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Obama Explains Why 'The Greatest Corporate Power Grab In History' Is "The Right Thing For America"
Authored by Barack Obama, Op-Ed at BloombergView.com,
As president, my top priority is to grow our economy and strengthen the middle class. When I took office, America was in the middle of the worst recession since the Great Depression -- but thanks to the hard work and resilience of the American people, our businesses have created 13.5 million jobs over the past 68 months, the longest streak of private-sector job creation in history. The unemployment rate has been cut nearly in half -- lower than it’s been in more than seven years. We have come back further and faster from recession than nearly every other advanced nation on Earth.
That’s real progress. But as any middle-class family will tell you, we have more to do. That’s why I believe the Trans-Pacific Partnership is so important. It’s a trade deal that helps working families get ahead.
At a time when 95 percent of our potential customers live outside our borders, this agreement will open up new markets to made-in-America goods and services. Today, exports support 11.7 million American jobs. Companies that sell their goods around the world tend to grow faster, hire more employees and pay higher salaries than companies that don’t. On average, export-supported jobs pay up to 18 percent more than other jobs.
These are good jobs -- and this agreement will lead to even more of them. It would eliminate more than 18,000 taxes that various countries put on made-in-America products. For instance, last year, we exported $89 billion in automotive products alone to TPP countries, many of which have soaring tariffs -- more than 70 percent in some cases -- on made-in-America products. Our farmers and ranchers, whose exports account for roughly 20 percent of all farm income, face similarly high tariffs. Thanks to the TPP, those taxes will drop drastically, most of them to zero. That means more U.S. exports supporting more higher-paying American jobs.
At a time when our workers too often face an unfair playing field, this agreement also includes the highest labor standards of any trade deal in history. Provisions protecting worker safety and prohibiting child labor make sure that businesses abroad play by the same kinds of rules we have here at home. Provisions protecting the environment and combating wildlife trafficking make sure that economic growth doesn’t come at the expense of the only planet we call home. And these commitments are enforceable -- meaning we can hold other countries accountable through trade sanctions if they don’t follow through. So, these tough new rules level the playing field, and when American workers have a fair chance to compete, I believe they’ll win every time.
I’ve said many times that the Trans-Pacific Partnership is the right thing for our economy, for working Americans and for our middle class. But I’m not asking you to take my word for it. Instead, I’ve posted the agreement online. If you build cars in places such as Detroit, you can see for yourself how your products will have a better shot of hitting the road in places such as Japan. If you’re a farmer or rancher, you’ll see how your products will face fewer barriers abroad. If you’re a small-business owner, you’ll see how this agreement will mean less paperwork and less red tape.
Along with the text of the agreement, we've posted detailed materials to help explain it. It’s an unprecedented degree of transparency -- and it’s the right thing to do. Not every American will support this deal, and neither will every member of Congress. But I believe that in the end, the American people will see that it is a win for our workers, our businesses and our middle class. And I expect that, after the American people and Congress have an opportunity for months of careful review and consultation, Congress will approve it, and I’ll have the chance to sign it into law.
Together, we’ve overcome enormous obstacles over the past seven years. We’ve taken an economy that was in free fall and returned it to steady growth and job creation. And we’ve put ourselves in a position to restore America’s promise not only now, but for decades to come. That’s what I believe this agreement will help us do.
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And in the other corner.. Chris Hedges explains why ObamaTrade is "The most brazen corporate power grab in American history"
The release Thursday of the 5,544-page text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership—a trade and investment agreement involving 12 countries comprising nearly 40 percent of global output—confirms what even its most apocalyptic critics feared.
“The TPP, along with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and NAFTA [North American Free Trade Agreement], is the most brazen corporate power grab in American history,” Ralph Nader told me when I reached him by phone in Washington, D.C. “It allows corporations to bypass our three branches of government to impose enforceable sanctions by secret tribunals. These tribunals can declare our labor, consumer and environmental protections [to be] unlawful, non-tariff barriers subject to fines for noncompliance. The TPP establishes a transnational, autocratic system of enforceable governance in defiance of our domestic laws.”
The TPP is part of a triad of trade agreements that includes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA). TiSA, by calling for the privatization of all public services, is a mortal threat to the viability of the U.S. Postal Service, public education and other government-run enterprises and utilities; together these operations make up 80 percent of the U.S. economy. The TTIP and TiSA are still in the negotiation phase. They will follow on the heels of the TPP and are likely to go before Congress in 2017.
