White House Announces Deal With Congress to Extend Trade Agreements

[Divernan]

Source: New York Times

Breaking News Alert
The New York Times
Tuesday, June 28, 2011 -- 5:23 PM EDT
-----

White House Announces Deal With Congress to Extend Trade Agreements

The White House said Tuesday that it had reached a deal with Congress to allow free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama to move forward after months of delay.

The deal includes funding through 2013 for a program that provides benefits, including cash payments, to workers whose jobs are shipped overseas. The administration had refused to submit the agreements to Congress until Republicans agreed to extend the program, known as trade adjustment assistance.

Read More:
http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/?emc=na

---

So it is acknowledged that more American jobs will be shipped overseas, since there is a provision including cash payments to US workers who lose jobs. Curious to hear how much the cash payments will be and for how long.

[DJ13]

1. Oh look, another "jobs program"

for an outside country.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Finally I can stop holding my breath!

Right at the top of my list of stuff I wanted to see done: More Job Sucking "Free" Trade Agreements.

[OhioChick]

67. Pretty sickening, huh? n/t

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Divernan]

4. Oh great! Obama gave majority GOP a separate vote on payout to US workers!

"Republicans issued statements that applauded the White House for moving forward with the trade deals, but said that worker benefits should be considered as a separate piece of legislation. The agreement would grant Republicans a vote on that issue; in turn, Republicans would agree to let the legislation move toward a final vote even if they lose.

“T.A.A. should move through the Congress on its own merit and should stand up to rigorous Senate debate,” Orrin Hatch, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, said in a statement."

Like that will stand a chance in hell! Of course the GOP agreed to "let the legislation move toward a final vote even if they (the GOP) lose on blocking payouts to US workers." The GOP already has counted their votes in both chambers and KNOW they can defeat the payout.

[arcane1]

6. Indeed, THAT is what they think needs "rigorous Senate debate"

I am starting to hate these people to an extent that is bad for my health :mad:

[Imajika]

23. IF the GOP gets a separate vote on the TAA...

..that means it would have to pass the House and Senate as its own standalone bill. The Republican House will simply vote against it, so this would mean the TAA piece is dead.

However reading this article it is not clear to me that the TAA portion is actually pulled from the trade bills. It only says the Republicans want that to happen.

I may just not have all the information though.

[Divernan]

27. Obama GAVE the GOP a separate vote.

That is clearly stated in the New York Times report, and cited in my post:

"Republicans issued statements that applauded the White House for moving forward with the trade deals, but said that worker benefits should be considered as a separate piece of legislation. THE AGREEMENT WOULD GRANT REPUBLICANS A VOTE ON THAT ISSUE; IN TURN, REPUBLICANS WOULD AGREE TO LET THE LEGISLATION MOVE TOWARD A FINAL VOTE EVEN IF THEY(the GOP) LOSE"
(i.e., even if the GOP loses in their effort to deny worker benefits).

Now, how much of a political neophyte would you have to be to think that the GOP leadership didn't already have their ducks in a row, i.e., their votes all lined up in the House, before they agreed to this one-sided deal?

It's all about counting the votes BEFORE legislation is brought to the floor.

[Imajika]

29. I'm sorry, I've read this article like 5 times...

...and do not see what you quoted in the article.

Your link to the story takes me to the NY Times front page, not to a specific article.

Here is the link to the article I found on the NY Times dated today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/business/29trade.html?hp

Nowhere in that article does it say the TAA gets a separate vote, only that the Republicans wanted it that way.

Here is what the article says:

"The deal includes financing through 2013 for a program that provides benefits, including cash payments, to workers whose jobs are shipped overseas. The administration had refused to submit the agreements to Congress until Republicans agreed to extend the program, known as trade adjustment assistance, or T.A.A."

"Republicans issued statements that applauded the White House for moving forward with the trade deals, but said that worker benefits should be considered as a separate piece of legislation."

