That Senate has, at least for the moment, rejected fast track authority for the TPP.
In my last post I observed that an unholy alliance between Republicans and Obama can only bode ill; the Republicans would have to have the chance to do a lot of evil before teaming up with Obama on anything, so even if we didn’t know how awful this deal was, we would have strong grounds for more than suspicion.
Only one Democrat voted with the titular leader of the Democratic party. If I’m reading the linked article correctly, Republicans were unanimous in supporting Obama. I doubt they’d give him that kind of support for naming a post office if they knew he cared about any particular designation.
Anyway, given the numbers, it’s obvious the Democrats didn’t “win” this vote, they “blocked” it, which is the modern parlance for filibuster. If the Democrats continue to hang together, which is by no means a sure thing, the only way McConnell and Obama can get the thing through is by ditching the filibuster. In the happy event that they do hang together, it will be interesting to see if Obama pushes for an end run around the filibuster, something he never did when it was Republicans “blocking” legislation.
It’s really sort of sad to see Obama mar the last years of his presidency by insisting on this gift to global corporations. It’s even sadder when he is reduced to lying about his fellow Democrats and treating the informed portion of the public as if it didn’t exist, by lying about both the process and the contents of this “trade” agreement.
On a lighter note, because I still like the guy for the most part, I have to pass this along.
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