Sen. Chuck Schumer Proves He's a Dem Neoliberal Rat On The TPP Issue

Hmmmmm......if enough Democrats can  just help us to sneak this by the People all will be well!"

Two years ago, in a post pertaining to Russia's giving Constitutional hero Edward Snowden asylum, I identified the traitorous rats inveighing against it, including assorted Democrats. I noted:

"Neolib Weasel Chuck Schumer,  barking that "Russia has stabbed us in the back and each day Snowden is allowed to roam free is another twist of the knife!",  you'd think that nation was harboring a war criminal like Cheney or Bush, or a serial killer or genocidal madman, not a man who simply exposed the over reaching and trashing of the Constitution done by his own gov't.  Not a man who is a genuine patriot in every sense of the word, as opposed to a disgusting reprobate tool."

I've never waivered from the conviction Schumer was a pompous Neoliberal worm in the guise of a center -left Democrat. And his most recent traitorous antics on the Trans- Pacific Partnership confirm it. The giveaway was highlighted in the Washington Post's headline:

Schumer at Center of Democrats’ Trade Drama

Therein we learn:

The likely outcome is the separate measures will pass out of the Senate, but the currency-related measure faces a rough road in the House and at the White House.Pro-trade Democrats, though, will be able to say they voted to get tough on trade even as they voted for a six-year fast-track trade bill.

In other words, Chuckie engineered a split  bill to try to deflect left Demos' ire and attention.  In essence, a separate bill for  the currency restrictions will pass, but can be vetoed separately from Fast Track. This translates in a win for TPP Fast Track, i.e. no enforceable currency restrictions. Second, passing a separate currency bill allows pro-TPP Democrats to brag about how they "tried" their best to oppose the liberal onslaught - thereby grabbing a handy fig leaf.

The WaPo account goes on leaving no doubt the architect was Chuck Schumer:

"Senate Democrats’ epic trade revolt against President Barack Obama’s fast-track bill — and the furious efforts to salvage it — had one senator at the center of it all: Charles E. Schumer.
The New York Democrat, who has become the heir apparent to Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, found himself in an awkward position, to say the least.

A provision he authored to get tough on countries that manipulate their currencies was threatening to bring down the White House’s entire trade agenda; its absence on the Senate floor was why Democrats filibustered Obama’s fast-track trade package Tuesday. By the end of the day Wednesday, the crisis — what White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest kept calling a “procedural snafu” — had been averted, with Schumer helping to seal the deal.

Although the New Yorker has opposed the trade bills — he voted against fast track in committee — as the caucus’ future leader, he has to balance the anti-trade sentiment among the vast majority of Democratic senators with his loyalty to the White House and the desires of a sizable number of pro-trade Democrats, such as Sen. Patty Murray of Washington. In short, it’s a sign of the kind of leader Schumer will be."

So we get one Neolib weasel to replace another (Reid).  And let's not overlook another rat in the making, Patty Murray - who didn't do duck squat back in Nov.-Dec. 2013 to halt a bill allowing $9b cuts in food stamps in order for the military to prevail in a sequester deal.  As one percipient blogger on smirkingchimp.com has observed:

Notice "progressive" Patty Murray's role in this. As a member of Democratic leadership, she seems to have had to choose between "following the neo-liberal leader" — in this case, Barack Obama on TPP — and standing with all other progressives in the "Democratic coalition," including every labor union. Murray is choosing to play ball with Senate leadership against progressives. Watch her carefully going forward. This looks a lot like the victory of careerism over principle.

All of which is enough to make a diehard liberal  - who hasn't changed his political position in 52 years - vomit.  But hell, we could as well expose the other pro-TPP Neoliberal Demo-RATS while we're at it, along with their phone numbers so interested readers can unload on 'em and blister their sorry asses:

Michael Bennet (D-CO) — 202-224-5852

Maria Cantwell (D-WA) —202-224-3441

Ben Cardin (D-MD) —202-224-4524

Tom Carper (D-DE) — 202-224-2441

Chris Coons (D-DE) — 202-224-5042

Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) —202-224-3841

Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) —202-224-2043

Tim Kaine (D-VA) —202-224-4024

Claire McCaskill (D-MO) —202-224-6154

Patty Murray (D-WA) —202-224-2621

Bill Nelson (D-FL) — 202-224-5274

Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) — 202-224-2841

Mark Warner (D-VA) —202-224-2023

Ron Wyden (D-OR) —202-224-5244

I also add Cory Booker (D-NJ) — who declined to vote on the first filibuster, but is nevertheless a weasel poltroon trying to find cover.

We cannot allow these Demo-RATS to find such cover, not on this issue. It's too big and the consequences too parlous if it goes through. Including the fact the repukes have attached a new amendment to the fast track that cuts Medicare by $700 million.  This is serious given the core  problem is that it breaks the promise  that no laws will change before any vote on the Trans-Pacific Partnership or any other fast-tracked agreement. Thus there continues a disturbing trend, identified by Paul Krugman, about not being able to trust the White House’s categorical denials about the consequences of their trade agenda. 

Another noisome aspect not given sufficient attention in the corporate media is Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz's point that any legal authority would be transferred from the sovereign courts of the United States to multinational corporations if this "deal" comes to pass. Do Americans really and truly want to be serfs in a global Neoliberal fiefdom? I would hope not!