These three agreements solidify the creeping corporate coup d’état along with the final evisceration of national sovereignty. Citizens will be forced to give up control of their destiny and will be stripped of the ability to protect themselves from corporate predators, safeguard the ecosystem and find redress and justice in our now anemic and often dysfunctional democratic institutions. The agreements—filled with jargon, convoluted technical, trade and financial terms, legalese, fine print and obtuse phrasing—can be summed up in two words: corporate enslavement.
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If there is no sustained popular uprising to prevent the passage of the TPP in Congress this spring we will be shackled by corporate power. Wages will decline. Working conditions will deteriorate. Unemployment will rise. Our few remaining rights will be revoked. The assault on the ecosystem will be accelerated. Banks and global speculation will be beyond oversight or control. Food safety standards and regulations will be jettisoned. Public services ranging from Medicare and Medicaid to the post office and public education will be abolished or dramatically slashed and taken over by for-profit corporations. Prices for basic commodities, including pharmaceuticals, will skyrocket. Social assistance programs will be drastically scaled back or terminated. And countries that have public health care systems, such as Canada and Australia, that are in the agreement will probably see their public health systems collapse under corporate assault. Corporations will be empowered to hold a wide variety of patents, including over plants and animals, turning basic necessities and the natural world into marketable products. And, just to make sure corporations extract every pound of flesh, any public law interpreted by corporations as impedingprojected profit, even a law designed to protect the environment or consumers, will be subject to challenge in an entity called the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) section. The ISDS, bolstered and expanded under the TPP, will see corporations paid massive sums in compensation from offending governments for impeding their “right” to further swell their bank accounts. Corporate profit effectively will replace the common good.
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There is more than enough evidence from past trade agreements to indicate where the TPP—often called “NAFTA on steroids”—will lead. It is part of the inexorable march by corporations to wrest from us the ability to use government to defend the public and to build social and political organizations that promote the common good. Our corporate masters seek to turn the natural world and human beings into malleable commodities that will be used and exploited until exhaustion or collapse. Trade agreements are the tools being used to achieve this subjugation. The only response left is open, sustained and defiant popular revolt.
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That Obama passed away Nov 5, 2008.
Obama needs to be impeached immediately followed by his trial and execution for treason. Following that we need a military coup in which every member of Congress along with the executive and Supreme Court are also tried and executed for treason. Long live the USSA!
treason and treachery is rewarded in the USSA, sound principles, integrity and ethics are outsourced
The pace and depth of power-grabs have markedly accelerated in the last handful of years.
When will people conclude that the object of these people's desire is not the welfare of the population, but absolute power for themselves?
"If you’re a small-business owner, you’ll see how this agreement will mean less paperwork and less red tape. "
...therefore solving the problem that government created. Brilliant.
"If you have a small business you'll have less paperwork" LOL.
Sure, you'll definitely have less paperwork....because your small business will be destroyed.
What's the definition of truth? - It's the opposite of any and everything these sociopaths say.
I think all the talk about this trade agreement is pretty much hot air. OK, I've said it, so let the down-votes ensue.
Here's the deal, though. If TPP and other trade deals are shifts of power from government to corporations, I'm for it. In fact, I think I'll incorporate, so I can take advantage of the trade agreement.
For the average Jane or Joe, this bill is shit. I agree. It's not in America's best interests, but, what the fuck kind of power do people have these days, or, even in days past, how much power did people have over their government and/or corporations?
Answer: NONE NOW and NONE ever. So, it's always the same, for everyone. Comply or not. It's still America, and we have a long history of defying stupid laws, so, certainly, these new trade deals can be worked around by people with a willingness to do so.
Our country is still pretty good. Not great, not what we were 50 years ago, but still, better than most places. People who want a decent life can still achieve that through hard work and, nowadays, a good degree of skepticism, cheating and use of the tax laws against their intended purposes.
Anyone who wants to follow Ralph Nader and go out and protest, be my guest. It will achieve nothing. What works, and always has worked in America, is stone-cold resistance. You either comply and become a slave or, as one poster above mentioned, "Go Galt" and say, fuck you, fine me, jail me, sue me.
Over the years, I've learned from personal experience that the government can only extort from you as much as you allow. The same goes for corporations. Everyone can be bribed. Everyone has their price to look the other way. Just don't make many waves and all this shit slides downhill.
