{"id":15235,"date":"2015-05-13T12:25:12","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T19:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=15235"},"modified":"2015-05-13T12:25:12","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T19:25:12","slug":"democrats-rejected-fast-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2015\/05\/13\/democrats-rejected-fast-track\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats Rejected Fast Track"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish I could tell you that the headline tells the whole story, but it does not.  As good as it felt to see fast track sent packing, I fear it was only a temporary victory that we won only because Bought Bitch Mitch tried to pull a fast one by welching on the deal Republicans made with a handful of Senate Democrats.<\/font><\/p>\n

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\"0513TPP\"<\/p>\n

Divisive trade promotion authority legislation the White House is seeking to put the Trans-Pacific partnership on a fast-track to passage ran off the rails today, with the United States Senate voting mostly along party lines not to invoke cloture on the bill<\/a>. The legislation could still come up again, but at least for the time being, it is blocked, much to the displeasure of Mitch McConnell and Barack Obama.<\/p>\n

Fifty-two senators voted to proceed to final passage on the bill, not counting McConnell, who switched his vote from yes to no so that he could bring the legislation up again later. Forty-four senators voted to filibuster.<\/p>\n

Although a number of Democrats support granting President Obama the fast-track authority he wants (including, unfortunately, the Pacific Northwest\u2019s Patty Murray, Maria Cantwell, and Ron Wyden), they all voted to filibuster today, with the lone exception of Thomas Carper of Delaware.<\/p>\n

The reason? Leverage. Fast-track is a major priority for Mitch McConnell, the top Senate Republican. He wants it bad. Knowing this, Democrats insisted that McConnell bring up three other semi-related pieces of trade legislation as well.<\/p>\n

The first, called Trade Adjustment Assistance, is meant to help workers who find themselves out of work due to foreign competition. Another  pertains to custom and trade enforcement, and has provisions concerning currency manipulation. The third would set up trade preferences for nations in sub-Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n

McConnell refused to bring up the latter two bills, and so the Democrats stuck together and filibustered the fast-track bill\u2026<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Inserted from <The Cascadia Advocate<\/a>><\/p>\n

Click through for the rest.  The Author did a fine job.<\/font><\/p>\n

Chris Hayes also covered this quite well, interviewing Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and economist Joseph Stieglitz.<\/font><\/p>\n