No Lame-Duck TPP Vote Says GOP as Clinton Fails to Lead

It’s not often on the left we see good news come from Senate Republicans, but with worries mounting that President Obama would try to push through a lame-duck passing of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it was the Republicans who seemingly saved the day on this one.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told a Kentucky State Farm Bureau breakfast in Louisville that the TPP, “which has some serious flaws, will not be acted upon this year.”

He did suggest, however, that with some changes, they hope to pass it next year.

Regardless of their reasoning, and if they want to get it passed later, this does leave the left a chance of defeating the bill once and for all.

Many Democrats, the majority coming from the Bernie Sanders camp, have strongly opposed the trade agreement and have pushed Hillary Clinton to do the same. Many believed that Obama planned to push the deal through so that Clinton would not have to.

Groups of activists on the left comprised of Communications Workers of America, CREDO, Democracy for America, 350 Action, Demand Progress, Fight for the Future, Friends of the Earth Action and Public Citizen, have unified and have been working to get Clinton to vocally oppose a lame-duck vote on the agreement, urging her in a letter to make “a clear, public, and unequivocal statement opposing any vote on the disastrous Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in the post-election, ‘lame-duck’ session of Congress.”

The deal is unpopular across many demographics, but the letter said that since President Obama is refusing to abandon the deal, new leadership must step up to stop him.

“In the face of such opposition,” the letter said, “allowing a lame-duck vote would be a tacit admission that corporate interests matter more than the will of the people, relying on members of Congress who will be less accountable to voters. Regardless of the outcome, a vote itself would send an unmistakable signal that the game is rigged in favor of elites and against everyday Americans.”

She has not done this, and it seems it’s now the Republicans who will take the credit for not acting in the lame-duck session.

With another liberal failure to act, it seems it’s up to the left, and progressive Democrats who opposed the deal to hold their elected officials accountable, including, if elected, Clinton as well.

“This is good news for American workers, for the environment, and for the ability to protect public health,” Sanders said upon hearing the news that the deal would not be passed in a lame-duck session.

He added: “This treaty is opposed by every trade union in the country and virtually the entire grassroots base of the Democratic Party. In my view, it is now time for the leadership of the Democratic Party in the Senate and the House to go on the record in opposition to holding a vote on this job-killing trade deal during the lame-duck session of Congress and beyond.”

“We never thought we would agree with Mitch McConnell on something, but we do agree on not bringing the TPP to a vote in the lame-duck session,” said Adam Green, Progressive Change Campaign Committee co-founder, on Friday. “There’s widespread, bipartisan opposition to the corporate-written TPP and an unaccountable, lame-duck Congress voting on it.”

Green Party nominee Jill Stein has been vocally against the TPP and her supporters as well will need to be a part of the coalition that works to ensure that the next session of congress, with a new president, will not act to pass such a devastating agreement.

Greens and socialists are the only parties solely devoted to the TPPs demise. Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson has flip-flopped on the issues and many libertarians themselves cannot seem to agree if the deal good or not.

Workers’ rights in the U.S. are increasingly under attack with right-to-work laws, and the shipping of jobs overseas. Wages are not increasing and will likely drop even further if the TPP is passed.

Capitalists will be the only winners in the trade-deal and for the Democrats, this goes against their claim to be fighting for the working and middle class, and for the Republicans, this deal goes against their claim to be job creators.

If either party plays a part in its passing, it will only serve to prove further to the American people that both parties only work to serve capitalist class living in the top 1 percent of the country’s wealth.