Conservative constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein agreeing with Alan Morrison: Fast Track is "defective constitutionally" (source: Thom Hartmann program)by Gaius PubliusThere's a growing recognition within the legal community that the ISDS provisions of treaties like NAFTA, TPP, many trade agreements already signed and almost all agreements going forward ... may well be unconstitutional.
While we all cheered the failure (TAA) to pass Trade Adjustment Assistance in the hope that its defeat would stop Fast Track, the House quickly voted to pass Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) with 219 votes (218 is a majority but there were some abstentions). This situation means that the House and Senate have not passed identical versions of Fast Track (because the Senate version includes TAA) so Fast Track cannot go to the President’s desk yet to be signed into law.
Wall Street and Big Business, usually thought of as an integral part of the Republican Party, finances The New Dem faction of the House Democratic caucus to ensure that they have their fingers in the internal affairs of both parties. Currently there are 46 New Dems in the House and, generally speaking, they tend to be the most conservative Democrats in the House, the ones who back corporate/Wall Street policies and the Republican agenda.
It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.
— Attributed to Henry Ford
FRIDAY AFTERNOON UPDATE:Fast Track fizzles in the HouseAs you recall, the way the thing was structured, with the House having to pass exactly the same bill the Senate did in order to get it onto the president's desk, a snag in any piece of the legislative puzzle meant the whole thing falls apart, at least for now. And as the NY Times's Jonathan Weisman wrote this afternoon:
It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning. […]
Brown has been fighting against the job-killing corporate trade agenda since long before he was ever elected to the Senate. He was the primary champion of the battle against these unfair trade bills in the House-- just as Grayson is today. Last week, Brown did an OpEd for the Jackson County Times-Journal about the dangers of fast-tracking the TPP.
UPDATE: The Rule as described below passed the House, 217–212, with eight Democrats jumping in at the last minute to push it over the line. McCarthy's order of business will start soon, presumably Friday. The roll call vote on the Rule is here. Blumenauer was a lead vote, again. There could be trouble ahead, with yet more kind words for Pelosi's helpful role, from New Dem chair Ron Kind, at the link.
Ross Perot describes the "giant sucking sound going south." Notice how right he is about all the other evils he describes — how public officials "cash out," for example, or the simple logic of dumping your domestic work force if all you care about is "making money." Notice also that the questioner is a pro–trade agreement shill.by Gaius PubliusI'm not sure how the coming vote on Fast Track and TPP in the House will go.
I was born in NYC and my parents moved to Nassau County when I was a kid so they could raise me and my sisters in the suburbs. That's a typical story for folks who live in Nassau County today. My folks moved to Valley Stream first and then out to Roosevelt, both of which are in NY-04, the Nassau County district represented by conservative New Dem Kathleen Rice. And Rice, a former Nassau County District Attorney, has a similar story.
