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| Give the man a halo, for this worker-friendly, environment-friendly step. |
The Crabgrass headline IS The Nation's headline, here.
That item notes:
There are a lot of reasons Senate majority leader Harry Reid shot down President Obama’s State of the Union request for a congressional grant of fast-track trade promotion authority to negotiate new free-trade deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Reid has a history of skepticism when it comes to trade deals. He opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement, permanent normalization of trade relations with China and a host of other arrangements that were favored by Wall Street interests.
Reid has a skeptical caucus. Only one Senate Democrat is on record in favor of granting fast-track authority, which would allow the administration to negotiate the TPP deal without meaningful congressional oversight or amendments. And that senator, Montana’s Max Baucus, is preparing to exit the chamber to become US ambassador to China. Senators who are sticking around, like Ohio’s Sherrod Brown and Massachusetts’s Elizabeth Warren, are ardently opposed.
Yet Reid’s rejection of Obama’s request was not a show of skepticism. It was an expression of outspoken opposition.
The majority leader took his own stand, announcing, “I am against fast track.”
Readers need to know, there are four major links in the original item, not kept in that quote; so GO TO THE ORIGINAL AND PLEASE FOLLOW THE LINKS.
Here is but one linked item. Read it.
Readers need to know what "TPP" and "fast-track" mean, and why readers should care.