Kaptur Slams Senate Vote to Fast Track Job-Killing Pacific Trade Deal
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) came down hard on the Senate today following a vote in the upper chamber to grant the President “fast track” trade promotion authority (TPA) to move forward with the top secret Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
“The Senate voted today to double down on a trade policy that has consistently outsourced good jobs and failed millions of America’s working men and women, time after time and deal after deal, for decades,” said Rep. Kaptur. “Bad tradedeals like NAFTA have already shipped millions of good middle class jobs overseas and kept wages for working families flat or falling. And the powerful interests that made record profits on the backs of our workers under that deal have made sure that the same thing will happen again.
“Today’s Senate vote paves the way for more of the same, selling out working families and kneecapping the industries that created America’s middle class. I could not be more disappointed to see history repeating itself at the expense of our working families and the U.S. economy.”
TPA restricts Congress to a straight up or down vote within 60 days on any trade deal proposed by the Executive Branch, regardless of the length or complexity of the proposedagreement. It also blocks Congress from adding important provisions or removing dangerous ones through amendments and does not allow for hearings where Members could question experts about the most complex provisions.
Since 1970, the U.S. has a cumulative trade deficit of more than $10 trillion ($10,079,379,000,000). According to Robert E. Scott of the Economic Policy Institute, “A billion dollars invested in manufacturing here in the United States could support 5,000 jobs, but a billion dollars of increased trade in the form of imported goods from Asia or anywhere else would kill jobs here.” The U.S. trade deficit for 2014 was $508 billion dollars ($508,324,000,000). As of this April, the deficit for 2015 had already reached $171 billion dollars ($171,139,000,000).
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