Hillary Finally Breaks Her Silence On A Huge Issue By Stabbing Obama In The Back

SOMETIMES THEY JUST EAT THEIR OWN FOR THERE OWN BENEFIT

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said she would “probably not” vote for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) if she was still in the Senate today. TPA is legislation championed by both the Republican leadership and President Obama.

In an interview on KNPB with Nevada political reporter Jon Ralston Thursday, Clinton reiterated her history in the upper chamber of having voted for and against free trade agreements. “I try to make a judgment based on the merits and when I was in the Senate there were a number of trade agreements that I thought were good, I said okay I’ll vote for them, and others not,” Clinton said.

TPA passed for the second time in the House Thursday, making its way to the Senate. The bill has a few procedural mountains to climb before it can get to Obama’s desk. When Ralston asked the former first lady point blank if she would vote yes or no on TPA when it comes to the Senate, Clinton answered in the negative:

At this point, probably not because it’s a process vote and I don’t want to say it’s the same as TPP.  Right now I’m focused on making sure we get trade adjustment assistance and I certainly would not vote for it unless I were absolutely confident we would get trade adjustment assistance.

TPP refers to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country trade agreement between the United States and Asian and Central American countries which would surely be presented to Congress if TPA is renewed. Earlier in the interview, Clinton expressed some concerns with TPP:

It’s only available to people who go to a certain room in the Capitol Hill Complex and they can’t show it to their aides and they can’t even take notes on it, so all I can judge is what people are coming out and telling me and even in my book, Hard Choices, last summer, I said I have real doubt about this so called investor state dispute settlement agreement, which basically means you run a big company, pick a big Asian company of some sort from one of the countries in the agreement and you want to import some kind of food and the local officials, say in Nevada, say, you know what?

That doesn’t meet our standards.

“Or the FDA says it, somebody says it, and so you then say wait a minute, under this trade agreement I should be able to do that, so I demand one of these dispute settlement determinations,” continued Clinton. “Who’s in the room?  Maybe I’m an expert on health and running a hygiene program in Nevada.  Maybe I’m the person who oversees the big casinos’ health standards.”

Via: Western Journalism

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TEAM OBAMATRADE PLANNING TRICKY EFFORT TO SNEAK EXPORT-IMPORT BANK REAUTHORIZATION INTO DEAL

In the final hours before the House votes on a new leadership-concocted scheme to sneak Obamatrade past the American public, it’s been revealed that pro-Obamatrade forces are now aiming to sneak a renewal of the highly controversial Export Import Bank into the deal to secure Senate passage later if the House passes it on Thursday.

“I and all the other members there are looking for a guarantee … for a deal to be good it’s got to have enforcement, TAA, I think it’s got to have Ex-Im reauthorization,” 

Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA)

0%

, a Democrat who’s angling for this in the deal, said according to Politico. “A lot of [the meeting] was to talk about that very question of: What is a sufficient assurance?”

Politico reports that such a discussion happened at the White House between so-called pro-Obamatrade Democrats and President Barack Obama.

“At the White House on Wednesday, pro-trade Democrats and Obama discussed the possibility of sticking together as a bloc so they can get TPA, TAA, a customs enforcement and perhaps an extension of the Export-Import Bank charter, which lapses at the end of the month,” Politico wrote late Wednesday.

What’s more, 

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

4%

—and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA)—also confirmed the effort to sneak the Export-Import Bank reauthorization into the deal when it hits the Senate.

“

Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-VA)

12%

 said 

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA)

4%

 and a ‘small group’ of Democratic senators who voted last month to renew TPA made ‘very clear’ in a June 16 meeting with House Democrats that they will support a standalone TPA only if they can get a vote on Ex-Im reauthorization,” Inside U.S. Trade, a high-value trade subscription-only publication for beltway insiders, wrote on Wednesday. “Connolly said for these ‘handful’ of Senate Democrats the Ex-Im issue seemed more important than the passage of TAA.”

Via: Breitbart

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Trade Promotion Authority hits a new roadblock: Barack Obama

Ever since the House rejected the Trade Adjustment Authority (TAA) bill, the House GOP leadership has been scheming for a way to pass the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) without the accompanying TAA.

House GOP leaders seeking to rebound after a surprise floor defeat on trade are zeroing in on a new strategy to grant President Obama fast-track authority.

The plan is to vote as soon as this week on the fast-track bill approved by the House on Friday but to leave aside a second part of the original package that was torpedoed by House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) 18% (D-Calif.) and other Democrats.

Decoupling fast-track from a separate program granting aid to workers displaced by trade would put pressure on the Senate to pass the legislation, a top priority for Obama that would allow him to complete negotiations on a sweeping trans-Pacific trade deal.

