Last night in the State of the Union Address, President Obama asked Congress to give him Fast Track legislation to allow the passage of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other free trade agreements with very limited debate and no possibility of amendment. But Fast Track would undermine all of the positives in President Obama’s economic program — devouring jobs, driving down middle class incomes, ending equal access to the internet, and allowing multinationals to devastate the environment and march ahead with climate destruction.
President Obama claimed that the highly secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) “Free Trade” Agreement will grow the economy. But a study by Public Citizen demonstrates that 20 years of trade pacts like NAFTA, CAFTA and the Korean Free Trade Agreement have shown that just isn’t true.
The TPP is so bad that the only way the Administration could get it through Congress would be by passing an extreme legislative procedure called Fast Track. Fast Track would allow the President to sign the TPP before Congress has voted to approve it, and then railroad the deal through Congress in only 90 days with limited debate and no amendments allowed. That is how NAFTA and the World Trade Organization got passed, and they led to decades of job loss and floods of unsafe imported food and products.
Congress members have not been able to see, much less participate in the drafting, of the TPP. Over 600 lobbyists from multinational corporations have drawn up its secret provisions. Sure enough — those portions of the TPP that have come to light thanks to the courageous actions of whistle-blowers, entirely reflect the interests of the huge corporations and threaten all regulations that restrict their merciless drive to profit, no matter the human cost.
The great majority of House Democrats signed a letter opposing Fast Track in 2013. Sadly, President Obama made it clear in his State of the Union speech that he plans to side with Wall Street and forsake his liberal base to team up with Speaker Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to try to get Fast Track for the TPP passed as soon as possible. Join the majority of House Democrats and over 550 labor, environmental, food safety, faith and consumer groups to make sure that there will be no Fast Track in 2015!
Please make sure your representative will vote ‘No’ on Fast Track, or call 1-888-804-8311!
