Posted on 05/13/2015 12:11:55 PM PDT by GIdget2004
Senate leaders have reached a deal to advance President Barack Obama’s trade initiative after a failed vote prompted a furious round of negotiating on Wednesday.
After trading offers throughout the night, party leaders agreed to vote on a fast-track trade bill that was blocked just 24 hours before by Democrats who’d wanted more assurances that their priorities would also be considered.
The agreement, announced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on the Senate floor, would give Democrats a chance to vote on two of their trade priorities as standalone bills, in addition to the fast-track measure.
Holding the additional votes would “not imperil” the fast-track bill, McConnell said. Republicans, pro-trade Democrats and the president all say the Trade Promotion Authority measure, which would allow the president to expedite trade pacts through Congress, is vital for approving a huge Pacific Rim trade agreement currently being negotiated by the administration.
“We have to take some of these votes separately or we kill the underlying legislation,” McConnell said. “It’s reasonable. and I look forward to our colleagues from across the aisle joining with us.”
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
Thanks, Mitch, you traitorous rat!
Let me guess:
In exchange for getting the fast track bill so that Obama will be able to kill America more quickly, McConnell has secured the votes to pass a sweeping gun ban bill, crack down on the unfettered exercise of the First Amendment, and grossly increase domestic spying on citizens.
I guess the Libs taught McConnell and Obama a lesson in negotiations.
Ole Mitch thought the secret of negotiating with your adversaries was to give them everything they wanted...up front!
Cave....
so a few more bribes just needed to be spread around
And this is why we refer to him as, “Obama’s Mitch!” I could use the other word, but we all know when it comes to McConnell, it’s the same meaning.
Have you ever noticed how Republicans are much more fierce negotiators when they represent the left than the right?
In spite of all those who told us how important it was to remove Democrats from power, I am convinced, the Republicans in office right now are far more dangerous to this country. They are killing this country with bad legislation, just so they can brag about legislative action.
the GOP only acts conservative when they are in the minority.
They are killing this country with self-enriching legislation. Everything they support and pass accrues more power and wealth to themselves, in the short term. That it is destroying American freedom and prosperity in the long term, is of no concern to them.
Flip-Flop by Cornyn. This was Cornyn this morning:
Senate GOP Reject Democrats’ Compromise Trade Deal
“That’s not acceptable,” Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said according to Politico. “We’re not willing to change that deal. Plus we’re not willing to let Democrats run the place. They seem to think that they’re still in the majority and that Sen. Reid is the majority leader. He is not.”
Damn McConnell
Wonder when we will read get to read it?
“Wonder when we will read get to read it?”
After the AP announces that trade with Israel has been ended, money for illegals has been tripled and the American people donated 20 billion to the Clinton Foundation.
McConnell will say, oops. We will get them next time.
USA needs jobs. Me thinks squaw right. Fast track UGH.
The Republicans, except Jeff Sessions, had already voted for this, it was the Democrats who held it up.
The Uniparty wins, the people lose, again.
That’s what bipartisanship means to me.
It is beyond disgusting.
The reason there’s a major split in the Democratic party — Obama vs. Congressional Democrats — over the current free-trade legislation is because the unions are strongly against it.
In fact, the unions have threatened to withhold campaign contributions from Democrats who join with Obama in supporting the bill.
As for Obama himself, he’s not running for reelection so he has no reason to listen to the unions anymore. Now he seems more interested in ingratiating himself with pro-free-trade business interests and potential donors to his presidential library.
Which leaves the Congressional Democrats on their own, trying to fool the unions into believing that if they divide the bill up into little pieces the union bosses will be too dumb to understand that they’ll still be drinking the same wine only in different little bottles.
This shouldn’t be too hard to do, unless the two Democrats who strongly oppose free trade on principle — Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders — insist on continuing to speak out about the dangers free trade poses to American workers.
Silencing Sen. Warren should not be difficult since she virtually silenced herself when she withdrew from the public spotlight by refusing to run for president. But Bernie Sanders is a different matter — he wants to speak out, and we’ll never hear the end of his disgust for Obama and his Democratic henchmen if the current free-trade bill goes through with Democratic support.
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