Senate Democrats Block Progress on Obama’s Trade Authority

[brooklynite]

Source: New York Times

Senate Democrats handed President Obama a stinging rebuke on Tuesday, blocking consideration of legislation granting their own president “fast track” power to complete a major trade accord with 11 nations in the Pacific Rim.

The Senate vote on a procedural motion to begin debating the bill to give the president “trade promotion authority,” was 52 to 45 in favor, eight short of the 60 needed for passage. Republicans and pro-trade Democrats said they will try to negotiate a trade package that can clear that threshold.

But the vote Tuesday presented Mr. Obama what might be a no-win situation. He may have to accept trade enforcement provisions he does not want to get the trade legislation through the Senate, but those same provisions might doom the Pacific trade negotiations that legislation is supposed to boost.

That is especially true for a measure demanding a crackdown on currency manipulation, which is strongly opposed by Japan and Malaysia, two of the 12 nations trying to complete the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the largest trade accord in a generation.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/business/senate-vote-obama-fast-track-trade-deal.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

[ananda]

1. O thank God!

Dems got a spine.

[denvine]

2. Fantastic!

[misterhighwasted]

3. Sen Reid says" only one person to blame for this. Majority Leader McConnell. "

Mitch appears stunned.
He mentioned a revote, can he do that?


McConnell should have debate with amendments

[donnasgirl]

4. Yes the turtle can ask for a revote

As for looking stunned that is a natural look for people who are anal.

[misterhighwasted]

5. Oh crap. he already called for a re-vote.

[donnasgirl]

13. And Senator Wyden Democrat

Just asked for a re vote asap.

[turbinetree]

19. Why

Why------ Wyden, please tell every democrat in this country why do you want this, what do you know, that we want to know-------------that's all we ask----------which isn't much

[donnasgirl]

26. I could be wrong

But i think they think they know what is best for the masses, this is one of the reasons why people lose all interest in the Government and our elections.

[hopemountain]

37. because he is a closet repub

always has been. corporatist bought and paid for. he skirts a fine line on most issues but tries to come off as being liberal just enough to keep some libs happy. i am not one of the.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

21. This is Mitch's "Stunned" look.

Edited to add his father:

[Helen Borg]

23. Is that from human DNA?

[donnasgirl]

27. NOPE

The DNA of a snapping turtle. Sorry Mr snapping turtle

[Iliyah]

32. He always like that.

Senator Reid knows what he is doing.

[24601]

73. How many times did I read here that McConnell would destroy the filabuster as soon as he

regained the Majority Leader position? It doesn't appear to have happened and isn't in the cards.

And the call for debate with amendments would have been more effective had it come from someone other than Reid given the debates with amendments he never allowed. I just don't agree that the side blocking a debate & vote has credibility the side who is willing to vote.

Sorry, but a sitting President is also the leader of his/her party and has more influence bring along party members than the other side.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. Apart form negotiating a bad trade deal, no president should have this power

It was a mistake to give it to Nixon when trade deals were a lot less complicated and had more to do with trade.

The genius of a system of checks and balances is that power corrupts and those who wield it should never be trusted. It should never be cast aside for any reason, even if the president is Jesus Christ himself.

[Baitball Blogger]

11. This is proof that the system works, when it wants to work.

People are jaded and the Democratic leaders are listening.

Some of them, anyways.

[jtuck004]

87. "even if the president is Jesus Christ himself." < Especially then. n/t

[red dog 1]

7. Great news!

but the battle is far from over.

The TPP must be defeated!

[Baitball Blogger]

8. No approval without full transparency!

[TheProgressive]

9. Don't think for one second this is a done deal...

Listening to Reid and Wyden, they want 'this bill' which is fast tract to come up for vote again
with some changes.

We need to Kill the TPP completely, but that is not how the Senate wants it.

We still have work to do - this just buys us some time.

[KoKo]

56. Absolutely! We've seen "Deals Cut" and Midnight "Down to Wire Votes"

for a couple of Decades now... You have to watch our Congress every step of the way. While the vote was good news....they can always do "back room deals" and bring it up again for a vote in the "midnight hours" when no one is looking.

Keep At It!

