What’s going on?
While President Obama used his State of the Union address this year to champion progressive policies like free community college, raising taxes on the rich and expanding access to childcare, one of his proposals threatens to seriously harm American workers
The president asked for “fast track” authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a secretive trade deal that advocates have called “NAFTA on steroids.” After twenty years of NAFTA, it’s clear what these trade agreements do: they push jobs overseas, weaken food- and consumer-safety standards, circumvent environmental laws, restrict Internet freedom and roll back financial protections. The TPP would even empower corporations to sue governments over alleged loss of profits.
Fast- track authority would allow the president to sign the TPP before Congress has voted to approve it, and then railroad the deal through Congress in only ninety days with limited debate and no amendments allowed.
What can I do?
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This is a fight we can win. As George Zornick points out, only a handful of Democrats reacted positively to President Obama’s push for the TPP, and a number of members are speaking out against it.
From increasing drug costs to harming the environment to undermining labor protections, this video breaks down the danger of passing “the dirtiest deal you’ve never heard of.”
