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The Center for American Progress reports
Democrats in the House dealt a stunning blow to the administration's trade agenda on [June 12], just hours after President Barack Obama personally lobbied lawmakers to grant him authority to negotiate several global trade deals that Congress could vote on without amending.
In the week leading up to Friday's vote, House leadership expressed optimism that it could muscle through the so-called Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), despite loud objections from most Democrats and conservative Republicans. Under the rules, the House had to pass: 1) a provision to aid workers displaced by foreign imports--Trade Assistance Authority or TAA and 2) the TPA. But Democrats, who have historically supported providing federal assistance to workers displaced by trade agreements, led a campaign to torpedo the TAA in order to kill the full bill. The TAA failed in a vote of 302 -126 and the TPA passed 219-211 (with 28 Democratic votes), meaning the overall measure will not advance to the president's desk.
House leaders promised on Friday to bring both back for a vote early next week. The Senate approved the full package earlier this month.
[...]Democrats and their allies in the labor movement have objected to the secrecy surrounding the TPP negotiations and various provisions said to be included in the deal. One section allows companies to take governments before an arbitration tribunal and argue that certain regulations interfere with their bottom line. Another would would delay the introduction of generic versions of life-saving pharmaceuticals. Progressives have also criticized the deal for failing to adequately enforce labor and environmental standards and prohibit the Pacific Area countries from manipulating their currencies.
Additional coverage at The New York Times , The Washington Post , pbs.org, and C-SPAN.
Original Submission
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:26AM
Well now, isn't that convenient! Blatant leftism somehow "isn't leftism" when it's an obvious failure.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by K_benzoate on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:38AM
None of the nations you listed are examples of liberal democracy, so they simply aren't meaningful to this discussion. I'd love to hear how you can explain otherwise. I'm not interested in talking about totalitarian/authoritarian dictatorships because I think we can all agree that those are all bad, no matter if they are left or right wing. We can just dispense with that. It's a given. We all agree that any government that brutalizes the population or denies fundamental rights is bad. Notice I'm not bringing up any right wing dictatorships [wikipedia.org] and claiming they count as failures of conservatism. That would be irrelevant to the discussion too.
Not all left-wing ideas or governments are associated with communism. Not all right-wing ideas or governments are fascist. Do you not have the capacity for this nuance, or are you being intentionally disingenuous?
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:44AM
"Disingenuous"? You're at the wrong site, pal. The site you're looking for is Hacker News [ycombinator.com]. That's pretty much the only word they know how to use over there.
(Score: 2) by K_benzoate on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:48AM
I went there a few times but there were too many insufferable social justice warriors. I hate politically correct culture.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:54AM
If you hate social justice and political correctness, then why do you use their terminology? "Disingenuous" is one of the terms they use most frequently against their opponents.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by K_benzoate on Sunday June 14 2015, @03:59AM
Because typing, "pretending to misunderstand a situation or your interlocutor's arguments in order to build a straw man argument to fool bystanders" every time gets tedious.
Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @04:07AM
Instead of focusing on the topic at hand, you've started launching personal attacks against the others in the discussion.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @10:54PM
By their vocabulary shall ye know them? News flash, pal: disingenuous is common enough vocabulary that it means squat in determining the agenda of your debating opponent. Unless, of course, you are trying to disingenuously construct a straw man ad hominem attack on their character.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @01:38PM
There is a better correlation between percentage of blacks in a nation and that nation's well-being, than any left-wing/right-wing dichotomy.
The previously mentioned Cambodia for example, is light-years ahead of the most liberal democracies in sub-Saharan Africa. Haiti? Shares half the fucking island with the Dominican Republic. The poorest American states with the highest obesity rates, lowest literacy, and income are the states with the highest percentage of blacks (along the south). Adjust for race, and these numbers suddenly trend towards the mean.
Socialism (or socialist systems) in Europe and in Asia proper work because of the people. Now that the hordes from Africa and the middle-East have found a free gold-mine, these systems are starting to buckle.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday June 16 2015, @10:16PM
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 14 2015, @05:20PM
Well now, isn't that convenient! Blatant leftism somehow "isn't leftism" when it's an obvious failure.
Well, you've at least proved blatant ignorance is still blatant ignorance.