In my last piece I pointed out that while Congressional Democrats tend to be suspicious of trade deals and giving the President fast track authority, Democratic Presidents always want it.
When you think about it, this is not hard to understand as it increases a President's power; fast track authority increases executive power.
A piece in Huffington Post points out that while Obama finally got fast track authority passed through the Senate it very well might have an upstream fight in the House.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ben-wikler/the-tpp-is-corporate-amer_b_7426218.html
The request for fast track makes sense when you understand that other countries don't even have that problem-of course there many countries are dictatorships-and other democratic countries have a parliamentary rather than a Presidential system. So only we have separation of powers that scuttles even the ability to negotiate a trade deal between countries.
Democratic Presidents tend to get the worst of both worlds as the GOP votes against fast track authority not because they disapprove of trade deals but because it's a Democratic President whereas Democrats are more skeptical of trade deals.
HuffPo says that Democrats feel burned after NAFTA and have vowed never again. What's forgotten is that the fast track authority Clinton used for NAFTA was left over from the Reagan years; once it expired the GOP voted against him getting it again.
So the odds-neither current or historical-don't necessarily look good for getting it through the House:
"But Democrats just aren't buying it. The reason is simple: Buyer's remorse. Democrats helped Bill Clinton pass NAFTA in 1993, only to find that none of its promises came true. The reality of NAFTA's impact can be seen in shuttered factories across the country. Today, thanks to two decades of patient organizing by elected officials like Sherrod Brown (who served in the House until 2006), U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Connecticut), and outside advocates like Public Citizen's Lori Wallach, the overwhelming share of the Democratic caucus has publicly committed to opposing fast track. The Hill's "whip list," based on public comments, counts a paltry 13 out of 188 House Democrats favoring it, with 23 on the fence. Meanwhile, activists close to the whipping operation have told me that the number of Democratic representatives committed to opposing it is north of 150 -- and that if it came to a House vote today, the measure would fail."
"The truth is that this isn't the first time that a second-term Democratic president has yearned for trade-promotion authority from a Republican-led Congress in order to pass a regional trade agreement. Bill Clinton passed NAFTA using fast-track authority left over from President Reagan. After it expired in 1994, he never got it back -- despite attempts in 1995, 1997, and 1998. The last one was defeated in a dramatic floor fight, with 171 House Democrats and 71 House Republicans voting against."
"It could happen again. Thanks to a 20-year push to avoid making the same mistake twice, there is now a progressive coalition capable of tossing fast track and corporate-giveaway trade deals into the fiery depths of a congressional volcano. The House could very well be the TPP's Mount Doom."
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