Anti-trade senators say chamber would be crazy to pass TPP

Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sent a sharp warning to his colleagues Thursday: If senators approve President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, they’re crazy. 

{mosads}“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome,” he told reporters. “If policymakers proceed to adopt the TPP they should be committed to an insane asylum.” 

{mosads}Merkley — as well as Democratic Sens. Sherrod Brown (Ohio), Ed Markey (Mass.), Mazie Hirono (Hawaii), and Bob Casey (Pa.) — are pushing President Obama to renegotiate the TPP before he sends the 12-country Pacific Rim pact to Congress. 

The trade deal has pitted Obama against top Democrats in Congress, including Minority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.). 

Sen. Bob Casey (D-Pa.), while giving the president credit for bolstering the economy, said the fight over the trade is a “basic disagreement.”

“We have a major disagreement with this particular trade agreement, and we hope it can be renegotiated with an eye toward focusing on wages,” he told reporters at a Thursday press conference. 

The five senators, along with fellow Democrats Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.), Al Franken (Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), Brian Schatz (Hawaii) and Tammy Baldwin (Wis.) and Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders (Vt.), sent a letter to Obama Thursday laying out their objections to the agreement. 

“Passing the TPP in its current form will perpetuate a trade policy that advantages corporations at the expense of American workers,” they wrote. “Passing TPP before these and other provisions are fixed will hasten the erosion of U.S. manufacturing and middle class jobs, and accelerate the corporate race to the bottom.”

GOP leaders in both chambers have said the trade agreement will not come up in the lame-duck session, despite a push by the Obama administration to get it approved. 

Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) reiterated that Thursday, telling reporters, “If we were going to have another discussion about trade, it would have to be led by whoever the next president is.”

Brown, however, appeared unconvinced, saying, “If you’re convinced Mitch McConnell never tells a lie, be that as it may. I don’t know what they’re going to do.” 

“If the president and Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan bring up TPP in the lame-duck, we will defeat it,” he said.