If the House is successful, it will be up to Senate Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) 67% (R-Ky.) to get the bill through the upper chamber.

This was always going to be a tough sell. Allowing a trade agreement to be negotiated with low wage, state controlled, and utterly opaque economies without some protections for US businesses destroyed and workers made unemployed wasn't going to play well in attack ads in future campaigns.

There is little margin for error after last week’s stunning events in the House. Democrats, led by House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) 18%, moved to block a program they support — TAA — in order to prevent the fast-track trade bill from landing on Obama’s desk. But TAA is a bottom-line demand for the 14 Senate Democrats who voted last month to pass the fast-track bill, and Obama can only afford to lose two of those votes if he wants to see his priority enacted.

That makes the decision on how to sequence the votes in Congress a key consideration. Some top Republicans believe it makes sense to enact the fast-track bill first, prompting House Democrats to let TAA pass since it would be much harder at that point to use as leverage. But it’s no sure bet that Senate Democrats would go along with a vote on fast-track without immediate consideration of the worker aid package.

And Democrats were left a little puzzled as to how Boehner's strategy would work:

As rumors swirled about Boehner being ready to move forward with a stand-alone TPA bill, House Democrats initially scheduled an emergency caucus meeting for Wednesday morning, where pro-TPA Democrats were expected to try to garner support for the Republican strategy. That meeting was abruptly canceled late Tuesday after it was clear that the Rules Committee wasn't meeting to set up a vote on a clean fast-track bill. The panel isn't expected to meet until next week to set up the vote.

Boehner's strategy, according to Democratic and Republican aides, is to pass the clean TPA bill and send it to the Senate, where lawmakers would then attach TAA to a separate trade bill for African countries, the African Growth and Opportunity Act. The strategy behind the approach is to pressure members of the Congressional Black Caucus to support TAA this time around, since the controversial funding would now be tied to AGOA, which they support.

If House Republicans do pursue a stand-alone TPA bill, it won’t necessarily make matters better for the president’s trade agenda. Passing a clean bill would be far more difficult in the Senate. Obama has vowed to veto a fast-track bill unless TAA is also passed or attached. Obama’s trade package made it through the upper chamber last month, but TAA was attached.

These machinations may now be moot. Major Garrett is reporting that the President will not sign a TPA bill unless it is accompanied by a TAA bill.

Via: Red State

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Congress could vote on Trade Promotion Authority as a stand alone bill as soon as Thursday

Congress could vote on Trade Promotion Authority as a stand alone bill as soon as Thursday, congressional sources tell the Associated Press.

The new plan under consideration would have the House vote on TPA — which would grant President Obama fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals — separately from the Trade Adjustment Assistance provision rejected last week.

The decision to split up the bills comes as House Republican leaders and the White House attempt to figure out a way to pass “fast-track” in the face of diverse opposition. As the APreports:

Now Obama and his allies are considering something they had desperately hoped to avoid: revisiting trade legislation in the Senate, possibly after the House votes on a simplified fast track bill. It would give Senate opponents another chance to strangle the legislation with costly delays and other tactics.

According to The Hill, White House spokesman Josh Earnest did not express opposition to the move, merely stating that both TPA and TAA should be passed.

“The only legislative strategy the president can support is one that will result in both pieces of legislation arriving at his desk,” The Hill quoted Earnest.

The Hill noted that Earnest also did not offer an opinion on whether the bills should arrive at Obama’s desk as a package or stand alone bills.

“There is also this fundamental question … about whether or not they need to arrive at the same time, on the same day, as part of the same legislative vehicle or separately — that’s exactly what’s being discussed on Capitol Hill right now,” The Hill quoted Earnest.

The push for fast-track authority comes as the Obama administration hopes to advance 

Via: Breitbart

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DES MOINES — Hillary Clinton, facing criticism from rivals for her silence on a stalled international trade agreement, spoke out Sunday during a campaign stop in Iowa, urging President Barack Obama to collaborate with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and craft a deal more palatable to Democrats.

“The president should listen to and work with his allies in Congress starting with Nancy Pelosi, who have expressed their concerns about the impact that a weak agreement would have on our workers to make sure we get the best strongest deal possible,” she said. “And if we don’t get it, there should be no deal.”

It wasn’t quite a judgment of the trade deal overall, but it was her most specific assessment of the policy debate so far, and it came on the heels of an embarrassing defeat for the White House, which saw Democrats largely abandon its push for the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Clinton said a final deal must protect American jobs, raise American workers’ wages and protect American national security interests

“The president actually has this amazing opportunity now,” the Democratic presidential candidate said. “Let’s take the lemons and turn it into lemonade.”