Now, back to work, serfs. My motto: I'm taking the day off. Works for me.
--What works, and always has worked in America, is stone-cold resistance. You either comply and become a slave or, as one poster above mentioned, "Go Galt" and say, fuck you, fine me, jail me, sue me.--
I'm sympathetic to what you are saying, to a degree. Problem is.....how does one go about doing this, incurring the significant risk inherent in doing so in 2015? TPTB....and their minions all the way down to your local county gubbermint-schlubs....will GLADLY fine, jail and sue you. No sweat of their backs, no care in the world.
The only resistance my layman's mind can even suggest might be effective....is the kind our forefathers eventually decided upon, EN MASSE.*
*'en masse' being a very-much needed critical mass of @ 10-15% of the total population working simultaneously
The first thing to do when building...
...is to clear the ground of whatever was there before.
It is US they want to clear away.
When will we decide it is THEM that must go?
The Pandering Pimp in Chief should write some more op-ed pieces, run full page ads and take tv time to promote this ObammyTrade some more, especially on the heels of that other piece of his legacy, ObammyCare...
They could even do an infomercial, " Hi! Do you know me? I'm your President, The Pandering Pimp..."
Brought to you by Goldfed Sucks, enslaving America, one serf at a time...
President Obama has been a truly great president for the average working man. If he says it's good then it's good. Only a sick Nazi racist would disagree and they only disagree with the president because he's black. It's RACIST to oppose the TPP or anything else President Obama has been pushing for such as gun bans and confiscation. You don't really want to be RACIST do you? Let's all get on board and throw away our guns and open up our borders. Let's make sure we have the right opinions and aren't being disgusting Nazis.
I will stay racist!
This statement triggers me.
I am now officially upset.
Someone will PAY.
*uncontrolled blubbering*
Obama is fucking nuts.
Anyone here actually familiar with this TPP agreement ?
It looks like it is implemented over a 20 year period - being broken out into 'staging categories'.
I can't find a definition of those categories.
"If you build cars in places such as Detroit, you can see for yourself how your products will have a better shot of hitting the road in places such as Japan." Is Obama on drugs? Who believes this shit?
Are cars still being made in Detroit?
Are cars still being made in Detroit?
Contrary to conventional wisdom the auto industry is still alive in Detroit and the surrounding suburbs. Many different models of cars and trucks from all three auto manufacturers are being built in southeast Michigan.
BULLISH!!!
nothing but a scam to bring in more illegal immigrants.
Well they'd be legal, wouldn't they? You mean to give American jobs to cheap foreign labor.
Hourly wages in Vietman are 35 cents per hour....and they will compete on an equal footing with US labour....Your president is a liar and a fool....
TPP needs to be scraped entirely...it will destroy what is left of the middle class; soverignty; and any rule of law.....
The Beltway does not represent the interests of the people that put them in office..Remove them.
Gee whiz, Wally, if the TPP is so great, why was it such a big secret?
Yep, And if ObamaCare is so great why threaten folks with prison and fines for not signing up? Your representatives don't represent you any longer. The US is, without question, under a single party system now. The usual checks and balances afforded to the citizen by our Constitution has been removed.
Welcome to your "fundamental transformation of America"
Because if you knew how great it was for America, you might kill yourself from joy.
It's for your own safety.
"You didn't build that"
gotta laugh at this... and with every new Trade agreement passed, we build less and less here. Thanks asshole
Anyone championing NAFTA has an ulterior motive then improving the domestic labour market. If one was to research the impact of that particular agreement they would find its only benefactor was corporations.
Some examples of actions enabled with NAFTA:
- corporations empowered to sue government for infringing on profitability(environment, public safety issues inc.)
- corporations also encouraged to move manufacturing to more accessible labour markets
- increased global competition in domestic markets for domestic product
- one also shouldn't forget a specific benefactor of increased "global trade" as all trade deals are still settled in USD
If they want to talk about increasing free trade, how about we change the discussion to encouraging individual free trade. Imagine allowing the citizens to conduct FREE TRADE.
- Enable individuals to market skills and products without traditional border restrictions
- Allow individuals to choose the means and appropriation of tax contributions
- Use import/export control to increase competitiveness of domestic product and discourage outsourcing for supposedly domestic manufacturing.
Sadly at the end of the day things will continue on the path of globalization simply because the paradigm of unfettered corporate profit growth can only continue though the subjugation of the population.
