The Trade Scam Arrives in Congress
While we were all fascinated today by The Passion Of Big Chicken, not many of us heard the unmistakable sound of skids being greased.
“The TPA [trade promotion authority] legislation we are introducing today will make sure that these trade deals get done, and get done right,” outgoing Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) said in a joint statement with the bill’s co-sponsors, House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R-Mich.) and Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch, the top Republican on the Finance panel. The bill addresses growing concerns about secrecy in trade negotiations by ensuring all members of Congress have access to negotiating texts and can observe trade talks. Other provisions would aim to increase the transparency of negotiations by requiring the Obama administration to consult more with Congress and share more information with the public and advisory committees.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a million-ton dunghammer aimed at what’s left of the American middle-class, the dwindling numbers of which ought to be able by now to recognize the taste of “free-trade” snake oil when it’s fed to them. This bill is the worst kind of Beltway Potemkin transparency. It seeks to guarantee that the debate is carefully circumscribed within the parameters in which the Serious People feel most comfortable — one in which a goody-bag for corporate interest supported by Orrin Hatch and Max Baucus is considered to be a “bipartisan” triumph — and making sure that the debate doesn’t disturb the horses or interrupt cocktails on the veranda.
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