{"id":182757,"date":"2015-06-12T22:01:00","date_gmt":"2015-06-13T03:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/06\/12\/obama-loses-trade-vote-in-house-and-there-was-much-rejoicing\/"},"modified":"2015-06-12T22:01:00","modified_gmt":"2015-06-13T03:01:00","slug":"obama-loses-trade-vote-in-house-and-there-was-much-rejoicing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/06\/12\/obama-loses-trade-vote-in-house-and-there-was-much-rejoicing\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Loses Trade Vote in House \u2026\u2026\u2026 and There Was Much Rejoicing"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s confusing, but basically the House of Representatives overwhelmingly rejected a key portion of the Fast Track process<\/a>, and I am doing a happy dance.<\/p>\n

Hours after President Obama made a dramatic, personal appeal for support, House Democrats on Friday thwarted his push to expand trade negotiating power \u2014 and quite likely his chance to secure a legacy-defining accord spanning the Pacific Ocean.<\/span>

<\/span> In a remarkable blow to a president they have backed so resolutely, House Democrats voted to end assistance to workers displaced by global trade, a program their party created and has supported for four decades. That move effectively scuttled legislation granting the president trade promotion authority \u2014 the power to negotiate trade deals that cannot be amended or filibustered by Congress.<\/span>

<\/span> \u201cWe want a better deal for America\u2019s workers,\u201d said Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, who has guided the president\u2019s agenda for two terms and was personally lobbied by Mr. Obama until the last minute.<\/span>

<\/span> The vote that prevented the president from obtaining trade promotional authority now imperils the more sweeping Trans-Pacific Partnership, a proposed trade agreement with 11 other nations along the Pacific Ocean that affects 40 percent of the global economy on goods ranging from running shoes to computers.<\/span>

<\/span> \u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span> The Democratic revolt left Republican leaders trying to summon support from their own party for trade adjustment assistance, a program they have long derided as a waste of money and a concession to organized labor. Eighty-six Republicans voted for the program, more than double the 40 Democrats who supported it. But the trade adjustment assistance bill failed when 126 voted for it and 303 against.<\/span>

<\/span> Republican leaders then passed, in a 219-to-211 vote, a stand-alone bill that would grant the president the trade negotiating authority he sought. But that measure cannot go to the president for his signature because the Senate version of the legislative package combined both trade adjustment and trade promotion.<\/span>

<\/span> There is still a possibility that the House will pass the worker assistance bill early next week and send to Mr. Obama, but it would require dozens of Republicans or Democrats changing their votes, a prospect Republicans said was remote.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s kind of tough to understand what is going on here, but here is how this was supposed work:<\/p>\n