TRADE: Congress is waking up

Reported in The Press, Oct. 6, page A3: “U.S. Pacific Rim countries reach sweeping trade deal.”

The article describes this deal, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, as contentious and our Congress, which will repeal or ratify it, as skeptical.

BRAVO! I say. Here’s a toast to our Congresspeople in D.C.: May they enjoy long life and may they prosper (which, of course, they tend to do anyway). And may their skepticism of TPP grow stronger by the hour.

This thing is a huge can of worms, “NAFTA on steroids,” as one politician put it.

By merely Googling TPP, we find nearly unanimous criticism of it. Take the Public Citizen site, for instance: “In one fell swoop, this secretive deal could offshort jobs and increase income disparity, jack up costs of medicine, sneak in…threats to Internet freedom, empower corporations to attack our environmental and health safeguards, expose the U.S. to unsafe foods and products and undermine human rights.”

Enough said? Well, don’t just stand there. Grab a pitchfork and join the protest…or something.

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Coeur d’Alene