[Backwoodsrider]

10. Christ....quagmire

Something might not be perfect so we put it up out of reach on a shelf by voting no on his fastrack so we get Sh!t. Good job democrats! Maybe we can be the party of no just like the GOP?

[arcane1]

14. The GOP is the one saying "yes"

And sometimes getting nothing is better than getting something "not perfect".

[cui bono]

53. More like something "disastrous". n/t

[n2doc]

24. Saying No to crap like Fast Track is what Democrats NEED to do.

Or do you think they need to just say yes because the Republicans support it and the president would sign it?

[Backwoodsrider]

29. so we arent going to do anything just stick with the present rules and terriffs of NAFTA

Yeah those are working great for the US lets not change. Change is scary!

[n2doc]

30. Go ahead and laugh

Enjoy yourself.

I'll come back in 18 months if a repub wins the WH and ask you if you still like change.

[Backwoodsrider]

33. thank you! I couldnt of said it better myself

I am praying a repub does not win the white house and democrats feel unified behind whichever DEMOCRAT candidate they back so much in 2016 that some house members and senators get voted in too

[denbot]

34. Look at his post count, and what he is advocating.

If a puke wins in November, I believe laughter would be an understatement.

[rhett o rick]

64. Your insinuation that he is wishing bad change is ridiculous. Seems those that

don't want change are ok with the status quo. Ok with Wall Street ripping us off for a trillion here and a trillion there. Ok with fracking destroying our water supplies.

The Populist Movement is a fact. Denying it's existence won't help.

[Backwoodsrider]

79. time will tell

Going to be an exciting 18 months

[leftofcool]

92. It is already back on the floor.

[cui bono]

55. If you don't like NAFTA then why would you want to fast track in order to pass TPP?

[jeff47]

88. Reality. You might want to consider getting acquainted with it.

We already have free trade agreements with most of the 11 countries in the TPP.

The only significant economy where we don't have such an agreement is Japan. They have a whopping 1.2% tariff. Oooooooooooo. That's so totally going to annihilate all trade between the two countries.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

59. Being the party of 'No' won both chambers of Congress for Republicans.

Apparently the American people WANT a party of 'No'. Is there some reason that it should always be the Republican Party that benefits from blocking the other party from doing things?

[Sgt Preston]

82. Some quagmires are good.

When you say "so we get Sh!t," I disagree. TPP would be "Sh!t" I prefer a quagmire.

[FiveGoodMen]

86. You are not on our side

You are now on ignore

[CharlotteVale]

12. What a relief. At least for the moment.

[Sgt Preston]

83. Sad to be relieved about this.

I thought the guy I voted for in 2008 would be a relief.

[Liberalagogo]

15. Does anyone have any coffee

For President Obama to wake up and smell?

[IDemo]

16. Couldn't they have at least logged into DU

to understand just how wrong they were?

[AzDar]

17. Stop The TPP!!

[geek tragedy]

18. if worker protections kill the deal, then it deserves to be killed nt

[Iliyah]

20. It will pass with amendments and changes

And Pres O already knows what coffee smells like.

[raindaddy]

25. Considering the president was fighting against amendements.....

and many in his own party turned against him and his Republican allies, who knows what the President has been smelling? Nothing changes the fact that the brown liquid that comes with this trade bill ain't coffee!

[Iliyah]

31. It's black unless you put milk in it.

Again, TPP will pass.

[raindaddy]

35. Depends on how strong you brew it...

If it passes it'll be nothing to celebrate. Just another indication of how our political process and politicians have been corrupted by corporate and Wall Street money.

[n2doc]

22. Only Carper voted Yes on the D side

Nearly unanimous opposition. I did not expect that.

D-bag Rand Paul voted for Fast Track after saying he would not vote for it. Fuck Rand Paul.

[moondust]

38. Delaware = Big Banks n/t

[SteveG]

68. Carper is a corporate tool

And I have voted for him many times. He is always better than the Republican that runs against him. The good news is that our Jr. Senator (Chris Coons) did vote against Fast Track.

[MannyGoldstein]

28. May I ask: what's your feeling about this?

I'm mighty pleased.

[baran]

50. Interesting question . . .. n/t

[lark]

36. Glory, glory, hallelujah

Common sense won the day - today. But Obama and the 1% won't quit fighting for the new tool to screw us all.

