~ Have Tar, Need Feathers ~

Politico is reporting that congressional leadership may not present the TPP deal for approval until after the 2016 election, during the lame duck session. Obviously this solidifies a particular reality all too common in Washington DC: If it is only politically safe to vote on the deal when no political election risk is evident, then you can be assured the deal is not in the best interest of the electorate.

Washington – Mike Sommers, chief of staff for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), said at a Ripon Society meeting that Congress was unlikely to move on the massive trade package until a lame-duck session more than a year from now.

Hazen Marshall, policy director for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who was also at the session, agreed that a TPP vote was more likely to happen in a lame-duck session, and added that the White House was trying to work with congressional leaders on timing. (more…)

Tom Donohue and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce were the primary group who negotiated the Trans-Pacific Trade Deal. Donohue also spent $20 million to bribe Mitch McConnell and senators in order to get fast-track legislation in place for passage.

Now the trade deal is finished labor unions want to see what’s in it. Donohue and the swarm of lawyers say not-so-fast there pal, we’ve got to scrub it down first. Using the same strategy as Obamacare, the CoC want the trade deal approved before the American people can see what’s in it.

WASHINGTON DC – One of the nation’s top labor leaders on Wednesday called on the Obama administration to immediately release the text of a far-reaching trade deal that spans the Pacific Rim to Latin America.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka wrote a letter to President Obama arguing that stakeholders, lawmakers and the American public need to see the final text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) to start what is expected to be a long process of evaluating the deal brokered by the United States and 11 other nations.

House and Senate Democrats have made similar appeals since the pact was brokered a week ago during a final round of negotiations in Atlanta. (more…)