You know how easy it is to skip the "fine print" and just Click "I Agree" -- well sometimes that's how those corporate 'poisoned pills' become tomorrow's standard fare.
Take for example, the mega-Trade deal Trans-Pacific Partnership, acting like a Zombie that just wouldn't die -- it has enough "fine print" that in ordinary times would ensure its doom.
Too bad these aren't "ordinary times" ... The TPP Riders, or lack thereof, is where the the critical debates should be churning. Assuming we could 'take the time'.
Morning briefing:
The Capital Times, madison.com/news -- May 27, 2015
• How the White House and Paul Ryan are making sure forced labor remains part of their trade deal: Ryan Grim and Laura Barron-Lopez of the Huffington Post write:
"The House, according to sources familiar with trade deal negotiations, plans to strip Senate language from fast-track legislation that would ban countries that are the worst human-trafficking and forced-labor offenders from being part of big trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The provision will be removed by House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) through a customs bill that will come to the floor after the fast-track bill, sources familiar with the planning told The Huffington Post. On the eve of the holiday recess last week, the Senate passed legislation giving President Barack Obama fast-track authority to shepherd trade deals through Congress. The anti-slavery provision was, for the White House and other backers of the deal, an unwelcome rider. While the provision seems like a no-brainer (who supports slavery in 2015?), the White House wants it gone."
Read more.
Is it or is it not -- this Rider to Oppose "
Forced Labor" routinely used by some of our 'new' Trading Partners --
still attached to the "separate trade-law enforcement bill" --
or did Ryan remove it?
Good Question.
Well if it's anything like the other last minute special-interest "give-aways" -- well, we'll probably have to 'Wait for it to Pass' -- to find out the Answers.
Republicans Tie Their Favorite Causes to the Trade Agreement
by Jonathan Weisman, nytimes.com -- June 10, 2015
[...]
Those last-minute additions were appended not to the fast-track bill at the center of the fight, but to a separate trade-law enforcement bill that is being considered alongside the trade promotion bill. While that creates a convoluted situation, the stakes are undeniably high. The Senate has already passed the trade promotion bill. If the House follows suit on Friday, Mr. Obama can return to final negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a trade accord spanning the Pacific Rim and binding 40 percent of the world’s economy, knowing a final agreement could not be amended or filibustered by Congress.
[...]
A separate bill, on customs and trade law enforcement, would move in concert with those two as a catchall for pet provisions, from language to crack down on international currency manipulation to measures to speed responses to countries that export products to the United States at prices below their cost of their production.
That plan has become mired in controversy. Aid in the trade adjustment assistance bill is paid for with a slight tweak to Medicare financing, a provision that caused no problems in the Senate. But in the House, it has enraged Democrats, who accuse pro-trade forces of trying to harm the elderly.
[...]
Another one of those "pet provisions" long favored by Republicans -- which was just attached to the TPP, like a burrowing-tick on a long hike, without tweezers ... takes the form the Legal-Weasel language like so:
Paul Ryan Adds Amendment to Trade Bill to Block Climate Deals
A provision seeks to bar the president from using trade to act on climate.
by Clare Foran, nationaljournal.com -- June 10, 2015
[...]
Late Tuesday evening, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin offered up an amendment to a customs bill that would "ensure that trade agreements do not require changes to U.S. law or obligate the United States with respect to global warming or climate change."
The customs bill is intended to amend so-called "fast-track" trade legislation that could see a House vote as early as this Friday. Fast-track would allow Congress an up-or-down vote on trade deals negotiated by the White House.
[...]
So much for
'finally dealing with the foremost challenge of our times' eh? -- if this Zombie Bill some how manages to survive another day.
Like when they try to pass it again next week. If at first you don't succeed ... Vote, Vote again.
Maybe another Rider or two, will be to the Democratic hold-outs liking ...
That Rider that "Sticks it to Seniors" does it the modern GOP-way -- 'It robs Peter to pay Paul'.
Or more specifically, 'It robs Medicare to pay for the Job-retraining that TPP-displaced American workers will ultimately need'. Because god-forbid they ever raise taxes on the Billionaire beneficiaries of the TPP themselves, to pay for the things OUR Nation might need ...
[...]
But the games that Republicans have played with TAA, and the inattention to those games from the White House, have shown liberal Democrats what a farce the whole trade-off is. House bill-writers initially paid for part of TAA with $700 million in Medicare cuts, a small amount but symbolic for using Medicare as a cookie jar to fund anything Congress wants. It’s amazing the White House didn’t see the firestorm this would create. After the Senate passed TAA with the Medicare pay-for, House liberals predictably revolted.
