I'm pretty sure that Warren wants as many people to read it as possible.
Courtesy of Elizabeth Warren.com:
Have you seen what’s in the new TPP trade deal?
Most likely, you haven’t – and don’t bother trying to Google it. The government doesn’t want you to read this massive new trade agreement. It’s top secret.
Why? Here’s the real answer people have given me: “We can’t make this deal public because if the American people saw what was in it, they would be opposed to it.”
If the American people would be opposed to a trade agreement if they saw it, then that agreement should not become the law of the United States.
Let’s send a loud message to our trade officials: No vote on a fast-track for trade agreements until the American people can see what’s in this TPP deal. Sign this petition right now to make the TPP agreement public.
The Administration says I’m wrong – that there’s nothing to worry about. They say the deal is nearly done, and they are making a lot of promises about how the deal will affect workers, the environment, and human rights. Promises – but people like you can’t see the actual deal.
For more than two years now, giant corporations have had an enormous amount of access to see the parts of the deal that might affect them and to give their views as negotiations progressed. But the doors stayed locked for the regular people whose jobs are on the line.
If most of the trade deal is good for the American economy, but there’s a provision hidden in the fine print that could help multinational corporations ship American jobs overseas or allow for watering down of environmental or labor rules, fast track would mean that Congress couldn’t write an amendment to fix it. It’s all or nothing.
Before we sign on to rush through a deal like that – no amendments, no delays, no ability to block a bad bill – the American people should get to see what’s in it.
Sherrod Brown has been leading this fight, and he points out that TPP isn’t classified military intelligence – it’s a trade agreement among 12 countries that control 40% of the world’s economy. A trade agreement that affects jobs, environmental regulations, and whether workers around the globe are treated humanely. It might even affect the new financial rules we put in place after the 2008 crisis. This trade agreement doesn’t matter to just the biggest corporations – it matters to all of us.
When giant corporations get to see the details and the American people don’t, we all lose. Let’s level the playing field: No vote on fast-tracking trade until the public can read the TPP deal.
We’ve all seen the tricks and traps that corporations hide in the fine print of contracts. We’ve all seen the provisions they slip into legislation to rig the game in their favor. Now just imagine what they have done working behind closed doors with TPP.
We can’t keep the American people in the dark.
Yeah, it's pretty impossible to argue with any of that.
Thoughts?
Thoughts? Yeah, I'm signing the petition. Ed Show has been covering this as well.
ReplyDeleteThoughts? Obama seems bent on ending his stellar Presidency much the way Clinton ended his, with NAFTA, the most economically damaging thing ever planted along our southern border. Warren is right; if the people can't know what's being done in their name, perhaps it shouldn't be done.
ReplyDeleteMy thoughts exactly!
DeleteI'm extremely disappointed.
ABSOLUTELY!
DeleteI've signed a similar petition (also too) and am alarmed that this will be even worse than NAFTA. It will give the foreign multinational companies rights superseding the laws of our own country, including those laws that protect us as consumers.
It's a bad deal, being done in the dark.
I just received an email from John McCain yesterday, and, as if I needed another reason to worry about the TPP, I now know that the man who can absolutely fuck up virtually every foreign policy issue is in favor of the TPP.
ReplyDeleteObama has a credibility problem (re: the TPP) of his own making. While the lawyers are still negotiating and slinging ink, no one can know if the final draft will be a good deal for the US or not. The ACA subsidy issue illustrates how critical even a small adjustment in wording can be catastrophic - intended or not. The TPP needs to be completed and carefully reviewed until we're satisfied we know what we're getting into. "Bend over so we can fast track the biggest trade deal the world has never seen" is such an absurd strategy that "absurd" seems inadequate to describe it. I'm going with Warren et al on this one.
Every SINGLE word in it needs to be reviewed and understood. Not the intent it is depicting, but WHAT it has written in it exactly.. Word for word. No Mr. President, you sir, might be the ONE who is wrong. We cannot as a country afford our childrens lives and futures on "trust me on this" Nope not on fast track on TPP.
DeleteAside from the if McCain is for it I'm against it aspect....I'd like to know why they trust Obama on this so much they'll fast track it but distrust him so much they want to destroy the Iran negotiations.
DeleteMy thoughts are that if I have to choose between Elizabeth Warren's position on the TPP and President Obama's position on the TPP, then I will go with Elizabeth Warren. She has credibility on this issue. The President simply doesn't.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Warren has already proved that she want me to be able to hold onto my own money...
ReplyDeleteThat gives her instant credibility IMHO...
NO FAST TRACK TPP!
Trouble is that Warren, Brown, etc have made some noise but not until it's nearly passed. Ed Schultz is the only one that has been harping on this, none of the other MSNBC hosts have said Boo until recently. I'm suspicious of these very late attempts to stick a finger in the dyke. Why didn't these senators come out the day they themselves were allowed to read the treaty but found out they couldn't let others read it?
ReplyDeleteI have to laugh every time I hear Levin and the wingers refer to Obama as a leftist. He is not. I am in favor of many of his policies like parts of Obamacare, but even Obamacare was a big fat present to the huge corporations that bet on and benefit from our diseases. I agree, no Fast Track TPP, but these gals/guys on their new white horses with their lances sure waited long enough to fight it.
I fully agree with Senator Warren. Just WHATDOES OUR GOVERNMENT TRY TO HIDE, that they deem it imperative that this agreement stay secret? Why do the Big Corporations have access to thedealings - but neither WE, THE PEOPLE, nor Congress gets to read it?
ReplyDeleteSomething is VERY FISHY in Washington DC, that the deal (as well as the one with Europe!) is more Top Secret than a military operation!
The President:
ReplyDelete“When people say this trade deal is bad for working families, they don't know what they're talking about,” he said. “I take that personally. My entire presidency has been about helping working families.”
We don't know what we are talking about BECAUSE THE DEAL IS BEING KEPT SECRET! ( except for was it wikileaks?).
Yeah. Here are my thoughts.
ReplyDeleteStop trying to draft this woman to run for president. She needs to stay right where she is doing exactly what she is doing.
She is the watchdog I was hoping Al Franken would turn out to be but never did. She and Bernie Sanders are my favorite senators. And no, I don't want either of them running for president.
Bingo! Comment of the century on this post, can't agree more.
DeleteSo, if I understand this correctly from what I've read, parts of the agreement can't be seen YET because it's still being negotiated. But the far left is just so sure that President Obama is doing it wrong, that they scream and fear-monger and attack him all over the place. As if President Obama would spend 6 years working to mend our economy and the middle class (and doing a pretty good job of it), only to turn right around and throw all that away with one trade agreement? Sounds like it's just another far-left case of the vapors because President Obama doesn't meet their purity standards. They don't care if the middle class is screwed or not, because if Obama doesn't do everything the way they want him to they'll gladly throw the whole country under the bus to "punish" him. This is just more hysteria from people who hate the President almost as much as the teabaggers do. I like Liz Warren, but I'm sick of people acting like she is perfect and can never be wrong. It's easy to scream at the President from the sidelines. If she has all the answers, maybe she should run, already.
ReplyDelete