assuming how stupid they think we are.

That job training is a joke. What jobs do they "retrain" for?

pay for the "retraining" by cutting Medicare.
Fucking brilliant!

what else is there.
If you're lucky someone doesn't show up to get their call in so you might get for a quick snack at a discount. We're truly fucked if we don't really start paying attention to what* or who*I that we vote for.
The what is jackasses and the who can go either way so that leaves us with very little wiggle room.

the tax breaks corporations get to export their factories and jobs, the continued existence of tax shelters and the accumulation of profits in foreign banks, and the failure to prosecute banksters. Let's have some meaningful progress on those problems before entering into any trade agreement.

Yes, the plan was to reverse those cuts in another bill. But the TV ad writes itself.

"Representative _______ stole money from sick elderly people, and gave it to lazy moochers".

The response of "Yes, I voted for that but voted to fix it in a different bill that did not pass the Senate" isn't going to work. And most Democrats in the House aren't dumb enough to think it would.

Do their constituents support this voting position?

If only always voting for the D got us more real D's.

...If it is the ONLY piece of legislation those obstructionist pricks will vote for you KNOW it has to be bad..

...that republican support is so central to its passage because it's so abhorrent to so many Democrats.

It's the same equation with support for his renewed warring in Iraq - it seems that, for several of his key initiatives and ambitions, Democrats have become an inconvenient obstacle for this president.

But, this from the articles I've read and reporting from Public Citizens and other Groups fighting the TPA/TPP would agree with this from the article you posted:

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J.,left, and Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., talk on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, June 16, 2015, during a news conference to discuss opposition to President Barack Obama's trade deal. Obama and his Republican allies on trade are thinking of restarting their legislative push in the Senate. It’s testament to a crucial miscalculation they made months ago. The White House and GOP leaders had assumed that congressional Democrats’ eagerness to renew a job retraining program would trump their opposition to the "fast track" negotiating authority Obama seeks.

Maybe the President thought that the trade agreement would take care of workers amply with its protections that he didn't foresee a need for unions to step in and "take care" of them.

Unions rely on dues, and if jobs are protected by legislation, and retraining for free with benefits till training is complete, who needs unions?

Only those whose occupations are not affected by TPP - teachers, civil service workers, postal workers, nurses, house cleaners, etc.

What a loss of income to unions it would be to lose: factory, longshoremen, agriculture, and entertainment (now covered by protection laws), and transportation workers.

Sometimes the unions are thinking more of themselves than the people they serve. Sometimes...not always. It always depends on their leadership.

The unrealistic expectations of people that live in the D.C. Bubble, have killed a once prosperous labor force down to almost a slave labor force. It is time someone stands up and says enough to this foolishness.

I'm just trying to rationalize why so many think it's such a good deal. No matter how you slice it, somebody will be hurt - mostly 40-and over age group.

But unions haven't done their job either. Too much in bed with corporations. They agree too quickly and probably get a kickback. And if they don't agree, the plant goes overseas.

because the government would be taking over their "protect the worker" role.

Now unions are getting kickbacks from the employers...to kill a deal the employers want? Because if they don't, the company will do what the company wants to do anyway? Then why are they paying a kickback?

You really seem to have no point other than "unions bad!!!"

from 20 or more years ago. Christmas meant huge parties for children, treats, little gifts, hams, and Santa Clause - and movies.

Thanksgiving meant a turkey.

Then they dropped these wonderful features and built fancy clubs for union members that no union member ever went to, except for the officials.

Unions organized strikes and got their way, most of the time.

They were good, very good, and would still be good if corporations didn't move away and make many of them impotent. There is no Viagra for manufacturing unions. It's not that I think they're bad, they've been handicapped.

Service/entertainment unions are doing alright, but factories collect dues for not doing much of anything except maybe safety problems like in coal mines, or job seniority, but nobody wants to tamper with these jobs or the companies might move or shut down as clean air has the unions handicapped there too.

Everything is all screwed up. Not my fault.

Thanks for your incredibly inciteful contribution to the thread.

And no, that isn't a typo of "insightful".

They got run over by Reagan when he fired the people in the airport towers when they went on strike.

It struck fear into the hearts of strikers.

Reagan hurt the unions and they were a bit gunshy after that.

We loved our union - US Steelworkers...we get a supplemental pension on top of our SS, and supplemental health ins. on top of Medicare. US Steel got bored with steel and lumped all their assets together to buy Marathon Oil. Our plant was not losing money, it was making money because of the good quality of steel pipe they made...better than imported.

Nonetheless, it was closed and is a big shell sitting on a riverside. Those with enough service (30 yr) got a small pension till SS kicked in. The unions helped these men after the plants closed...but they could not keep them open. Those with less service became unemployed. No training programs then.

I would not say I hate unions...I kinda feel sorry for them. LIke I said, after Reagan fired the airport tower workers, they lost their bargaining power and strikes lost the power they once had. And with Taft-Hartley, Eisenhower, late 50's, forced the steelworkers to go back to work after a lengthy strike...

Then competition from overseas seemed to end strikes in the steel plants that remained open...

There's good stuff and bad stuff about unions, depending on where you worked, and when. I think the glory days are over for steel anyway. But they can get a job back for a person who is wrongfully fired even now. And they work to secure pensions and safer working conditions. And health care fought for by unions is quite good, still.

Thank you.

You just don't expect to see that glee on a democratic board. Or you didn't until recently