How do corporate lobbyists get around Congress when their billionaire masters want to destroy regulations that protect workers, our environment, and keep jobs here in the United States?
Easy. They simply prevent Congress from debating and voting on such protections by attaching them to a massive trade deal and then pressuring them to “fast track” that deal's approval. As if we didn't have enough reasons to be against the Trans Pacific Partnership – aka SHAFTA – now we have to fight that deal's international rules which would further rig the system for the one percent.
Apparently the corporate elite aren't satisfied with the pro-business, anti-worker legislation that Republicans in Congress have already enacted. The billionaires want to go further, and they don't even want their congressional lapdogs to tinker around the edges - much less allow opponents to make meaningful amendments.
The TPP is being negotiated in secret, and the American public is being kept in the dark about what it contains. But, as Katrina vanden Heuvel explained last week in the Washington Post, “500 corporations and banks sit on advisory committees with access to various chapters.”
In other words, we're not allowed to see the deal that could undermine our nation's economy, but the corporate elite get to negotiate the details. SHAFTA supporters claim "there's nothing to see here!" - because they've had such a great track record of operating in the public interest.
In reality, the Trans Pacific Partnership threatens American jobs, American sovereignty, and the little that remains the American middle class. This massive trade deal poses a serious threat to our nation, and we must do everything in our power to make sure that it does not become reality.
Call Congress and tell them to say “No” to “Fast Track” authority and tell President Obama to say “No” to SHAFTA once and for all.
The TPP is rigged to benefit the rich!
By Thom Hartmann A...