Liberals plot new way to blow up Obama’s trade deal--Greg Sargent

[KoKo]

(This is all pretty complicated)

Liberals plot new way to blow up Obama’s trade deal
By Greg Sargent June 2

The Senate has already voted to grant President Obama Fast Track authority to negotiate the massive Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, but the smart Beltway money says it faces a much, much tougher test in the House. If Fast Track does go down in the House, it could take the whole TPP with it.

And in the House, a big bloc of liberals has hit on what they hope will be a new way to sink Fast Track. It turns on an obscure aspect of this debate that has gone under-covered: A problematic funding mechanism for a program, which would be part of the whole deal, that grants assistance to workers displaced by trade.

In a new letter to Speaker John Boehner and Dem leader Nancy Pelosi, 61 House Dems are demanding a new funding mechanism for the spending for displaced workers, which is called Trade Adjustment Assistance, or TAA. The letter was spearheaded by Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chairs Keith Ellison and Raul Grijalva.

You’d think it doesn’t matter much what 61 House Dems do or say, given that Republicans run the place. But due to the strange, messy process that is coming together to get Fast Track passed, it’s not inconceivable that their opposition could matter. Or, at least, that’s what this bloc of liberals hopes.

Here’s how it all works. House GOP leaders — who support Fast Track and the TPP — are uncertain whether they can get Fast Track passed, because a bunch of House conservatives may vote against giving Obama Fast Track authority even to negotiate a free trade deal, because, well, you know, it’s Obama. As a result, most reports say, Fast Track will need the support of at least 20 House Democrats, or perhaps more, to pass.

There is a group of pro-trade House Democrats who are prepared to vote for Fast Track. But one of that bloc’s leaders, Rep. Ron Kind, flatly told Politico that pro-trade Dems would need Trade Adjustment Assistance to pass first, presumably because pointing to help for displaced workers would make it politically easier to vote to expedite a free trade deal.

The Senate version of Fast Track, in fact, explicitly included TAA to win over pro-trade Senate Dems, thus getting it through the Upper Chamber. But in the House, things are more complicated: Because many House Republicans probably don’t want to vote for federal funding to help workers, GOP leaders are expected to hold separate votes on the TAA and Fast Track measures, the idea being that the first can pass with a lot of Dems, and the second can pass with mostly Republicans.

Now here’s the rub. The Senate version of TAA is funded in part by cuts to Medicare growth.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2015/06/02/liberals-plot-new-way-to-blow-up-obamas-trade-deal/

[Hoyt]

1. The cuts are a drop in the bucket, and wouldn't start for 9 years, if at all.

Heck, Senator Warren supports cutting considerably more than that in funding for the ACA because medical device maker lobbyists got to her.

I don't think this route will be effective.

[mikehiggins]

2. hmmm...let's see now...

Medicare money used to send US jobs overseas!

That'd stink up the TAA for sure, ya betcha.

[KoKo]

3. I know...strange they'd put Medicare "Back on the Table" as a negotiating point...

isn't it. Next the "Chained CPI" and who knows what else by the time they finish passing the TPP and it's Tentacles.