Now I could just be having trouble with your link or otherwise just not reading the article properly, but I still don't see where the TAA is a standalone piece. Also, if the TAA piece is an amendment to be attached to the trade deals rather than a completely separate bill, it could still mean the Republicans in the Senate get to vote against the TAA but agree if they lose they won't try to block the larger trade bill.

[Divernan]

37. Here's the latest I found on this expanding story.

The Times keeps updating it's article on this. But at one point, their report did include the language which I quoted.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/29/business/29trade.html?hp

“We have long said that T.A.A. — even this scaled-back version — should be dealt with separately from the trade agreements, and that is how we expect to proceed,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, an Ohio Republican, referring to the worker benefit program, Trade Adjustment Assistance.

Haggling over the modest and obscure benefits program had tied up the trade pacts for months, pitting Democrats concerned about the impact of competition on American workers against Republicans eager to increase foreign trade but loath to increase federal spending on another aid program.

But the deal does not assure that Congress will pass the pacts, which are crucial ingredients in the Obama administration’s recipe for reinvigorating economic growth. Indeed, Republicans quickly said they would continue to insist that the benefits program be considered separately from the trade agreements, a condition Democrats described as unacceptable.

The Obama administration, which had maintained for weeks that it would not submit the trade pacts to Congress until the deadlock was resolved, by Tuesday night found itself defending its new deal as an important step that might lead to a complete resolution."
(end of quotes)

Frankly, I don't see how an already scaled back, de minimis worker benefit program is going to help American men and women who will lose high-paying jobs with good benefits. As posted elsewhere on this thread (post 28), the previous incarnation of the TAA program was underfunded and often unavailable.

[arcane1]

5. "cash payments, to workers whose jobs are shipped overseas"????

How about penalties for shipping jobs overseas??????????????


:wtf:

[Divernan]

7. Obama caved & gave GOP the opportunity to vote down the cash payments.

Good negotiators - the GOP. Always smart to give away something you know the other side can never collect on.

[arcane1]

9. Gods forbid that TAA be part of damned deal

now we get to sit back and trust the repubs to do the right thing for once.

*sigh*

[awoke_in_2003]

14. They (R's)...

always seem to be able to bend us over easily enough.

[No Elephants]

47. Especially when we want to be bent over.

[Divernan]

8. 92 views & only 4 recs? Some folks trying to keep this off the Greatest Page?

[arcane1]

10. Indeed, the number has dropped a bit over the past few minutes n/t

[Divernan]

15. Guess they can't defend him with words, just unrecs.

[emilyg]

44. I'll rec.

[Lionessa]

12. Yep, seems they aren't so proud of him afterall. Otherwise they'd be

rec'ing his "success".

[awoke_in_2003]

16. I R'ed it...

and predict the R's will outweigh the UR's

[Divernan]

18. Yeah, it usually takes about 45 minutes.

[awoke_in_2003]

19. Yeah...

some may abuse the unrec, but good stuff floats to the top eventually.

[The Big Vetolski]

11. "Capitalist bastards."

from the immortal movie, "Harry and Tonto."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z17mP2nGBQ

[dennis4868]

13. Good News!

Thank you Obama again! The deal includes funding through 2013 for a program that provides benefits, including cash payments, to workers whose jobs are shipped overseas.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

21. And what happens when that funding runs out?

And what happens if there are no FUCKING JOBS FOR THEM TO GET once training has ended? And what if those new jobs don't offer the same wages or benefits the old jobs did??

The cheering-leading of this policy on Democratic Underground makes me gag.

[alsame]

25. You're kidding, right? Jobs being shipped overseas now

qualifies as 'good news'?

[NorthCarolina]

26. That's the best your crew has?

:rofl:

We're extending the trade agreements that are responsible for sending all your jobs overseas, but we'll make it good by giving you a wee bit of cash to ease your pain.

