Trans-Pacific Partnership The Obamatrade Trojan Horse

There is a wave of public discourse surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership[TPP] that cries for President Obama not to sell the American worker out to a handful of corporations. In reality more than just a handful. If approved would create a whole new set of rules regulating the economies of 13 countries or 40% of the world. These countries span four different continents bordering the Pacific Ocean. These rules cover everything from pharmaceuticals to Digital Copyright law. This deal has the potential to change the way you and I and the World interacts with the Global economy.  With a trade deal as large as the TPP and based on President Obama"s campaign pledge for transparency, you would think his administration would be keeping us up to date as much as possible. However, the exact opposite has been the reality. The United States has negotiated the TPP almost entirely in secret. About 600 private corporations[Corporate Lobby] has assisted in keeping this deal behind closed doors. Most what we know about the TPP come from leaked documents. These reports paint a gruesome picture of the American worker. [See Leaked Documents Here]

The Wikileaks document proves what many expert economists expected that the TPP wasn't a free trade deal, but a  Corporate Handout Disguised As A Trade Deal.

 This deal would allow foreign private corporations to sue countries over regulations those companies don't like.  It would allow them to expand the monopoly powers of  pharmaceutical patients. It[TPP] would also allow corporations the go ahead to start blocking websites for violating copy write law. In addition,  showed the Obama Administration on behalf of the United States has been pushing some of the TPP harshest intellectual property laws. To the point, the TPP would sacrifice national sovereignty, public health, and internet freedom. 

All this, in the name of helping corporate CEO's wallets stay fat and their shareholders happy. For this reason, the TPP is more dangerous than ordinary trade deals like NFTA. The TPP rewards companies that send jobs overseas and gut environmental regulations to keep big businesses in check. The TPP gives the corporation almost total control how you and I and the world interact with them. It totally restricts  how countries can fight back against these said corporations. 

Julian Assange

If instituted, the TPP[Intellectual Property] regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you're ill or one day might be sick, the TPP has you in it's cross-hairs. [See Source] 

Let's put that statement into context. What Assange is saying here is that the TPP put the rights of profit-driven businesses over We The People and the rules and regulations WE The People have put in place to protect ourselves. What our research has found is that the Obama Administration doesn't want Congress to take a closer look at the deal and expects We The People just to take his word that this is a proper deal for our country. The president is trying to use his unique leverage to promote a legislative gimmick called " Fast-Tracking" which would keep Congress from making any amendments to the deal. Instead, this treaty would go right to the floor where it would have to only past a simple majority vote. 

Not So Fast Mr. President!

A growing number of bi-partisan lawmakers including people as far away from each other on the political spectrum as one can imagine have expressed opposition to this deal. They have pleaded with President Obama to hold out fast-tracking this legislation. As of the rendition of this article, they have failed in that plea. 

There Is A Deeper Story Here.

The Wikileaks reports were critical  cause in pulled back the cloak and veil of secrecy surrounding this trade deal. What has resulted to the present is a strong populist backlash and grassroots activist forming strong bi-partisan coalitions to fight this deal from ever becoming a reality. Once people got a peek at what TPP is all about anger ensued and the fact the negotiations have been done behind closed doors only heighten the will to bring this trade deal from the dark to the light. This agreement has been so secretive that even people working on it had to sign a classified non-disclosure contract. What is problematic in this writer's mind why would a president that ran with the idea of being the people's president want to keep this so quiet. This deal will put people out of jobs and does nothing to help the people who got him elected. 

Why Obamatrade?

President Obama

What the TPP all comes down to is the fact and we saw the same thing with President Clinton who was surrounded by the " Robert Ruben Types," and the " Wall Street Types," it's payback time for the corporate lobby money and to tow the Democratic hierarchy line. The mainstream media has ignored the fact and the Democrats as well that Obama came up much the same way. There is no stronger supporter of President Obama than the House of Public Discourse, but this political posturing by Obama is not the " change," he ran on in 2008 but, the continuation of the status -quo politics governed by influence peddling from the Corporate Lobby who has both political parties in their hip-pockets. 

If anyone thinks President Obama did not make promises to these factions while running for office is in Disneyland, and the TPP is payback for those promise made on the campaign trail plain and simple.  Politicians get all this money, and they don't give it out not wanting  special favors in return. So, the TPP constitutes payback time. What is discouraging Obama knew this was counter to the American worker and for that reason alone has tried his dead level  best to keep it entirely secret?  There is no other way to soft shell the facts President Obama has intentionally tried to keep the public and press from knowing the details of this trade deal. 

One of the most interesting aspects of the TPP trade agreement is that the United States is the one pushing the hardest for it. We can see the hand of Microsoft, Disney, and Sony just to name a few hands all in this trade deal. What has happened  Exxon, DuPont, Dow Chemicals, all the big companies have had a field day gaming the system and taking away sovereignty by way of NAFTA. The TPP is NAFTA on steroids. The TPP trumps NAFTA in that NAFTA can't contest sovereign law the TPP does. We have already seen oil companies sue people in Canada who disallows them to drill for oil on their land. [See Another Example] We are already seeing bought and paid for judges throwing We The People regulations to the side in favor of big oil companies. This activity is happening across the board in many industries. The TPP is a license for a complete takeover of what We The People hold dear the right for us to govern ourselves. What the TPP says  we don't have to honor OSHA, we are not going to accept regulations, we don't have to pay a minimum wage we are not going to allow Unions. 

