Tag Archives: congress

Get Ready to Call ‘Em Out On the TPP!

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 1 comment

So, on May 22, the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) (“Fast Track”) Bill passed the Senate 62 – 37, with 14 Democrats defecting to the pro-Fast TracK/Trade-Pacific Partnership (TPP) forces. However, all was not wine and roses for the Administration and Fast Track/TPP proponents in the Senate.

First, the pro-TPP forces sustained a temporary defeat on May 12, when the Senate would not approve debating Fast Track, introducing delay into the process. The problem was quickly fixed with agreements to consider and vote on related issues such as Trade Adjustment Assistance, forced child labor, and currency manipulation outside of Fast Track. But nevertheless the glitch was unanticipated, and looked bad for an Administration wanting clear sailing in the Senate for Fast Track. Continue reading →

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Posted in Joe Firestone, Uncategorized

Tagged congress, consent of the governed, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, tyranny

TPP: Call ‘Em Out In the House, Now!

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 1 comment

In a previous post, I discussed the likelihood that the Fast-Track bill, if it passed the House, would need to return to the Senate again to align the different bills produced by the two Houses. I focused on the importance of Fast-Track/TPP opponents preparing for that return by building the opposition into a movement exerting continuous pressure on Senators to expand the size of the opposition to the bill in both parties.

I also pointed out that an emerging movement should be emphasizing the governance impact of Fast-Track/TPP on national, state, and local sovereignty, separation of powers, consent of the governed and democracy, more than the many other TPP issues that have emerged. In my view, the governance issues are the winning issues against the Fast-Track/TPP initiative for a number of reasons.

This is so because they cut against the beliefs that 1) the people, ought in the final analysis to rule; 2) the independence of the United States is, above all, to be treasured and ought not to be subordinated to corporations and big money; and 3) the United States is an exceptional nation, in part because its governance institutions, with all their warts are still superior to all others on earth. Continue reading →

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged congress, consent of the governed, democracy, Democratic Leadership, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, oligarchy, paul ryan, sovereignty, the House, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, treason, tyranny

Is Progressivism in the Eye of the Beholder?

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 6 comments

Thomas Palley recently blogged a post that was cross-posted at Naked Capitalism where I read it. In it, he discussed the question of whether Hillary Clinton’s apparent intention to run as a progressive in 2016 represents a sincere change in her views, or whether it is just a political communications strategy to please the progressive base of the Democratic Party.

In his analysis, Palley points to Clinton’s failure to answer questions of journalists and to be pinned down to specifics on policy questions. He also points to the fact that the economic advisers who are central to Clintonworld still include Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Peter Orszag, and, I think, he reasonably could have added Gene Sperling and Jack Lew, who are still serving President Obama, but who were two of Bill Clinton’s mainstays. These economists, and others associated with the Clintons had a hand in all the economic policy failures of the past 20 years, and continues with this money quote: Continue reading →

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Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged bernie sanders, congress, expanding SS, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, obamacare, progressive movement, public option, Social Security benefits, TPP, trade agreements, Trans-Pacific Partnership

TPP: The Fascism Issue

Posted on May 4, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 11 comments

If the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement will, if implemented, and as I’ve argued elsewhere, result in the death of national and state sovereignty, constitutional separation of powers, and democracy, then what system and what principles will replace these things? Eric Zuesse answers that it will be Fascism. And implicitly, that we are going through an evolution from representative democracy to fascism and that trade deals like the TPP, the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) mediate the transfer “. . . of democratic national sovereignty to international fascist bodies that represent global corporate management. . . . ”

Continue reading →

11 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged autarky, command economy, congress, consent of the governed, fascism, Fast Track Authority, ideology, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, ISDS tribunals, MMT, modern money theory, national sovereignty, separation of powers, state sovereignty, totalitarianism, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership

Fast/Track/TPP: The Death of National Sovereignty, State Sovereignty, Separation of Powers, and Democracy

Posted on May 1, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 5 comments

Most of the critical attention given to the Fast Track Trade Agreement legislation and to the associated Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Congressional – Executive Agreement on mainstream corporate media and by politicians and establishment interest groups interacting with them in the beltway echo chamber, has focused on the likely or possible economic impacts of these. But relatively little attention has focused on sovereignty, constitutional separation of powers, or democracy impacts, which however are being covered increasingly well in alternative social media. See here, here, here, and here.

In hopes of breaking through this fragmentation by type of media of the debate over the TPP, I’ll focus this post only on governance impacts and try to make the case, that this so-called trade agreement, if passed and implemented would create profound governance changes in the United States without benefit of the constitutional amendments that would normally be required to accomplish such changes. I’ll also make the case that the governance impacts destroy national sovereignty, state sovereignty, separation of powers, and democracy.

