MSNBC "The Ed Show"- Transcript: Trans Pacific Partnership
Interview
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For more, let me bring in Congressman Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Jim Keady,
Director of educating for justice and Lori Wallach Director of Public
Citizen Global Trade Watch.
Congressman, will there be votes for TAA and TPA tomorrow?
REP. MARK POCAN, (D) WISCONSIN: That we expect there`ll be two separate
votes, one on the trade adjustment assistance and one actually on the Fast-
Track proposal. But they`re intertwined and we expect they`ll be very,
very close votes. And I actually think on the TAA proposal, there`s a good
chance that could go down before we get a chance to vote on TPA.
DYSON: So, Congressman your reaction to this language being slipped into
the enforcement bill by Republicans?
POCAN: Yeah, well, you know, they have all kinds of little ornaments
they`re putting on the Christmas tree so to speak, to get their favor that,
you know, really we need to not only point those out. But more
importantly, they`re doing everything they can to get votes on their
Republican side, for the most part, House Democrats have been rock solid in
saying we`re going to fight for American jobs and for good wages, and
despite those things being on there, and the real problems around the Trade
Adjustment Assistance. We`re going to fight hard to make sure that we
defeat those first measures and hopefully the rest one even matter.
DYSON: So Lori there is language on climate change and immigration. How
do you think President Obama can deal with this, and how could he actually
go along with this?
LORI WALLACH, PUBLIC CITIZEN`S GLOBAL TRADE WATCH: That is the $64,000
question. Because what is in that customs and enforcement bill is the
opposite of what how sensibly is the administration`s agenda. However.
DYSON: Right.
WALLACH: Truth be told. So is the Fast-Track bill, the opposite of what
he`s supposed to be for. Because Fast-Tracking the TPP would make it
easier to offshore American jobs and push down our wages by making
Americans compete with folks in Vietnam who aren`t but making $0.60 an
hour. This whole thing makes you wonder, was there a rabbit hole, did he
go down there with Alice? What`s exactly is going on around here, because
it`s backwards.
And I think the Congressman was spot on in pointing out that folks want to
make sure they don`t have more of these job killing, unsafe import flooding
agreements, and they need to get their Congress people to vote against
both, the Fast-Track bill, but the trade adjustment assistance bill sort of
greases the path for the Fast-Track bill.
And by the way contrary to the intro unfortunately, they didn`t actually
fix it, it`s a gimmick fix, it`s a fix where you basically have to vote for
$700 million cut in Medicare.
DYSON: Yeah.
WALLACH: With the hope that you vote after to fix that thing you voted
for, except you`re on the record having voted for cutting granny`s
Medicare. So a lot of members of Congress are going fix me and think in
twice about doing that.
DYSON: Wow, pig Latin (ph), George or well, and Louis Carroll (ph) in one
bite. Thank you so much. So Jim, why pass this Trade Adjustment
Assistance assurance if no jobs are being outsourced?
JIM KEADY, DIRECTOR EDUCATING FOR JUSTICE: I`m not a complete loss of why
the President is been pushing the agenda as hard as he has. You know I
spent the last week of May in Vietnam. I want to see first hand what is it
is going on the labor movements there and the labor movements. You know
that the President has talked about that this is going to create a minimum
wage in Vietnam, that it`s going to help them to get independent trade
unions, some of those things, you know, the wage already exists. It`s an
abysmal poverty wage.
In terms of independent unions, it`s currently against the law in Vietnam
to have independent unions, even if this trade deal were to help them get
created. There`s zero infrastructure in place. There are no NGO`s to help
them build capacity to independent trade unions. You know, the president
used Nike as an example on his speech on May 8th saying that Nike is a
model for fair trade and this is what could happen in Vietnam. You know,
Nike`s got 330,000 workers in Vietnam right now. It would take an army of
independent organizers to go in there just to organize Nike`s factory
workers.
DYSON: Yeah. Well, Congressman, its COOL being repealed yesterday, a good
example of what can happen with the TPP?
POCAN: Exactly. You know, everything we`ve been saying that could happen
wrong with doing this Fast-Track proposal on TPP happened when we lost in
the WTO on Country-of-origin labelling. And because of that, we had to
change our laws. That`s exactly the problem, it challenges are
sovereignty. So, there`s a lot of Republicans and Democrats, one of the
main issues they have is around losing sovereignty. But I just want to
bring up a little argue (ph) when Lori mentioned that, you know, it`s so
true, it`s the wimpy theory. I`ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger
today.
We voted for something that without having the Senate`s vote, you`re going
to be voting for $700 million in Medicare cuts. And hope in this Congress
this dysfunctional Congress that Senate will take care of it and all will
be well. That`s a lot to ask members of Congress to expect. And I think
that`s why tomorrow`s two votes are so very important.
DYSON: Yeah. We`ll go from wimpy to Popeye now to Brutus with spinach.
POCAN: Yeah.
DYSON: So Lori, should members of Congress trust of this language that
they`re adding is actually going to be enforce d?
WALLACH: The language, which part?
DYSON: Well, the language that they`re adding in terms of trying to
adjusted this bill to accommodate the very thing you were talking about
early.
WALLACH: No, in fact, I would say anyone who wants to trust that have a
bridge to sell to you. Because the way it`s written basically there are
two big problems, first of all, you have to vote on the bill that would put
you on the record as sending a bill to the President.
DYSON: Right.
WALLACH: That cuts $700 million in Medicare.
DYSON: Right.
WALLACH: You have to vote for that before the Senate has the opportunity
to pass the thing that`s supposed to fix the thing you already voted for on
the record.
DYSON: Right.
WALLACH: But then there`s the second problem, which is -- is the Senate
going to ever vote for that? Because A, the bill they`re putting it on is
one that is just a big slump target to put a bunch other controversial
stuff on. So it may never see the lighter day to go fix the thing that you
already on the record in doing wrong.
DYSON: Right.
WALLACH: But also there is the thing called self-executing rejoined or
rule, which is a rule that basically pretends to break the Fast-Track and
TPP bills into three parts, pretends, one of them goes away for one minute
and hides. You vote on the two pieces, then the rule puts the piece that`s
missing that`s a bad price together, and then you`ve got better on your
neck on the way to the President. And a lot of members are going that
parts going to come back in a campaign ad.
DYSON: Right, all right. Congressman Mark Pocan, Jim Keady and Lori
Wallach, thanks for your time tonight.
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