David Dayen does a pretty good job at deflating all of the administrations lies (yes, he boldly goes ahead and calls them that in his piece) concerning the benefits of the TPP. Here is the link: The 10 biggest lies you've been told about the TPP.
Now do yourself a favor and go read the very succinct and easy to understand story. In a nutshell, the President is wrong on TPP and it will likely: increase the cost of pharmaceuticals, movies and music, do little to encourage employment here in the US, will undermine our regulatory structure, INCREASE our trade deficits and LOSE jobs, and make our current and future laws subject to the duress of an international corporate tribunal which will be set up to judge whether those laws and regulations diminish the future profits corporations, allowing them to sue for compensation.
Why is President Obama promoting a deal like this? Who knows, and really, who cares. But it is odd, isn't it that this agreement puts the President in alliance with Republicans and against labor and many Democrats? We've been led down this garden path before.
Here is Senator Sherrod Brown's statement which Dayen quoted in his article concerning what the aftermath of the South Korea trade pact has been:
The Obama Administration predicted that the South Korea Free Trade Agreement would create 70,000 jobs and deliver up to $11 billion in exports. Instead, it only increased U.S. exports to Korea by $1 billion, while Korean imports have skyrocketed to more than $12 billion. The growing good trade deficit with Korea has eliminated over 75,000 jobs in the last three years.
Hard to be THAT wrong, wouldn't you think? 70,000 predicted new jobs somehow become a net loss of 75,000 jobs? IMO, The trade pacts are more about opening us up for cheap imports than they are about opening up new markets for our products and workers. They do more to lose jobs and diminish wages than they do to reverse that trend.
I've long been a fan of David Dayen and wish we had more journalists like him. He laid it all out there during the mortgage crisis and anyone who read his articles had no doubt that yes, crimes had been committed by the financial sector which they thoroughly and completely got away with after paying a few paltry "cost of doing business" fines and penalties.
Sorry, President Obama. When it comes to yet another shafting by yet another trade pact, the same old stories are starting to ring hollow. I'm going to go with my head and my heart on this one and pay more attention to Elizabeth Warren and Sherrod Brown than I am going to pay to you and the Republicans on this one.