handful of engineers and managers in California.

Apple even stows most of its profits outside the U.S. so it doesn’t have to pay American taxes on them.

This is why big American companies are less interested than they once were in opening other countries to goods exported from the United States and made by American workers.

They’re more interested in making sure other countries don’t run off with their patented designs and trademarks. Or restrict where they can put and shift their profits.

In fact, today’s “trade agreements” should really be called “global corporate agreements” because they’re mostly about protecting the assets and profits of these global corporations rather than increasing American jobs and wages. The deals don’t even guard against currency manipulation by other nations.

According to Economic Policy Institute, the North American Free Trade Act cost U.S. workers almost 700,000 jobs, thereby pushing down American wages.

Since the passage of the Korea–U.S. Free Trade Agreement, America’s trade deficit with Korea has grown more than 80 percent, equivalent to a loss of more than 70,000 additional U.S. jobs.

The U.S. goods trade deficit with China increased $23.9 billion last year, to $342.6 billion. Again, the ultimate result has been to keep U.S. wages down.

The old-style trade agreements of the 1960s and 1970s increased worldwide demand for products made by American workers, and thereby helped push up American wages.

The new-style global corporate agreements mainly enhance corporate and financial profits, and push down wages.

That’s why big corporations and Wall Street are so enthusiastic about the upcoming Trans Pacific Partnership – the giant deal among countries responsible for 40 percent of the global economy.

That deal would give giant corporations even more patent protection overseas. It would also guard their overseas profits.

And it would allow them to challenge any nation’s health, safety, and environmental laws that stand in the way of their profits – including our own.

...White House strategists seem to think such corporations are accountable to the U.S. government. Wrong. At most, they’re answerable to their shareholders, who demand high share prices whatever that requires. ...
 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
3. Headline is misleading, Wyden has not yet committed on Fast Track one way or the other and
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 08:54 AM
Mar 2015

the issue is huge, huge here in Oregon. To get a more accurate view of the current status of the process, I'd read the following two articles....
"Three weeks ago, Sen. Ron Wyden got an unlikely phone call. On the line was President Obama, who last year helped foil the Oregon Democrat’s plans to shepherd a modest tax bill through Congress.

Obama was calling to thank Wyden for his support of the president’s sweeping trade agenda which, in a reflection of the topsy-turvy politics of the issue, has drawn support from Republican leaders and staunch objections from many Democrats.

Behind the scenes, Hatch and Wyden, the committee’s ranking Democrat, have been deadlocked over the terms of the “trade promotion authority” legislation — which aims to limit Congress’s authority to amend a final trade deal before voting on it. Wyden is demanding that the bill include additional provisions for lawmakers to scuttle the entire process if the administration fails to meet specific thresholds.
“What some Democrats want would strip away the very integrity of what [trade promotion authority] has stood for — a sense of certainty” among the countries negotiating the deal, Hatch said. “That sets a dangerous precedent.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-counts-on-sen-wyden-to-deliver-on-a-trade-deal/2015/03/04/d4a9c14a-c2a4-11e4-9ec2-b418f57a4a99_story.html

And:
Working Families Party Threatens Contest Against Ron Wyden Over Free Trade Deal
" If Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee, helps push through a massive free trade deal using fast-track authority, an Oregon progressive party would likely oppose him in the 2016 general election, Working Families Party state director Karly Edwards told HuffPost.

The WFP typically endorses Democrats, as it did with Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) in 2014, unless they break too far from the WFP's progressive-populist agenda. Edwards said endorsements ultimately are up to WFP members at the 2016 summer caucus, but trade will be the biggest issue."
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/03/04/working-families-party-oregon_n_6795632.html

RiverLover

(7,830 posts)
4. Not quite, Wyden has already sided with the GOP & the WH, but it hasn't been voted on
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 09:10 AM
Mar 2015

It will be next month.

WaPo March 4~

Obama was calling to thank Wyden for his support of the president’s sweeping trade agenda which, in a reflection of the topsy-turvy politics of the issue, has drawn support from Republican leaders and staunch objections from many Democrats.

Enter Wyden, 65, a four-term senator who has consistently supported trade. He has become the White House’s most important ally to woo skeptical members of Obama’s own party as the president races to complete a massive 12-nation trade deal in the Asia Pacific that is important to his foreign policy legacy....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-counts-on-sen-wyden-to-deliver-on-a-trade-deal/2015/03/04/d4a9c14a-c2a4-11e4-9ec2-b418f57a4a99_story.html


We Progressives are optimist though & we hope he'll change his mind if he realizes he won't get re-elected if he votes this way.

