Obama, Boehner abandon plans for Tuesday trade vote

[cali]

I told those of you here who were insisting that this would be easy peasy for the President and Republican allies to fix and that dems would crumble on the TAA piece, that it wouldn't be so easy. And yeah, in this case I love saying "I told you so". The President and the republicans who he is so deeply allied with on this, may still get their way- they wield an awful lot of power and have a lot more in their tool boxes in the way of threats, promises and legislative maneuvering than the opposition, but time is not on their side.

Don't let up on the pressure against TPA and the TPP. Keep calling. Keep emailing. Keep fighting against corporate greed. And don't forget to thank those dems who have stood staunchly against this. As mentioned in the article, our friends at the AFL-CIO, have launched a campaign to thank them.



President Obama and his momentary Republican allies in Congress mulled several difficult choices Monday for rescuing trade legislation into which the president has invested a massive amount of political capital in the hope of completing a 12-nation trade deal across the Pacific Rim.

After successful Democratic efforts to block the president’s trade package, Obama and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) spoke by phone and consulted their respective top lieutenants as they tried to find a path to success, according to senior aides. Their first call was to abandon plans for a second vote Tuesday on a piece of legislation that must also pass for the entire package to advance to Obama’s desk. Given the grim outcome for Obama of the first vote on Friday — 302 against and 126 in favor — they stood no chance for turning nearly 100 votes in four days.

Instead, Boehner decided to impose a temporary rule that, if approved Tuesday, will allow him until July 30 to bring up the trade debate at any time for a do-over of the stalled companion legislation to the trade package. If successful, Boehner will have bought an additional six weeks to find a way out of the mess.

<snip>

Even pro-trade Democrats grew grim when discussing what options were available to them in the short term. “I am not aware of any emerging strategy that could turn this around,” said Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (Va.), one of 28 Democrats who voted for the trade promotion piece of the package that narrowly passed Friday.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-and-pelosi-leave-obama-in-the-lurch-on-trade-deals/2015/06/15/04baba5e-12e3-11e5-9518-f9e0a8959f32_story.html

[djean111]

1. Looking forward to having the entire list of these DINOs -

"Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (Va.), one of 28 Democrats who voted for the trade promotion piece of the package that narrowly passed Friday. "

I feel fairly certain that there are some in my state for whom there will be no more votes - Wassermann, Murphy, Nelson? And for anyone who has declared the TPP The Gold Standard. Yeah, I bet it is. But for corporations, not countries.

I have no doubt that Obama and Boehner and Dimon are putting together really great gift baskets, with a side of threats, to present to those dang Democrats who are listening to their constituents and inconveniently voting like Democrats. So nice to see which DINOs are not just reaching across the aisle, but moving over and getting all snuggly with the GOP. I can hear Cindy Lauper singing "True Colors", for some reason.