[kentuck]

39. Power to the people!

FTC !

[iandhr]

40. Thank you Elizabeth Warren

[wordpix]

76. and Sherrod Brown

[iandhr]

78. Indeed

[Enthusiast]

41. Kicked and recommended a whole bunch! Happy to hear this.

[City Lights]

42. Hip, hip, hooray!

[BobbyBoring]

43. when you have Republicans voting for something Obama wants

you know something's radically wrong.

[Geronimoe]

44. Do we have a roll call?

I'd like to see who voted for this monster and is a traitor to working Americans.

[n2doc]

45. here's a link

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=114&session=1&vote=00176
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs ---52
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Carper (D-DE)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kirk (R-IL)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
McCain (R-AZ)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)

NAYs ---45
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Hirono (D-HI)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting - 3
Booker (D-NJ)
Graham (R-SC)
Rubio (R-FL)

[geardaddy]

49. I'm wondering why turtle boy voted against it.

[Salviati]

52. Procedural reasons I'm sure...

The same reason Harry Reid voted against a lot of things when he was Senate majority leader.

[former9thward]

60. So he can ask for a re-vote.

Only those who vote no can ask for a re-vote in the Senate.

[KansDem]

71. His wealth comes from his father-in-law's shipping business...

McConnell’s ties to the Chaos go back to the late 1980s, when James Chao began donating to the senator. In 1993, McConnell married James’s daughter, Elaine Chao, a Republican activist and former Reagan administration official who would later serve as secretary of labor in the George W. Bush cabinet. James Chao emigrated to the United States from Taiwan, and founded the Foremost Maritime Corporation upon settling in New York. The company has grown significantly over the years, from acting as maritime agent during the Vietnam War to controlling a fleet of approximately sixteen dry-bulk cargo ships in operation today.

Foremost acts as a shipping agent, purchasing vessels made primarily in China and coordinating shipment of commodities. Records reviewed by The Nation reveal that Foremost transports corn, chemicals and other goods to cities throughout the world. The company has offices in New York and Hong Kong.

Some of the goods shipped by Foremost echo themes of the McConnell campaign. At a Young Professionals Association of Louisville event this month, McConnell stressed his opposition to carbon dioxide limits imposed by the federal government that would impact the domestic coal market. He argued that such efforts would be fruitless given the role of coal in developing countries and the rising coal trade. Foremost ships routinely transport coal from ports in Australia and Colombia, countries with cheap coal, for export to Asia and Europe.

The firm, however, leaves a faint online trace. Foremost’s website FMCNY.com is blank. Records and court documents obtained by The Nation show that the ownership of the company’s vessels—with names such as Ping May, Soya May, Fu May and Grain May—is obscured through a byzantine structure of tax entities. Most of Foremost’s vessels are flagged in Liberia, which ensures that crew members of Foremost’s ships work under Liberia’s maritime labor laws, which critics note allow for intimidation in the workplace and few protections for labor unions. In addition, a Liberian “flag of convenience” allows ship owners to pay lower tonnage taxes than ships that fly the US flag. Maritime companies have increasingly used the Marshall Islands to register their vessels. The jurisdiction boasts of “no taxation, lax regulation, and no requirements for disclosure of many corporate details—even to the United States government,” according to a report in World Policy Journal.

The Nation

Maybe the TPP would lead to more competition and cut into his profits?

[geardaddy]

80. interesting

Thanks for posting that!

[KansDem]

91. You're welcome!

Although I imagine the answers given by DUers about voting "no" for procedural reasons are closer to the truth. But still, you have to wonder about having a Senate leader whose wealth comes from shipping cheap coal from third-world countries during a time of increasing global concern about fossil fuels and climate change.

"Conflict of interest," anyone?

[jeff47]

89. He has to vote "No" in order to call for a new vote.

Only someone who voted "No" can call for a new vote. The idea being you don't want supporters of an unpopular bill constantly calling for votes when they don't get their way.

[Not Sure]

51. So the two morons from Texas

think the president should have complete authority on this issue? After all their bullshit over the years he's suddenly infallible on this issue? What transparent fucking lying sellouts. No balls, no heart, no integrity. But we already knew that.