Even if the Senate manages to pass this execrable bill - with the help of Demo-Rat  Neolib traitors, we must make sure it meets its end in the House even if a coalition must be formed with Tea Partiers.

See also:

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/dean-baker/62297/the-incredible-arrogance-of-the-trans-pacific-partnership-crowd

And:

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/19/another_trans_pacific_partnership_lie_exposed_how_medicare_is_getting_stiffed_in_obamas_massive_trade_deal/



http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/william-rivers-pitt/62286/the-trojan-horse-president

Bernie Sanders Exposes Other Noxious Parts Of Spending Bill

The more one sees what's in this so-called "compromise" spending bill - which is designed to avoid a government shutdown, the more one grasps it's not a compromise at all but the Dems getting their asses rolled again by the more canny Repukes. Will it ever end? Who knows? But it reminds me of the giveaway bill signed back in December, 2013. 

To refresh memories, the Pukes pushed through a sequester bill in which military spending cuts were offset by nearly $21 b more in automatic domestic spending cuts.  This offal of a bill also rendered a Dem-proposed extension in unemployment insurance off the table, even as it also prevented any new tax increases which would have helped to limit deficits by nearly $150 b over two years.

As they are doing now, the pussyfoot Neoliberal Dems called it a "good compromise" when it was in fact a blatant giveaway. It appears these "Dems" wouldn't know a compromise from a conspiracy.  But this is why we more and more depend on clear heads, not "purists" as the clueless media calls them, to point the way to clarity.

Enter then Elizabeth Warren who has clearly explained on the Senate floor why this proposed $1.1  trillion spending bill is poison as long as it includes a Wall Street giveaway that leaves taxpayers on the hook for any future collapse - after the rider has given banks permission to play with citizens' money in the risky derivatives market.   R.J. Eskow in his own blog describes it as a catastrophe waiting to happen, given the last time such deregulation reigned we beheld a $6 trillion economic loss, and a prolonged recession.

That is bad enough, and one reason this spending bill ought to be sunk come hell or high water, unless that reckless amendment is removed. Some may say "we can't because the government will shut down", but I compare that to a person saving his home after a flood, but leaving black mold (stachybotrys) to spread in the basement. Sure, you have your home -but you will soon be dead anyway unless that black mold is removed!

Now, Sen. Bernie Sanders, on a Rachel Maddow segment last night, has exposed even more noxious parts of this bill that Obama, Harry Reid and other Neoliberals want to push through. Sanders ticked down a list of the crap that awaits to 'explode' in this spending bill once it's passed, including:

- Sixty percent of the spending in the bill - that is, over $620 b - is going to military, defense and as Sanders mentioned, "when they haven't even accounted for the money they've already been given".

This is not a new refrain and has been brought up many times before by former Pentagon analyst Chuck Spinney, who in a Bill Moyers 'NOW'  program back in August, 2002, observed the Pentagon still hadn't accounted for over $1.2 trillion. He allowed as long as this persists we aren't living in a democracy.

- Ten times more private donations to campaigns now allowed, up from the earlier $32,000 limit, This will so spread toxic "money speech" pollution through our political system that nearly everyone can now be made a whore, except the most principled.

- Gov't and other workers will now be subject to pension cuts  -of up to 30 percent and possibly even more. (There's your great Neoliberal Democrat 'protectors of the middle class' at work!)

Any of these toxic turkeys by itself would ordinarily be enough to sink this egregious bill - provided we still had sane representatives and not tools of the Corporatocracy.  But we don't. We have too many sellouts, cowards and whores. The "business" that does get done then is all in favor of the elite special interests that pay the political whores' freight, not for the nation's welfare.

And all these together, let's be clear, don't add up to the total toxic quotient in the (credit default)  swaps pushout rule which  got gutted, in legislative language written by Citigroup itself.  See e.g.
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2014/12/house-dems-need-to-sink-that-spending.html

As Jim Newell notes in his salon.com piece, "when compromise reigns supreme, the people get hosed". But the Neoliberal political imps and their lackeys benefit, as they always will, until we finally slay the two party duopoly. Yes, Elizabeth Warren would make a great President, as would Bernie Sanders (with the other VP) but as long as the Neoliberal virus persists that change will never happen.

See Newell's piece here:

http://www.salon.com/2014/12/12/the_disgusting_cromnibus_spectacle_when_compromise_reigns_supreme_the_people_get_hosed/

Excerpt:

"What’s the go-to defense of this horrid piece of legislation? It’s a “compromise.” Heh, well, that sure is true. You get some things, they get some things. It’s not really that the left gets some things and the right gets some things, mind you. It’s that special interests get paid off, and the country’s citizens get to continue living their lives.

The respective appropriations chairs, went into a room for a few days to hash out a deal covering a year’s worth of legislative battles, and then expected members to pass it within 48 hours. Those members who had the gall to glance at it and think, What the fuck?, were chastised as poor sports.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, for example, glanced at it and thought What the fuck? "

Yes, 'what the fuck?' - a fine epitaph for this country as it now continues to race to the bottom - torturing maggots running amuck, insane giveaway financial bills to raise our debt into the stratosphere,  crumbling infrastructure and all.