Senate Republicans Say Obama’s Silence Risks Trade Agenda

[Purveyor]

By Laura Litvan - Jan 16, 2014

Senate Republicans stepped up calls for President Barack Obama to get more directly involved in pushing Congress to enable speedy approval of trade deals, saying that he is endangering his second-term trade agenda.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said on the Senate floor that a bipartisan measure that would give Obama the ability to win passage of trade deals without amendment may not get enough support if Obama doesn’t start talking more on the issue.

“We need the president to get involved,” McConnell said today. “We need him to step up for American workers and increased exports by bringing his party on board with the trade promotion bill that was introduced just last week.”

At a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the measure today, the top Republican on the panel, Orrin Hatch of Utah, also said Obama’s efforts are falling short.

“This is not a case where the president can lead from behind,” said Hatch. He and McConnell said Obama must give the issue priority in his annual State of the Union speech Jan. 28.

more...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-16/senate-republicans-say-obama-s-silence-risks-trade-agenda.html

[The Magistrate]

1. With Any Luck, Sir, He Will Keep His Mouth Shut...

These 'trade deals' are abominations.

[GoCubsGo]

2. That's what I'm hoping.

I sometimes wonder if he's pulling the "reverse psychology" stuff on them. They hate him so much that they oppose everything he supports. I can't help think that he "supports" things, such as NSA spying, just to get the obstructionists to oppose them. The republicans certainly won't vote to change any laws if they think Obama supports them...

I really don't understand what Obama is doing with this TPP business. However, I understand that the opposition to it in Congress is growing to a point where it might not pass, and that's in part to the teabaggers, who don't like it.

[denverbill]

3. I think we need to name the trade deal after Obama, like Obamatrade.

That will set the rabid right wing against it. If that's not enough, tell them it authorizes death panels and allows the UN to confiscate their guns.

The sad thing is this abomination is worse than anything they've been whining about for the last 6 years in terms of loss of their freedoms and protections. It should give people a clue when it's 'bipartisan' hacks like Mitch asking Obama to push for it.