The Trade-Off Obama Missed On Trade - WaPo

[WillyT]

The trade-off Obama missed on trade
Dana Milbank - WaPo
April 24 at 10:49 AM

No, President Obama, Elizabeth Warren isn’t wrong.

Obama told MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Tuesday that the populist Democratic senator from Massachusetts is in error in opposing a free-trade agreement his administration has been negotiating with 11 other Pacific nations.

Warren is right: The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an abomination — not because of the deal itself, and not because free trade in general is a bad idea. The TPP is an abomination because Obama had a chance to protect American workers from the harm that would inevitably come from such a pact, and he didn’t take it, or at least he hasn’t.

As bad, Obama’s anointed successor, Hillary Clinton, waffled on the trade pact this week, offering only the banality that “any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages” — which, of course, they all claim to do.

Clinton, and Obama, should champion the trade bill — but only after congressional Republicans do what’s needed to protect low-wage American workers from the dislocation that will occur: approving some serious new spending on worker training and infrastructure to keep the United States in line with the rest of the industrialized world.

Now, more than 20 years after NAFTA and 14 years after China joined the World Trade Organization, there is no real question among economists that expanding trade has been good for the world and has helped reduce poverty. It has also unquestionably been good for U.S. corporations as they grow their global reach. But there is equally no doubt that trade liberalization has hurt low-skill manufacturing workers and aggravated income inequality, which is now at its worst since the 1920s.

And...

Obama had a rare opportunity to force major congressional action on worker training and infrastructure, by tying it to the Pacific trade pact, which Republicans broadly support. He had leverage — and he failed to use it.

Now the noncommittal Clinton, in deciding whether to weigh in on the trade bill, faces the first real test of her candidacy. Her decision will demonstrate whether the Warren-style populism that has crept into her stump speech is real, or just talk.

The Rest: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-trans-pacific-partnership-trade-deal-is-an-abomination/2015/04/24/903e5a12-ea85-11e4-aae1-d642717d8afa_story.html

[villager]

1. Obama "had leverage and failed to use it!!?"

I'm shocked I tell ya -- shocked!

[orpupilofnature57]

2. Where do presidents go when they retire ?

[dflprincess]

5. A lot of them seem to wind up on Easy Street nt

[DJ13]

3. Clinton, and Obama, should champion the trade bill --

— but only after congressional Republicans do what’s needed to protect low-wage American workers from the dislocation that will occur



That would never happen.

[WillyT]

4. Yeah... I Saw That Too... The Track Record For That Sucks...

[Enthusiast]

6. I kicked and recommended with reservations.

Retraining workers for non existent jobs is seldom a solution. The path to a decent life includes a stable job in a community where a tax base can create schools and small businesses.

This new model of scorched earth capitalism is no fucking good.

[WillyT]

7. Oh... I Had Reservations Too... Just Trying To Get Different Perspectives...