Via: Politico

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GOP LEADERSHIP’S LATEST OBAMATRADE PLOY REVEALED: SMALL BUSINESS TAX HIKE THAT VIOLATES GOP’S ANTI-TAX PLEDGE

Establishment Republicans desperately trying to secure the passage of Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which would give President Obama fast-track authority to secure congressional approval of at least three secretive trade deals, are now willing to increase taxes on small businesses in a way that would violate a pledge almost every Republican Congressman has taken when elected into office.

To secure final passage through Congress of a package that would include TPA fast-track authority—which would ensure finalization of the secretive Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) and Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), among other deals—the House would need to pass the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) package that was necessary for Senate passage of TPA. The House voted TAA down 302-126 with widespread bipartisan opposition to last week, but House Ways and Means Committee chairman 

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)

58%

 and his allies in House GOP leadership have pledged that they will try to pass it again early next week. The vote would potentially be on Monday, but more likely on Tuesday—and if there is no vote by Tuesday, it’s unlikely that Ryan will be able to succeed in his ploy to revive TPA.

TAA is a big government program usually favored by Democrats—it increases the size and scope of government, and is essentially viewed by Republicans as a welfare program—so their opposition to it during Friday’s complicated and confusing House vote schedule was not opposition to TAA as a specific concept, but opposition to the full Obamatrade package, especially TPA.

House Minority Leader 

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

9%

 gave a blistering floor speech against the full Obamatrade deal, causing a Democratic rebellion against TAA—and forcing Ryan to push Republicans to vote for that part of the package.

Via: Breitbart

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‘TAA’, ‘TAA’, America!

The TAA (Trade Adjustment Assistance) vote coming Tuesday is the Final Act of the hideous Fundamental Transformation of America.  It brings forward an America that will exist in name only in a Barack Obama-styled Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) that holds ultimate power over 40 percent of the world’s total economy. It’s the original camel as a horse designed by a committee; a European Union called the Trans-Pacific Partnership that is really the North American Union; a partnership this time without Mexico, whose population already uses the U.S. as its primary escape hatch.

That no one knows what’s in the TPP is the one big lie that keeps the masses from realizing that the TPP, packaged in the one-party politics that is now the United States of America,  is spinning non-stop toward an inevitable fait accompli.

That Nancy Pelosi and the Dems have turned on their master Obama is merely a Machiavellian ploy at work.

Watch the video (below) of Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi’s broad-grinned, cat-that-swallowed-the-canary joint entry into a meeting on the Hill yesterday.  Do they look like natural foes to you?

What about TPP coordinator, Paul Ryan as Obama’s latest Go-to Guy for getting the job done?

Window dressing that should be filed under ‘o’ for ‘obfuscation’.

Via: Canada Free Press

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How Obama’s Trade Deal Unraveled in the US House

President Obama’s last-minute push to whip votes for his trade bill backfired Friday as the House of Representatives killed a related measure providing aid to workers displaced by trade. The legislation was critical to the president’s pursuit of greater authority to negotiate trade agreements.

The 126-to-302 vote marked a failure for Obama after forging an unusual alliance with House Republicans. Skeptical Democrats argued the bill authorizing Trade Adjustment Assistance was funded through cuts to Medicare and would accelerate job losses.

“Our people would rather have a job than trade assistance,” House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said before the vote. “Whatever the deal is with other countries, we want a better deal for America’s workers.”

Rep. Charlie Dent, R-Pa., said House Democrats have taken the trade bill “hostage” in an attempt to “undermine America’s trade agenda.”

“The Democrats are very good at talking about how much they care about the fight for working men and women who have been displaced and they didn’t send that message today, they did quite the opposite,” Dent said in an interview with The Daily Signal.

Trade Adjustment Assistance was used as an attempt to entice Democrats to support a second bill central to the trade deal. TAA, as it’s known, would have provided job training and relocation allowances for those who lose their jobs because of increased international trade.

Democrats didn’t go for the ploy and instead struck a blow to a program they typically support, bucking Obama’s 40-minute plea for passage just hours before the vote.

Via: The Daily Signal

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Contentions: The Democratic Party is Officially Leaderless

• President Barack Obama wanted Congress to pass a variety of trade-related proposals, and he didn’t want to have to rely on Republican votes in order to see that happen. He lobbied his fellow Democrats in favor of trade, and he lobbied them hard. In the end, it wasn’t enough. On Friday, the president endured a stern censure from the very member of the party for whom he once served as a savior. Barack Obama’s presidency is all but over. It’s Hillary Clinton’s party now, but she does not seem inclined to lead it so much as to emerge as its supervisor by default and through a process of attrition. She is not in a hurry to rush that process, and there is no alternative Democratic leader waiting in the wings. Inadvertently, what House Democrats did on Friday was to decapitate their own party.

