Why does President Obama feel that TPP is important to his legacy?

[Cooley Hurd]

NAFTA has proven to be a MAJOR scar on President Clinton's legacy (and there's been bleed-thru in regards to the candidacy of Secretary Clinton). WHY does President Obama feel this is absolutely essential?

[Johonny]

1. It was a campaign promise

He promised a trade agreement that would promote fair trade over free trade... the question most people have is does it or doesn't it?

[ananda]

2. Pure evil trade agreement just about sums it up.

..

[rbnyc]

5. So just like the health care reform promise...

..he doesn't actually care how it works out, as long as it passes and contains enough material to spin.

[Hoyt]

3. Because the world is changing, and we are trying to keep it like the 1950s

from an economic standpoint. He's smart enough to know that's a loser long-term, and he has the guts to take the flak from myopic people afraid their jobs can be performed by anyone.

I applaud him, and suspect he's got options. Or maybe he just says, "I'm tired of being bashed by people who can't recognize what faces us in the future if we sit still."

[cascadiance]

6. As OUR LEADER it's his DAMN JOB to help us understand "what faces us in the future"!

... if he expects us to believe what he's doing IN SECRET against democratic principles is better than just about ALL of the Free Trade treaties we've had earlier that promised so much and have only screwed us in terms of jobs and building a huge trade deficit instead of a trade surplus.

History isn't on his side. If he wants to "change" things and sell us on those changes being good for us, the last thing he should be doing is having everything done in secret, trying to pass surreptitiously a bill that tries to bypass the processes what those writing our constitution had envisioned for signing treaties, and giving TONS of time for corporate leaders to negotiate and build this treaty while having anyone else being shut out in the process.

Does he really think we're that STUPID AND GULLIBLE!!!!! Especially when Korporate Amerika has a pretty pathetic record lately when it comes to wanting to do things that are fair to 99% of us and not just giving away power and money to them!

[Hoyt]

11. I doubt that he "thinks" we are "stupid and gullible."

How many people griping about TPP here, do you think work for corporations?

[rbnyc]

9. Opposition to the TPP...

...is not opposition to trade or opposition to participating in the global economy. It's opposition to a closed process dominated by corporate elites who continue to rig the system for profit regardless of social and environmental consequences.

I'm not anti-trade. I just want to be able to count how many razor blades are embedded into the corporate dildo before bending over for the ass-rape.

[Hoyt]

13. Must be tough going through life thinking everyone is out to screw you.

[rbnyc]

15. I don't think everyone is out to screw us...

...but I don't have my head in the sand either.

[djean111]

12. So we need to put corporations in charge? It is not the actual TRADE stuff that reeks.

It is stuff like extending the patents on drugs so far out that even your poor Vietnamese farmers cannot afford them.
With their newly increased wages and all that. It is stuff like making sure countries cannot decide their own formularies for drugs.
It is the corporate overreach that is disgusting, has nothing to do with trade between countries. But you know that.

[Hoyt]

14. You are totally off on drugs. Did you even read the drug Annex released a few

days ago?

It's only 5 pages, read it. All it says is that a drug company should get one appeal - through the country's current process -- if a drug is refused or priced low. It even says specifically, that nothing in the Annex requires the country to accept the drug. That's what we do here in the rare case a drug is refused. Few are refused here, because consumers would raise heck that they are being denied drugs. So, we end up paying more.

Also, review drug pricing in poor countries. There name brand drugs are often free or less than generics here.

[madokie]

4. I'm not convinced he does

I've yet to see anything that Obama is for get much traction at all. I'm sure there's been a few but they are few and far between
Again I remind anyone reading about the skill that Obama used to shut up the SS cuts talk

[Maedhros]

7. He wants those corporate speaking gigs after he leaves office.

Lucrative, those.

[foo_bar]

8. why do we care about the "legacy" of alleged public servants?

I mean the legacy is whatever happens, James K. Polk wasn't trying to make somebody write a song about him. I think the legacy is that modern US presidents will be remembered as the PR wing of the actual government which dutifully functions with or without an elite reality show contestant going through the motions of running this too-big-to-fail apparatus.

[LiberalEsto]

10. Because the fellas at Goldman-Sachs and elsewhere

will break someone's kneecaps if the TPP fails?

[doc03]

16. I guess he wants the Republicans to blame him

along with Bill Clinton for all the jobs going overseas.