Obama Loses TPP Companion Bill Vote by a Landslide after Rushing to Congress to Whip Dem Votes

Early Friday morning, Martin O’Malley mobilized his base against the Fast Track (TPA) vote that was scheduled in the House of Representatives. O’Malley, whom Lyndon LaRouche has called the “only qualified Presidential candidate,” because of his undeterred support for reinstating Glass-Steagall to stop Wall Street, sent out an email message and short video of an interview, blasting the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Fast Track permission that gives Obama dictatorial powers over trade while keeping the bill secret.

“Fast Track is as it sounds: it speeds up the passage of TPP—a big, secret trade deal—right past Congress and to the President’s desk,” O’Malley’s message says. “This is a deal that could potentially threaten America’s food safety and offshore jobs, undercut wages, jack up prices on medicines, and more. And, it was written behind closed doors by big, multinational corporations with their own interests.

“With Fast Track, all Congress can do is vote yes or no on TPP. It’s all or nothing, no matter how bad the deal turns out to be. I’ve been against Fast Track for months, and just last week I reiterated: I oppose Fast Track, and secret trade deals.”

At about 9 AM Friday morning, Obama rushed to Capitol Hill to meet with Democrats to demand that they vote to pass the TAA — the Trade Adjustment Assistance — which the Republican leadership had bundled with the Fast Track to try to force the bills through. In the Democratic Caucus meeting he would take no questions.

But instead of voting with Obama, the House sent the TAA down in flames by a vote of 302 to 126, with Democrats rejecting him in large numbers. Unfortunately, the same House then voted an hour later and passed the TPA, 219 to 211—but that vote doesn’t make TPA law, because the House version has to be the same as the version in the Senate which, zombie-like, passed both TAA and TPA.

In reality, TAA isn’t part of the TPP treason—it is a bill that mostly funds re-training workers who lost their jobs in the destroyed US economy, for jobs at lower wages. Boehner bundled it with TPA—but it backfired on Obama. Now Boehner will give Obama another chance — a re-vote on the TAA on Tuesday, June 16.

The real solution to this treason is removing Obama from office by building the momentum to get it done.

But the rejection of Obama on this TPP component is an important development that came from the mobilization by the labor movement—AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka has been on a non-stop drive to defeat TPP; by the progressive Democrats and independents; and by O’Malley himself.

In addition to the email, O’Malley says in the video, “I believe that there’s a real threat within the lines of this agreement” because it creates “a precedent for multinational companies to sue their [U.S.] government” to avoid regulations that protect workers and the environment. He attacks the lack of investment in the economy, and “Now we’re told, `trust us’ on the secret agreement that we’re not allowed to read as a people before our representatives have to `fast track’ it. That’s not the way our country’s supposed to work.”