Inadvertently, what House Democrats did on Friday was to decapitate their own party.

By a hair’s margin, the GOP-dominated House passed fast-track trade promotional authority (TPA) that will allow the president to prioritize trade negotiations and conclude the terms of a free trade deal with 11 Pacific Rim countries. But by a resounding 302 to 126-vote margin, however, the House resoundingly rejected a Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) proposal passed in the Senate. The TAA, a giveaway to unions and other labor interests that will potentially be negatively impacted as a result of the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, was soundly rejected.

Obama was not merely supportive of the passage of both TPA and TAA; he pressed his fellow Democrats in the House to pass both proposals. During the annual indulgence that is the Congressional baseball game at Nationals Park on Thursday, the president surprised the press when made an impromptu visit to the Democratic dugout. He smiled and waved to the adoring crowds, but Obama wasn’t there merely to soak in the applause; he was there to work House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi. It was clear that his cajoling was unsuccessful on Friday morning when the president made another surprise visit to the Capitol Building to implore his fellow Democrats not to abandon him. None of this extraordinary effort was enough.

Via: Commentary

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Republicans Watch With Bewilderment As Democrats Flounder on Trade

June 12, 2015 It's a new vantage point for Republican leaders. After nearly five years of intra-party squabbling of their own, Republicans are watching Democrats erupt into disarray over their own president's trade bill.

Friday morning, President Obama made his final pitch to the caucus, travelling to the Hill to do so. But, the president's only one of many messengers. Unions and other progressive groups have been lobbying members to vote against Trade Promotion Authority, which limits Congress to an up or down vote on future trade deals, as well as Trade Adjustment Assistance, a Democratic priority that provides resources for workers displaced by future trade deals. Democratic leaders had largely stayed neutral on the trade package, leaving the whip operation to the Obama administration.

On the actual vote, Democratic leadership split, with House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi giving a speech just before the vote declaring her opposition. Pelosi voted against TAA while Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer would up voting for it. TAA went down by a big 302-126 margin, seriously imperilling the fate of Obama's trade deal.

Republicans pounced that Obama's inability to get members of his own party to support him was a reflection of his waning appeal on Capitol Hill.

"Democrats are caught up in a real challenge where the President of the United States has no clout with their members and they viewed it that the president has never paid attention to them, and when he came asking for something, he was out of step," said Pete Sessions, the chairman of the House Rules Committee.

Via: National Journal

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Obama Weekly Address, Saturday June 12, 2015

In this week's address, the President reiterated that his top priority is to grow the American economy and ensure that every hardworking American has a fair shot at success. It’s because of this commitment that the President has worked to enact smart new trade agreements that level the playing field for our workers, open new markets for our businesses, and hold other countries to the kinds of high standards that Americans are proud to hold ourselves to here at home. 

On Friday, Republicans and Democrats in the House took an important step by voting to help the United States negotiate and enforce high-standard trade deals. But they also failed to renew Trade Adjustment Assistance, despite the fact that it provides vital support to about 100,000 workers, and passed the Senate with bipartisan support. The President urged the House to pass TAA without delay so that more middle-class workers can earn the chance to participate and succeed in our global economy.  

Via: White House

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Obama trade push hits roadblock, key vote fails in House

DEVELOPING ... 

President Obama's trade push hit a major roadblock Friday as Democrats helped torpedo a bill considered crucial for the agenda to pass. 

In a 126-302 vote, the House killed the so-called Trade Adjustment Assistance bill -- a program that retrains workers displaced by trade. The bill was originally put on the table as a sweetener to help entice recalcitrant Democrats to back the president's overall agenda. 

But the president's own party is so opposed to that agenda, they voted down the sweetener. 

In a major defection for Obama, even House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined the rebellion in opposing TAA minutes before the vote. Though she supports the worker aid, she said it was the only way to "slow down the fast track." 

She predicted the main trade bill would be "stuck in the station" without TAA. 

Now, the president's entire trade plan indeed is up in the air, leaving Obama faced with a potentially humiliating defeat at the hands of his party. 

Despite the setback, the House was moving ahead immediately with the marquee item -- a bill giving Obama so-called "fast track" authority to negotiate trade deals that Congress could approve or reject, but not amend. He hoped to use the authority, already agreed to by the Senate, to complete a sweeping pact with 11 other Pacific Rim nations which would constitute the economic centerpiece of his second term. 

Via: Fox News

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