It may not work though if he already has a cushy job lined up after leaving office. Or he may want to retire. Who knows.

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
5. No, he has not. I live in Oregon. Right now, it is 9:15 in DC, meaning people could be calling Ron's
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 09:28 AM
Mar 2015

office to contribute their opinion against Fast Track- because Ron has not gotten on board with Fast Track as yet. He seems to be leaning that way, and he's feeling enormous pressure from Oregonians and others and I want to see that pressure doubled, not decreased. By telling people incorrectly that he has sided with Fast Track, you discourage people from engaging in the process. It is not over. He has not decided. If you wish to see it halted, claiming the deed is already done will not help gain that objective.
I am a Progressive with a vote in Oregon and am a participant in our local politics
People who wish to halt Fast Track should be on the phone right now. Telling them Wyden has made his decision when he has not does not help those progressive goals at all. Delayed until April.
If you objective is to stop the TPP and refuse it Fast Track, knowing the deed is not yet done is very important. Don't you want Wyden to feel pressure from outside of Oregon?

"This week, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) told reporters that his plans to introduce legislation to grant the administration additional powers to finalize the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — as well as another large deal between the United States and Europe — would be delayed until April."

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
10. Read the articles I posted. Ron is one of my Senators. This is local politics to me. Where are you?
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 10:20 AM
Mar 2015

The President's call was placed to pressure Wyden to continue his support and get behind Fast Track, which Wyden has not yet done.
Those who oppose Fast Track or the entire agreement should place calls to pressure Wyden to do what they would like. That's what Obama is doing. Because he knows it is not yet a decision Wyden has made.

The State of Oregon will be very, ever aware when that decision is made. It has not as yet been made, and Fast Track is currently delayed until April, leaving weeks open to express your views.

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
14. You are discouraging the very activism that is required to halt this process.
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 12:19 PM
Mar 2015

People say many things about themselves, but it is their actions which remain as the definition of their agendas.
If Wyden had sided with Fast Track, that would be headline news in Oregon.

 

1StrongBlackMan

(31,849 posts)
16. I don't see how, this ...
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 12:54 PM
Mar 2015
Behind the scenes, Hatch and Wyden, the committee’s ranking Democrat, have been deadlocked over the terms of the “trade promotion authority” legislation — which aims to limit Congress’s authority to amend a final trade deal before voting on it. Wyden is demanding that the bill include additional provisions for lawmakers to scuttle the entire process if the administration fails to meet specific thresholds.


Is inconsistent with FastTrack?





 

randome

(34,845 posts)
6. Has anyone thought of asking him why?
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 09:34 AM
Mar 2015

All I usually see are complaints and accusations, yet no one thinks to ask questions.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Precision and concision. That's the game.[/center][/font][hr]

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
9. Yes, hundreds of calls every day. Wyden has not in fact sided with the Fast Track, this OP is not
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 10:16 AM
Mar 2015

accurate. Activism is still required and needed, the deed is not done.

DC numbers-
tel (202) 224-5244
fax (202) 228-2717

Portland Office-
(503) 326-7525

aspirant

(3,533 posts)
12. Just called his office
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 10:58 AM
Mar 2015

got right thru, no busy signal. The fellow who answered the phone said he didn't know about an Obama congratulatory call and said Wyden hasn't made a decision yet. Didn't sound believable about the phone call.

 

Bluenorthwest

(45,319 posts)
13. Decision has not been made. I just called, can not get through in Portland, on hold for minutes
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 12:07 PM
Mar 2015

in DC. What part of Oregon are you in, which district?

aspirant

(3,533 posts)
15. Don't live in Oregon
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 12:20 PM
Mar 2015

and called the DC office as a concerned citizen. His response to an Obama call was hesitant and a little fumbling of words, not reassuring. Made it clearly known to him that Fast Track would be a dereliction of duty as an employee of the people and his vote would affect all of us.

As usual, said he would pass on the message.

RiverLover

(7,830 posts)
17. I trust WFA & DFA to protest what Wyden has done ONLY if they were 100% positive that he did it.
Mon Mar 9, 2015, 12:59 PM
Mar 2015

They are wonderful progressive orgs who are very professional & stay on top of recent developments. Though that thank you call from Obama was over 3 weeks ago, these articles are just coming out. Thanks to the DFA & WFA.

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