Get ready for the next big snow job - The Obamatrade Salesman Cometh

Expect the blizzard of lies blowing out of Washington to reach whiteout proportions in the coming weeks.

When President Obama announced in the State of the Union that he would ask Congress to give him yet more power in the form of fast track trade promotion authority, he fired the starting gun in the race to hoodwink the American people and their elected representatives.   

Assembled on the starting line is a rogue’s gallery of swindlers, cheats and jips, ready to peddle their line of hooey to anyone they can hoodwink.

Bloomberg news reports big-shot corporatist cronies, Obama’s BFFs, are riding to his rescue, their propaganda machine operating at full tilt. IBM is putting the arm on employees to tell lawmakers to vote for Obamatrade.  Recall, IBM had to settle a case with the feds for hiring foreigners instead of American tech workers. They figure in the long run it’s cheaper to change the law than keep paying fines.

As a public service, let’s unpack the lies that will be foisted on the American people in the coming weeks by the administration and its enablers. Here’s a primer to separate the jive from the truth.

“Trade promotion authority would empower Congress to set our negotiating objectives and hold the administration accountable.”

That’s from Rep. Paul Ryan, new Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, who is all in for giving Obama the enhanced powers he’s asking for. The truth is, the Administration has already been negotiating the TransPacific Partnership trade deal behind Congress’ back for the last six years. To show up now to “set negotiating objectives” is like Rosey Ruiz crossing the finish line and claiming to have run the marathon. But then again, Ryan has had his own issues with marathons.  

The part about trade promotion authority being key to “holding the administration accountable” is more fakery.  The truth is, Congress would cede its constitutional right to amend whatever deal President Barack Obama comes up with, and would be limited to an up-or-down vote after critics are allowed a measly 10 hours to debate the multi-thousand page measure. The TransPacific Partnership deal we’re talking about here involves 12 countries and affects everything from what we eat to the energy we use - as well as the Internet. Congress surrendering its authority to fully examine and amend such a sweeping agreement is hardly the way to hold this president accountable.

“Businesses need to sell more American products overseas. Exporters tend to pay their workers higher wages.”

This is another fancier version of the claim that the TransPacific Partnership will create American jobs. On that count, authoritative supporters of the trade deal say the TPP will have a “modest” effect, at best adding only a fraction of a percent to GDP in the year 2025, while the government’s own analysis says it will add nothing - zero, zilch - to GDP.  Analysts agree that the manufacturing sector stands to lose under the agreement, while Wall Street and ag exports could gain. Well, the Wall Street bailout boys do make more than the rest of us, and the folks working in chicken processing plants have higher wages, too – higher than what they earned across the border.

“We need TPP to offset China’s rise in Asia. China wants to write the rules for the world’s fastest-growing region. We should write those rules.”

The same people pushing this argument pushed for letting China into the World Trade Organization in the first place - and we know how that worked out. In case no one noticed, China, like Obama, doesn’t follow the rules, no matter who writes them. In fact, we’re seeing that Obamatrade will strengthen China’s ties in Asia, not weaken them. China is already investing billions into Vietnam so that it can flood America with more cheap clothing and shoes under the TPP.

“Ninety-five percent of the world’s customers live outside our borders, and we can’t close ourselves off from those opportunities.”

And most of them live on less than fifty bucks a month. Some opportunity there.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its useful idiots in both parties will say and do anything to give Obama the power he needs to ram the ill-conceived TransPacific Partnership through Congress.

They will be all over the media saying it will create jobs. And it will – a snow job.