Time for a new paradigm, and it starts in the roots of your grass!
http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/
Nice resource!!
Obama letter is total BS. Total transparency would be somehting like this ...
From Obozo to the world, I know you are struggling with ZIRP but we need to keep interest rates at zero so our corporations can borrow cheap (merging to create economies of scale) to increase global domination.
Finding new markets like Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Lybia, Ukraine (tricky I know but blowing up countries is a fast track to our corporations entry as we need to grease the local policial wheels first) and the Far East just means we keep growing so share prices can increase which my elitiest buddies will appreciate.
See, my buddies borrow at ZIRP to buy even more stocks so need that growth to keep share prices rising which makes them even richer. We need to keep GDP increasing.
See, we really are not growing. That's our dirtly little secret. So we do clever little things like adding hookers and blow to GDP and the millions of refugees entering your countries is all about increasing GDP as well.
In the USSA, we are doing our part by adding millions of illegal Mexicans.
Grow, grow, grow is all you need to know as share prices are calculated on expected Growth.
So I say, keep the ponzi plates a spinning as long as possible to enable my rich buddies to transfer as much wealth, from you the lower and middle classes, before the whole house of cards implodes.
Thanks for your support.
Would someone, anyone who works in the Whitehouse just DO THE RIGHT THING!!!!!
TPP is cover for the complete bankruptcy of the USA. O'Bummer knows America is destroyed financially, but he wants you to think you still have a chance at a life in this world. Bottom line is that you are closer to death than you have ever been in your life as a serf to billionaires, and their cronies.
Arm yourselves to the teeth because the entire world is going to be at war within months. And don't expect an organized revolt when the man has already organized a counter-revolt.
Up yours, America.
Orwell says it is the exact opposite of what Obama wrote.
While I agree with Nader, would anyone miss the USPS?
OK, Obama probably believes this BS, but he's an idiot.
What's the excuse for the people asking for this crap, demanding it?
Most politicians are idiots, so I don't hold Obama as a special case. Don't at least half the Republican presidential candidates also favor this thing? Has Mr. Trump given his opinion on it yet?
The man does not have an identity or he has an identity crisis. He was rejected by his parents, pick up by a pedophile and dressed as "Community Organizer" and sold himself to the devil. He is just a "yes" boy, not a man. If you don't believe we, as a nation, are under divine judgment, then consider who is the president and his name, for God has a sense of humor. He laughs at the calamity of the ungrateful and unregenerate and sets an everlasting love on those who set themselves for who they are and God for who He is.
Trump's opinion http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/11/09/exclusive-donald-trump-obamas-trans-pacific-free-trade-deal-insanity/
"If you’re a small-business owner, you’ll see how this agreement will mean less paperwork and less red tape."
Because you will be put out of business, resulting in no paperwork and no red tape.
use government to defend the public and to build social and political organizations that promote the common good
Chris Hedges and his marxist crap can go fuck his own face as well. No Chris, we don't need these assholes politicians making more gov programs for the "common good". We need gov to get out of our way and out of our lives.
Its time that we face the truth. Banks and Corporations run this world.
"We’ve taken an economy that was in free fall and returned it to steady growth and job creation"
An economy in free fall, rebounds on its own, once it hits a natural bottom. See recession of 1921. An economy in free fall lead to the roaring 20's.
Obama's was the worst recovery since the Great Depression. It was built on financial gimmicks, creating an illusion. The illusion is unraveling.
What recovery I say?
It's about the power of "Excess Scoring" of US Consumers and the White House put their stamp of approval right on it. As long as some corporation can say they are contributing data to some government agency, they can continue to mine and sell our data. I picked up on this a few weeks ago and there's no stopping it.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/09/excess-scoring-of-us-consumers-us.html
When you take data and put it into a series of queries that will by a "score" deny you access and you have no access to the software and algorithms that do this, everyone takes the bullshit data for being accurate and real.
And if you have not seen the Chinese Citizen Score model, you can take a look as I outlined how we already have some if it in the US, lots in healthcare, especially the medication prediction adherence scores. If they can't find enough data on you with prescriptions, you just default to non compliant in that arena.
http://ducknetweb.blogspot.com/2015/10/citizen-score-in-china-huge-warning-for.html
It is WAY past bedtime for Bonzo.
It's all good for the American people and that's why the full text is a secret for the next 30 years.
It's all clear now...