Good grief.... :eyes:

I have to believe that you were just wing'in it alone on that one.

[Fuddnik]

28. TAA is an underfunded scam.

I applied in March, a few years ago. Got a letter saying the program ran out of funds in April, but to re-apply the following year. I moved to Florida in the mean time and re-applied, but they gave the money to the states as part of block grants, and Jeb Bush decided not to fund the program, but to use the money to pay for tax cuts for corporations, to "create jobs" instead.

So much for "Good News".

If Obama wants to be thanked for something, stop signing these job killing trade agreements.

[Divernan]

34. Thank you for that real world information about TAA.

[No Elephants]

48. LOL!

[Lorien]

58. Um, we'd rather have the jobs

but perhaps you wouldn't understand that if your income comes from capital gains.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

17. Thank you, President Obama!

Another job well done! :puke:

My disgust with this man is reaching Jr. levels and becoming hard for me to deal with. :mad:

[alarimer]

52. Unlike Bush, though, Obama folds like a cheap suit every single time.

With Democratic collusion of course. The Dems sold us out under Bush and they have the perfect leader now in Obama to sell us out even more.

[EFerrari]

60. Colombia is the reason Libya is bullshit.

The biggest mass grave in Latin America is in Colombia. It was filled recently and by the military then led by the now president of Colombia.

But the State Department seems unconcerned with that MASSACRE and signed off on Colombia's human rights performance so this trade deal could be made.

Colombia has the second highest number of internally displaced people IN THE WORLD. After Sudan, iirc.

And I bet all the people calling for Gaddafi's head can't even name the president of Colombia.

[Bacchus39]

62. Santos, and you are wrong on all your other points too n/t

s

[EFerrari]

64. I wasn't speaking to you or of you but thanks for weighing in.

[totodeinhere]

20. K&R

[Divernan]

22. TAA is effectively a "job burial insurance program"

Public Citizen’s Lori Wallach, who follows trade issues closely, excoriated the deal:

"For most Americans, what’s newsworthy is not that the administration is pushing Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA), which effectively is a job burial insurance program, but that pushing a deal on TAA is being used as political cover to move more NAFTA-style trade agreements that will kill more American jobs in the first place, especially given our high unemployment rates <...>

The point that’s gotten lost in all this wrangling over TAA is that the three leftover Bush trade deals are bad in and of themselves. Even an official government study finds that the Korea deal will increase our trade deficit, and we know up front that it will kill jobs and undermine our national security. The Colombia deal will eliminate any leverage the U.S. has to combat the forced displacements and murders of unionists, Afro-Colombians, human rights defenders and others – problems that have gotten worse since this deal was signed in 2007. The Panama deal will make it harder for the U.S. government to penalize tax-dodging multinational corporations. The supplemental deal on autos for Korea, the labor “Action Plan” for Colombia, and the tax information exchange agreement for Panama are all toothless and do nothing to alleviate the aforementioned problems, as Public Citizen has extensively documented. They were all part of a political-cover kabuki dance."




More: http://news.firedoglake.com/2011/06/28/obamagop-trade-d... /

[Marrah_G]

24. sigh

The hits just keep on coming.

[JJW]

30. Well he's got to raise a billion dollars from rich folk

who desire slave labor rates off shore with tax free profits.

Shame on you, Barack Obama.

[Populist_Prole]

31. GRRRRRRR!!!!

K&R

[Doctor_J]

32. Is there any doubt left at this point how the "president" will handle the tax cuts

I'll bet he's already given in, and is just waiting to announce it.

[Divernan]

33. The question is how much else he'll give away with continuing the tax cuts.

I'm expecting something like, "Well, the GOP was threatening to raise the SS retirement age to 87, so I HAD to give up taking away the corporate and rich folks' tax cuts, and then the GOP gave in if I also agreed to raise the retirement age to 85."