Republicans agreed to change the pay-for to increased penalties for non-compliance with taxes. And they passed an African trade bill that included that pay-for, changing the TAA bill before it even passes. The Senate has promised to quickly pass that. But House Democrats would still have to vote for a TAA bill that cuts Medicare, inviting negative ad campaigns highlighting their “support” for Medicare trims, despite the fact that they’ve already been reversed.
--
Liberals Can Step Up Today to End a Congressional Charade
by David Dayen, The Fiscal Times -- June 12, 2015
But back to that "Forced Labor" Rider that Ryan "planned" to remove -- is that even 'a thing' anymore in the 21st Century? YES, I'm very sad to say, IT IS.
If there is a profit to be made by exploiting desperate workers -- the soulless multi-national corporations will find a way. That is why their lawyers, are crafting this Secret Partnership arrangement in the first place -- so that their 'Obscene Profits' will continue to find a way to trample all else ... like those tunnel-focused Dinosaurs, ignoring the fences in Jurassic Park.
How Obama’s trade deal could be changed to stop slavery
by Andrea Powell, msnbc.com -- June 11, 2015
[...]
Simplistically stated, we are now at a crossroads where we must decide what we value more -- the profits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership or ending slave labor. Some of the very industries that stand to benefit most from this trade deal are within those sectors that depend most upon the exploitation of Malaysians, including electronics, where an estimated 28% of the labor force is enslaved.
There should be no consideration higher than that of ending slavery.
[...]
Furthermore, Malaysia should not be upgraded to a higher tier ranking when just this year more than 100 mass graves of enslaved people were found in camps around the country. The mass graves are shocking, but the pervasive and multi-layered abuse of migrant workers coming into Malaysia runs much deeper. The United States should take this unique opportunity to pressure Malaysia to put an end to slavery, including hundreds of slave camps, and to effectively save the lives of thousands of vulnerable people.
Well let Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) explain and defend his
Anti-Human trafficking Senate Rider himself, as he recently made the case that the House (and the White House)
should not try to water it down -- his clear restrictions against the worst human-rights offenders, like Malaysia:
“With those images fresh in our minds [mass graves], with new revelations of the scope of the trafficking problem in Malaysia and other countries coming every day, now is the time for our colleagues in the House to add their voice to a clear statement of bipartisan American values: no fast track for human traffickers,” Menendez wrote. “If House Leadership or the Obama administration wants to make substantive changes to the Menendez anti-trafficking provision they need to do it in the light of day and not in a backroom deal on unrelated legislation. Any effort to strip or change this provision, should be addressed in the fast-track trade promotion bill and open to debate.”
It’s up to the House to include the weaker language. Without it, the White House argues, the TPP could fall apart. House Ways and Means Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is working to include the modified text -- which would allow Malaysia membership to the TPP if it crafts a plan to combat trafficking -- in a customs enforcement bill that will come to the floor after fast-track.
"Human trafficking is a real problem, and that’s why Chairman Ryan has an agreement with Senator [Ron] Wyden (D-Ore.) to adopt the modified Menendez amendment, as proposed by Senator Menendez," Ryan's spokesman Brendan Buck said in an email.
--
Menendez Urges House To Keep Malaysia Out Of Obama's Trade Deal
by Laura Barron-Lopez, huffingtonpost.com -- June 1, 1025
Well isn't that quaint, Fast Track boosters Ryan and Wyden, are willing to admit "Human trafficking is a real problem." How enlightened of them.
They even took the time to send "an email" to acknowledge their concern.
"But is Malaysia In or Out?" -- Guess we'll have to wait and see ...
That's what qualifies as "Progress" I guess in these very "non-ordinary times."
Times when Corporations secretly write OUR Laws, and The People do not even deserve a seat a their Labor "negotiating table."
"Very Urgent" is the watch-word of the day -- Pass it, Pass it! Quick! Otherwise the People'll find out what's in it. And those pesky People don't usually care for hidden "poisoned pills" -- corporate or otherwise.
Not unless it's ground up into fine-enough "fine print" ... to make it orderless, tasteless, and otherwise commonly palatable for the average American consumer's click-first sensibilities.
If you'd rather not swallow their Fine Print -- only to find out what was in it later ....
Call/email your Rep, if you haven't done so already.
Thank you.