TelePrompter quote: "it’s the right thing to do for our economy, for working Americans and for our middle class"
He means what he is saying, but what does he actually mean by what he said. I'll answer that, since misery loves company, we will add the American Middle-class to the miserable. See, it is the right thing to do when the mission is to divide and to conquer.
"It is good for all ya folks as long as it ain't for my folk" - the "TelePrompter in Chief".
Obama obviousy loves the smell of his own farts a little too much.
The People can't live on lies. Their hunger will compel them to do whatever they must to take care of their children, but this is not understood by .001%.
or they do understand and know people will work 80 week for 2.50hr rather then kick the shit out of the boss and live in his house.
Talking of middle class. Fuck him and his ilk. This trade agreement makes sure to consolidate more power to the top.
Who is this 'middle class' you speak of? I know of no such thing - surely you speak of something that existed in a time long ago.
STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!
STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!
3 months of no work nation wide should show who's really incharge. Pay no bills, help your neighbor with food and water (local govt or you'll be replaced too). Setup a replacment government and money while not working.
Obummer has to earn his future crony $500,000.00+ speaking fee engagements...
No TPP = No "Just Us" funded, extremely lucrative, Obummer retirement plan.
The Banana Republic propaganda continues… the “Truth” is whatever “Just Us” tells their minions to continually rephrase and repeat. lol
Zero Confidence.
Socialism destroys real capitalism. Cronyism (often confused with capitalism by socialists) converts capitalism into a feudal/fascist cancer. TPP is a metastasis of the cancer of cronyism. The world has economic cancer, it has metastasized, the prognosis us not good for wealth creation in our lifetimes, plan accordingly.
Obama is the House Nigger of the Globalist Cleptocracy.
Bow down to your demonic alien god.
Low or no taxes.
With low or no income it's doable.
Fuck this gay lawn jockey. When will enough be enough, America? We all sat around wringing our hands, getting our panties in a wad while slick willie crammed NAFTA down our throats and look how well that worked out for us. Now we have this, 'NAFTA on steroids', and one should not have to ask, but how do you think this will work out for us? If all we do right now, today, is what we have been doing, i.e. sitting around and complaining about it, then we deserve what we get. Lets get together and put a stop to this crap, NOW!
The next step of the US Deep State on the way to Elysium.
The whole TPP is the perfect fire break for everyone.
You will be forced to pick a side.
You are either for The Corporate model of fascism or you are for the Human Spirit and democracy.
Knowing the stakes, you have to finally confront your Congressional "representatives" and their Staffs on a personal level.
You have to compel these people to take a stand for Human Rights.
A Corporation IS NOT a Human Being.
After the vote there will be no excuses.
There will be no going back for anybody.
Do you know where your representatives office is?
Seek it out.
Look those people in the eye. Rattle them up in a direct but non-violent way.
Show up in numbers - strength in numbers.
Find out where they live and mail them your impassioned demands to their homes.
Reach out and touch them.
TPP has 6000 pages of unreleased supporting documents that interpret the trade treaty. It can mean anything thing they want.
I tried to read the TPP text posted on-line. You have got to be shitting me. Internal cross-references make it impossible. I have written policy stuff and the TPP is over the top in terms of purposeful confusion. This is a piece of code that needs a decompiler. IE: Para 3 applies to Para 4 as defined in Para 6 under conditions of Para 7. LOL.
I will try again. Obama says read this? What a dumb fuck. I doubt he can rsad this.
Why are the Repugs backing BO on this corporate takeover? I know why, and so do you. Follow the money.
The only workable option for the USA is to disband itself from all FTAs and raise Tariffs. If Foreigners want to sell their wares and services here, they'll just have to set up Plants and Offices here. Considering all the Privacy/Data/Cybercrime issues cropping up, this should have been a No-Brainer.
Sorry; but as I said before, the USA is at or near the "Top of the Totem Pole" wrt Salaries and Competencies on many an Industry.
We have to protect the Industrial Base. The Financier/Rentier Sector will have to be curtailed from sticking their fingers into everything - jockeying up Prices and taking advantage of Credit Bubbles and Crashes.
The People will need to vote in Candidate who've refused Corporate Donors. An example of an Independently Wealthy Candidate who could have succeeded for the POTUS run "for the betterment of the Country as a whole" was Ross Perot. As he claimed during his lectures and debates, he had already made more money for himself; and wanted the opportunities there for the Citizenry.