[JJW]

35. Can't imagine a 2nd term

in which he has no incentive to fight, at all. Might as well re-elect another Bush.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

36. It's been said many times before this, but when it applies so well......

If you're not angry....you're not paying attention!!

When I think about how many jobs from this small area of PA have been lost to Mexico and Asia, this latest betrayal is pretty damn hard to ignore.

A word of warning to the rest of the country; be prepared to accept that the only jobs available will be part time, low wage and no benefits provided retail and food service jobs.

Is this a great freaking country or what?????????

Not anymore it's not.

:argh:

[pampango]

38. Don't be goin' "European" on us now, Barack. Smoot and Hawley were the real progressives.

Just because Germany and France can compete with South Korea doesn't mean that we can.

[Odin2005]

39. Epic Obama FAIL.

[DJ13]

41. Trade Fail

[Odin2005]

43. LOL!

[peace4ever]

40. thats what american presidents get paid to do.

quell surprise :faint:

[alp227]

42. Ross Perot warned us back in 1992...

and I can't wait to hear what Thom Hartmann has to say about this tomorrow. Once again, Obama has caved in to big business just like the past several...how many?...presidential administrations. How's that change comin' for ya? I don't think that Michele Bachamnn et al are gonna touch free trade either.

[defendandprotect]

45. Thanks, Obama -- !! Never again!!

[rabs]

46. In the case of Colombia, bad bad bad

Someone should tell Obama that in ...

... Colombia in 2010

-- 51 trade unionists assassinated, seven disappeared.
-- 29 were teachers
-- 2,857 unionists murdered in past 25 years.
-- since Aug. 2010, when President Juan Manuel Santos took over, 20 unionists killed, three were disappeared, seven others survived attacks.
-- 95 percent of the crimes remain unsolved.
-- Colombia has been and still is the most dangerous country in the world for unionists.

Source: Colombian Escuela Nacional Sindical (Union organization). Figures published in March of 2011.

[No Elephants]

49. Let's have more DLC, New Democrat, Third Way, No Labels

Yip frickin' pee and whooptie frickin' do.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

50. Another 159,000++ jobs gone - thank you very little

And fuck you very much, Obama.

[fasttense]

51. Oh goody, more jobs shipped overseas

in the middle of the worst recession in history. Just what we need to insure we never dig out of this economic hole.

[somone]

53. Helluva job

[robcon]

54. Great news. Trade agreements are the best source of economic growth and peace among nations.

We should have 'real' free trade with the whole world.

[Lorien]

57. You forgot the

:sarcasm:

Or you need to read "confessions of an economic hitman" and get out a bit more.

[pampango]

63. Works well for the European continent. Peaceful and prosperous like never before.

FDR was a proponent of trade agreements after WWII to keep the world from falling back into trade/tariff wars and eventually real war.

[Divernan]

66. Peaceful, yes. Prosperous, not so much, i.e, Greece, Ireland, etc.

[pampango]

68. While there's talk of Greece and Ireland dropping the euro, but not of withdrawing from the EU.

Even the economic and social turmoil in Greece, Ireland and some other EU countries hasn't shaken people's commitment to open borders to people and goods on the continent. That may be because they know how little "prosperity" there was for the common person in the first half of the 20th century when tariffs and immigration controls were the rule in Europe.

[Hotler]

55. Obama and his family has theirs. That is all that counts. n/t

[CrispyQ]

56. I swear the reason the repubs are running a bunch of clowns for 2012 is because

they are perfectly happy with the current repub president.

[Lorien]

59. He certainly makes life easier for them

but the good cop/ bad cop routine is wearing thin on the rest of us.

[Divernan]

65. Agreed - they're just looking for some one to fall on their sword for the Grand Old Party

In exchange for flying the GOP flag, he or she will be rewarded with lots 'n lots of corporate board memberships at $100,000 a pop.

[harun]

61. Pigs

[lonestarnot]

69. Mmmmboyhowdy. What a jobs plan there.