When you take regulations away, and you allow corporations to get involved in interfering with sovereign regulations and laws it never works to the benefit of We The People. For all Democrats who proclaim that we tow the party line and just blindly accept this deal cause Obama says so this is the " Gotcha Moment."  President Obama knows this deal is a direct contradiction to the promise of "Change" It's the old " Washington 

Two-Step." Just like every politician no matter the party Obama is owned by Wall Street and the Corporate Lobby on this trade deal.  It is not easy  for this writer to report this I find no pleasure in doing so but the House of Public Discourse is a House dealing with facts, not hyperbole or hypothetical's.  The bigger  picture here is  a " tell of the tale," how influence peddling in our governance is an all out assault on the everyday American's liberty. 

In Closing, one of the real positives for We The People has been the Wikileaks report. It has slowed down the Fast-Track legislation on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and exposed the TPP for what it is an Obama Administration's " Trojan Horse."

TPP threatens good American jobs / Economy, Trade, Labor

America The Land Of Inequality

There is no denying that America has become a nation of inequality. The $64,000 question is "how do you constrain capitalism from doing stupid things that are not in the public interest?[Robert Reich] In practice we have a set of rules and regulations to check these rogue factions in our community. However, our democracy has been corrupted, and these rules and regulations are being discarded or not enforced. If the corruption by the excesses of the American Capitalist is the cause of this malfeasance then the first thing we must do is get big money out of our politics.

Robert Reich On Inequality For All

On the issue of inequality in America, there is much confusion. Most people of the right-wing persuasion blame the poor. On the other hand, people on the left want to blame the rich. There is a lot of blame going around. According to well-respected economist Robert Reich, "people are not looking at the actual structure of the economy as its evolving." "They're not looking how we need to change the organization of the economy." America is the most unequal of all advanced societies in the world. Our research found many misconceptions floating around out in the public sphere. Many believe the economy is some natural force that can't be changed. In short, we all are slaves to the immutable economy. However, when you " peel back the onion," the economy is a set of rules and regulations.

Our economy is not a state of nature. 

Robert Reich

There are rules regarding property and liability, anti-trust laws, bankruptcy, subsidies, and taxes for various things. These are the rules and guidelines for the game we call the economy. These rules determine the outcome of the game. In a democracy, if you don't like the rules of the game you can create a conscientious and change the rules. If we had a democracy, that was working as envisioned by our founding fathers[See Source]  The rules for the game of economy can be difficult to explain in writing. To get a clear understanding, one must refer to the experts. Our source Robert Reich book " Beyond Outrage," does an excellent job of explaining these rules in writing. American economist has some hard questions to answer. Why does the United States have an unequal distribution of income and wealth by far than any other civilized country? And it's surging! Reich's metric for answering this question is to evaluate the earnings of the people at the top[1%] compared to the earnings of a typical worker[47%] which represents the middle.

Wealth Inequality in America

In Today's America, 400 of the nation's richest people have more wealth than half the population of the United States.

According to our source, which looked at IRS data stretching back to 1913 the beginning of the progressive income tax wealth inequality reached an all-time high in 2012. What was apparent from our research here in the House of Public Discourse America's economic growth has consistently been going to a small group of people at the top.[See Source] 

The Wealth Inequality In America Is Startling To Say The Least!

This inequality is tearing at the fabric of America. In the first three years, of the recovery from the recession brought on by the financial collapse of 2008, the top one percent of Americans took home 95% of the income gains. Amazing! In the past, as the economy grew so did everyone else. Ronald Reagan and his God-awful trickle down economics saw an end to this equitable formula and what we got in return was a nation in debt and growing now surging wealth inequality. Regular Americans knew this as shared prosperity. Along came the Republicans in the 1980's with these so-called family Christian values 'War on Drugs,' 'War on Women,' and "War on the Poor" calling this shared prosperity socialism. Hell, Eisenhower a Republican was president during most of this time of shared prosperity and We The People did not consider him a socialist, We did not think him abnormal. 

In the years of shared prosperity our nation's economy doubled. Moreover, everybody's income increased as well. Even, Americans in the bottom 5% percent did better. Then here comes Ronald Reagan and the extreme radicalization of the Christian Right,and  the "slobbering at the mouth," Capitalist Elect.  The 1980's changed the historical relationship of shared prosperity between economic growth and the growth in productivity and wages. Over the last three decades, most of the wealth and most of the new wealth has gone straight to the top.  Income gains went to the top and people in the middle, the median worker, the median wage stagnated.

How Do We Fix It?

To the point, a strong and vibrant labor movement needs to be orchestrated and based on our research here at the House of Public Discourse could be the " wonder drug" for lack of a term. 

Drawing on a myriad of evidence  as in our nation's past a re invigoration of equitable labor practices would go a long way in achieving an equal society.  The research bears it out clearly. Almost all health and social problems that disproportionately affect poor and middle class are greater in societies with higher levels of inequality. The widening income gap as mentioned earlier seems to be a direct result of the " War on Unions" and the lack of a strong and consistent labor movement in America. Another factor is the dwindling democratic constraints on the top 1% income earners. One of the conclusions we came to here in the House of Public Discourse is to implement practical limitations by extending democracy to our economic institutions.  Our study found equal societies gain greater equality by redistribution. We need a fundamental approach to reducing inequality in America. Our exhaustive research on the issue of " America The Land of Inequality," found that the weakening of the labor movement over the last quarter of the 20th Century has severely impacted the ability of working people to influence their standard of living and overall quality of life. 

One of the House of Public Discourse primary points of advocacy is to recreate a healthy, active labor movement in America. We achieve this with both political and social influence that will enable the old labor movement to regather itself and fight for a fairer more sustainable future for our country.

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