Posted on 01/17/2020 9:47:46 AM PST by nikos1121
The Senate overwhelmingly passed President Trump's proposed replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on Thursday, sending the deal to the president’s desk for his approval.
Passage of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) represents a rare moment of bipartisanship in a bitterly divided Congress. The deal cleared the Senate by a vote of 89 to 10 on Thursday, close to a month after passing the House by a vote of 385-41.
Republicans were eager to help Trump accomplish a major pillar of his economic agenda despite their preferences for a deal with looser restrictions. Democrats, who broadly shared Trump’s scorn for NAFTA, were eager to revise the deal to enhance labor standard enforcement and scrap protections for high-cost pharmaceuticals.
Even so, nine Democrats opposed the USMCA largely due to environmental concerns, while one Republican rejected the agreement over concerns it would burden international trade.
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)
Toomey was the sole Republican to vote against the USMCA despite its importance to the president’s agenda and Trump’s reliance on Pennsylvania in the upcoming November election.
A staunch conservative and opponent of Trump’s trade agenda, Toomey argued that provisions meant to boost wages in Mexico and raise the tariff-free threshold for autos would spike prices for American consumers.
“Outside of a few necessary modernizations and modest market access improvements for Pennsylvania's dairy farmers, USMCA is a step backwards and I could not support its passage,” Toomey said in a Thursday statement.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)
Sanders, a fierce critic of trade deals, was the sole 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to oppose the USMCA. While the White House won over some trade hawks with stronger environmental standards, Sanders said the deal fell short of the transformational change needed to protect American workers.
“We need to fundamentally rewrite our disastrous trade agreements and create and protect good-paying American jobs,” Sanders said Wednesday in remarks on the Senate floor.
“This agreement does virtually nothing to stop the outsourcing of jobs to Mexico.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Like many progressive Democrats, Schumer praised the USMCA for including unprecedented labor standards and compliance checks to protect U.S. factory jobs. But the Senate minority leader opposed the deal over a lack of provisions intended to fight climate change.
“Instead of advancing global climate security by outlining binding and enforceable climate commitments from all three countries, the Trump administration provides significant incentives for manufacturers to move their business and their jobs from the U.S. to Mexico, where clean air and clean water regulations are much weaker," Schumer said.
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Gillibrand, who briefly ran for president last year, did not share Schumer’s praise for the deal’s new labor provisions.
“Bad trade deals, including NAFTA, hollowed out upstate New York’s manufacturing industry,” Gillibrand said in a statement Thursday. “I don’t believe this agreement will reverse this trend or help the generations of New Yorkers who lost good jobs."
Gillibrand also opposed the deal because it “fails to close loopholes for corporate polluters or set binding, enforceable standards to protect clean air and water.”
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.)..I F’n KNEW IT!!
AT least he’s better than Casey, right?...The F’g SAME!
Is Toomey really the best that Pennsylvania can do?.....No. Lou Barletta would have much preferable than any of those two.
” In case Markey forgot, The Port of Boston is in his home state. What an a-hole.”
He did forget....he couldn’t Boston on a map.
Marko.
So, the MSM can crow that there was bipartisan opposition to the bill.
No doubt in my mind that Toomey, previously a reliable conservative vote, sold his soul to get a seat in the Senate. Now he’s anti-Trump, pro gun control and who knows what the hell else.
He’s needed to defeat the impeachment sham. After that, he can and should be primaried.
Yep, I live here and he’s right. I live in the midst of a lot of people who think they’re Democrats, although few vote for Dems above the local level and most are more conservative than Republicans elsewhere.
“he has received almost half a million dollars to his campaigns from US Chamber of Commerce types.”
That is all you need to know about Toomey’s vote. He is bought and paid for by the USCC.
I keep hearing that no Republican will vote for the president’s removal, but I’m not so sure. I suspect that there are more than a handful who are willing to capitulate to Schumer’s and Pelosi’s demands; they have many times in the past and tend to apologize on those rare occasions when they don’t capitulate.
My questions are: 1) Who owns them (the RINOs) and the others; 2) Just how corrupt are they on a scale of 1 to 10 and what do they risk if exposed?; 3) Most of them fear the draining of the swamp - why?; and 4) How will they vote on removal if Roberts and McConnell agree to a secret vote?
Toomey is a tool of the Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce getting over $400K in campaign contributions. Those organizations were against USMCA and Trump’s immigration policies. Toomey put his interest in keeping his Senatorship ahead of the American people. Another pathetic Repub senator.
Except there’s nothing wrong with Alabama...
Carville was the epitome of the snarlin’ lunatic redneck that he imagined Alabamians were like, but we’re nothing like him. Same for rural Pennsylvanians.
It was Clinton, Carville and other perverts who are the aberrations of the Southern and country people.
I know!
In fact I prefer it to Philly or P-burgh.
Even though Carville said it, its still descriptive.
“I’d hate to think that Trump is only delaying the inevitable death of the Republic.”
Sadly, I think that’s exactly what is happening. Doomsday is being delayed. What are the chances of another like him in ‘24 or later? He’s a once-in-a-lifetime deal. He can fix stuff now, but with a bad election everything can be un-done within six months’ time.
Fix the courts, then the civil service, then the schools, then the media. Sounds far fetched, but it could happen. America itself was a miracle, in its founding.
if the worst comes to pass, it will be 1775 Concord all over again.
Yes. You do no the other senator is a democrat. Don’t worry you are in good company as liberals ask the same thing of senator Manchin of West Virginia.
Barely. I helped get this little prick elected, but never again.
If he survives a primary I will not vote for him again.
1. Lobbyists foreign and domestic
2. Corruption 7 of 10 (RATS are 10 of 10).
3. Their corruption would be exposed.
4. Remove. But secret vote will NeveR happen. Mitch’s voters would run him out on a rail in an election year for him.
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