By a one-vote margin, the US Senate passed “fast-track” authority, in June to expedite passage of the disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership deal, which will export beaucoup more of our country’s middle-class jobs. That’s the kind of pro-corporate stupidity the Republican Congress specializes in these days. But wait – here’s where it gets nutty: The key votes for fast track came from a baker’s dozen of Senate Democrats.
Fast track is a railroad job to enthrone global corporate power over us. It will allow the Obama administration to send the massive, 12-country trade scam to Congress for an up-or-down vote, with little debate and no amendments allowed. Details of this thing are being negotiated in strict secrecy between top government officials and top executives of some 500 global corporations. Workers, consumers, and all the rest of us commoners are shut out. The majority of Americans oppose this giveaway – so what’s with the 13 turncoat Dems?
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Not to worry, they say, trade benefits everyone! Do they think we have sucker wrappers around our heads? Americans know that these trade schemes make the superrich richer, while the incomes of practically everyone else go south. There’s still a chance to defeat the TPP, because a gritty, well organized populist coalition is rallying grassroots opposition to reject this raw deal. To join the fight, go to www.citizen.org/trade.
And don’t forget the 13 Democratic sell-outs. If any one of them had stood with the people on the fast track vote, we would’ve already derailed TPP. The 13 senators who said “Nuts to you” are: Michael Bennet (CO), Maria Cantwell (WA), Tom Carper (DE), Chris Coons (DE), Dianne Feinstein (CA), Heidi Heitkamp (ND), Tim Kaine (VA), Claire McCaskill (MO), Patty Murray (WA), Bill Nelson (FL), Jeanne Shaheen (NH), Mark Warner (VA), and Ron Wyden (OR).
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