[n2doc]

58. The really special one is Rand Paul

Comes out this morning in opposition
http://thehill.com/policy/finance/241748-rand-paul-to-oppose-fast-track

Then votes for cloture.

Fuck Rand Paul

[Geronimoe]

61. Only one "D" Carper

This makes Obama a lame duck for sure.

This is an unprecedented defeat of O by his own party.

[FlatBaroque]

46. Unprecedented.

Is Sen. Warren now the de facto leader of the Dem party?

[djean111]

77. No. This is just one issue. I do think she may be the de facto leader of the dreaded

"Liberal Wing", AKA "This used to be what mainstream Democrats looked like before the party slid to the right".
I don't believe Obama cares much for the Liberal Wing. Just IMO and all that.

[sulphurdunn]

47. Score one for the dirty fucking hippies.

[onethatcares]

48. and all of a sudden

mitch wants to help the president with what he calls "his number one domestic priority".

WTF happened to mitch when the ACA was the number one domestic priority?

Anyone got the vote record?

[bigwillq]

54. Thank you

to my two DEM senators (Blumenthal and Murphy) who both voted NAY!

[Android3.14]

57. "their own president"?

Excuse me? He is every citizen's President, and that's with a capital P you AP style fuckwit.

[Backwoodsrider]

63. Just a reminder

As some know and I guess some might not know I am a daily member since Bush Jr ran for Pres though I just started posting. I have worked for my democratic state and national congressmen and was a CAP leader for SEIU until I retired 18 months ago.

I have found my mission; tell the truth about Sanders.

On one level he is running so he can throw some negative energy towards Hillary(HC) and hopefully get a GOP in as pres so he has something to fight. On another level Sanders is following in the steps of Nader we can see it in their eyes. They are hiding something, they are more against the democrat than they are the republican. Next time you see Sanders bad mouth HC try and remember that last time he said something bad on national TV about Bush or Cruz or Rubio.

Bear with me management I am non-confrontational and I understand we get nothing from each other if we piss people off so I will take all effort to be cool

[marym625]

67. his record speaks for itself

You're here to bad mouth Sanders by using propaganda bullshit. Talk about his record and maybe you would be worth listening to

[blackspade]

85. Fail.

Sanders=Nader?

A preposterous statement that has no basis in facts.

[jeff47]

90. Could you go back to not posting?

It's preferable to the bullshit you are now shoveling.

[Jesus Malverde]

65. Finally some backbone!

[Overseas]

66. It's played too much as They Rebuked Obama rather than Rebuking Multinational Corporate Rule

It was rejected because we feel multinational corporations already have too much power.

[Sgt Preston]

81. What is the difference?

Please explain.

[Overseas]

94. Headlines are about Rebuking Obama rather than Rebuking Multinational Corporate Power Grabs

[hollowdweller]

69. I think we should kill every trade deal till we see some movement on middle class income.

Why should we give them something they want when they are taking our retirement, health insurance, and underpaying us?

I'd like to see it go down in flames to put the 1% on notice. Step to the back of the line and once incomes are up and our middle class is back on it's feet we might think about it.

[wordpix]

75. agree- I've learned in small town politics you can't win elections unless

You give repukes death by a thousand cuts beforehand. In this case, trounce bad legislation as it comes up, giving reasons why you're opposed that the public can understand and don't get too detailed, just give "American worker protections"-type sound bites.

[grahamhgreen]

70. "Trade"

[KansDem]

72. "Progress"

[blackspade]

84. Good.

[d_legendary1]

93. Good on them!

[Cha]

95. Actually, "They "handed a stinging rebuke" to mcconnell but don't let that stop all those who play

right into corpmedia's hands.

"Democrats on Capitol Hill say the agreement they reached the next day to move forward on the legislation extracted real concessions from Republican leadership."

"The White House named names. And not 24 hours later, President Barack Obama and his aides had a deal to get fast-track back on track."

snip// from the link..

"White House officials said the agreement that will now open debate on the trade package on Thursday only seems like a dramatic turnaround because Tuesday’s doom and gloom was overblown. The president’s trade agenda is moving again, on its way through the Senate and off to the much more problematic House. And the president has regained the momentum."

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/obama-trans-pacific-partnership-trade-deal-117921.html?hp=lc3_4_b1