Continue reading →

5 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged bill black, congress, consent of the governed, Ellen Brown, Fast Track Authority, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, ISDS tribunals, MMT, monetary sovereignty, national sovereignty, separation of powers, state sovereignty, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, tyranny

Ridiculing Concerns About TPP Tyranny

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 17 comments

People who support the Administration’s efforts on the TPP have been known to reply to my posts on this subject by attempting to ridicule the scenarios I’ve presented as possible under the TPP Agreement as “out there” speculation of the tin foil variety that will never actually happen. For those who think that my examples of what is possible under the TPP are just this kind of speculation, please keep in mind that I don’t have the proposed draft agreements to work from.

This is due to the President’s decision to classify the drafts and seek Fast Track Authority before disclosing them more freely even to Congress for an up or down vote. However, there is no indication from anyone that the actual drafts of the agreement contain rules that would definitively prevent the possible very damaging consequences I’ve mentioned here for example. Continue reading →

17 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged bill black, congress, consent of the governed, elizabeth warren, Ellen Brown, Fast Track Authority, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, ISDS tribunals, MMT, monetary sovereignty, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, tyranny

Indicting the Trans – Pacific Partnership: Even One of These Counts Is Sufficient to Vote to Kill It!

Posted on April 27, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 8 comments

To really appreciate what a travesty the TPP is, and the scandal of the failure of our Congress to reject it, and the “Fast Track Authority“ sought for it, out of hand, I’m going to list 23 negative consequences that would likely follow from it. Any one of these, would, by itself be sufficient for any representative of the people, Senator or Congressperson, to vote to kill it. I’ll offer this list in the form of stanzas appropriate for a chant, except for the starting point in the list.

The tune of the chant that might be used is the tune used for Dayenu, the passover seder chant in which Dayenu means “It would have been sufficient,” where the reference is to all the things the almighty is purported to have done for the Israelites on their way out of Egypt and during their wanderings in the Sinai. I’m sure the President is familiar with this chant since he has had seders at the White House more than once. I’m also sure that he never envisioned using Dayenu to highlight the horrors of one of his favorite projects, the passage of “Fast Track Authority,” the TPP, and other “free trade” agreements such as the TTIP, and the TISA, all of which would get “Fast Track Authority” if the present bill passes. Continue reading →

8 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged congress, consent of the governed, Dayenu, elizabeth warren, Fast Track Authority, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, ISDS tribunals, MMT, monetary sovereignty, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, tyranny

How Can Our Senators and Representatives Vote for Giving Away Our Monetary Sovereignty?

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 22 comments

Right now the US fulfills the three essential conditions for monetary sovereignty: 1) it issues its own non-convertible currency, 2) which it allows to float on international currency markets; and 3) it owes no debts in any currency other than dollars. Because it is monetarily sovereign, and can always meet its obligations the US can never be forced into insolvency.

It can become insolvent due to Congressional decisions such as failing to raise or repeal the debt ceiling, or Executive decisions such as failing to use its platinum coin minting authority to fill the public purse and then pay its bills once it has reached the debt ceiling. But again, it cannot be forced into insolvency by external financial or economic factors that are beyond the control of the Federal Government (including the Congress).

Continue reading →

22 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged congress, elizabeth warren, Fast Track Authority, Fiscal Responsibility, Fiscal Sustainability, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, ISDS tribunals, Lori Wallach, MMT, monetary sovereignty, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership

Consent of the Governed: Stop the Emerging Tyranny!

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 4 comments

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, . . .

This, of course, is from the Declaration of Independence, one of the sacred texts of American politics and political theory. When the consent of the governed is superceded, or is not given due to force or manipulation, then that is tyranny and illegitimate, because no powers of such a government are or can be just.

So, let’s ask, based on what we know about the proposed Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement from leaks of current drafts, and also based on the proposed procedures for enacting it, and those for exiting the agreement, is it true that the TPP, if passed, would have the consent of the governed and hence be legitimate? Or would it be an instance of imposition of tyranny on the American people and also on the people of other signatory nations?

Continue reading →

4 Comments

Posted in Joe Firestone

Tagged congress, consent of the governed, declaration of independence, investor state dispute settlement, ISDS, Jefferson, Lambert_Strether, Madison, Naked Capitalism, TPP, Trans-Pacific Partnership, tyranny

The New York Times Covers the TPP: A Commentary

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Joe Firestone | 3 comments

Wikileaks did us all another service yesterday by releasing the “Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP): Investment Chapter Consolidated Text,” and collaborating with the New York Times to get the word out. Jonathan Weisman wrote the story for the New York Times. Apart from providing a very high level and very selective summary of what the chapter says, the article contains talking points used by proponents and opponents of the TPP. I think a close commentary on the article and associated issues would be useful. So here it is.

An ambitious 12 nation trade accord pushed by President Obama would allow foreign corporations to sue the United States government for actions that undermine their investment “expectations” and hurt their business, according to a classified document.

Why are we negotiating the TPP at all? Why is it the business of the Representatives of the people of the United States in Congress to support agreements that will mitigate the political risks borne by American businesses who chose to invest in other nations, as well as the political risks borne by foreign corporations, who choose to invest in the United States? Why is it their business to provide protection against such risks to foreign corporations beyond the protections we provide to our own corporations?

Continue reading →