嘿，跟大家说个事儿，可能你们都忙着关注南卡罗来纳枪击案了，但众议院悄悄地通过了跨太平洋伙伴关系协议的快速通道授权。

Problems with trade bills...

In general, the theory is great. A) Buy what is cheaper for somebody else to produce, this B) frees your own resources to produce (or learn how to produce) things that cost more.

In practice, U.S. Congress tends to either renege on Part B - Leaving the resources unemployed or to fend for themselves or Congress cuts a deal that favors our standard of living falling to the competitor's level - think environmental regulations or worker protection - rather than maintaining our standards and insisting the other economies rise.

[and Congress is too unwilling to compromise! Most of our border-crossing illegal immigrants are farmworkers surplussed by American agri-business jumping into the Mexican and Central American farm labor markets after NAFTA was passed.]

Who can blame unions for being gunshy of trade deals after the way American labor has been abused since the PATCO firings, Scott Walker, etc? And Chinese disregard of intellectual property rights is too common to mention.

Fast-track - taking away Congress' ability to eff with the terms is a good thing. However, not having the finished agreement to jaw about leaves the rest of us pondering over probabilities and likelihoods. I'll save my ire for after the text is released...and pray that there is enough time to bury this pig, if that is what it turns out to be.

It was only "quiet" because there was bigger news. This isn't a surprise. The House GOP has had the votes to pass the TPA all along and in fact had already voted in favor of doing so the previous week. It's just that the Senate bill contains the Trade Adjustment Assistance which has always accompanied TPA in the past to sweeten the deal a bit for unions and bring more Democrats on board and the House procedures this time around called for both to be agreed to before either passed.

All along the House leadership has been threatening to change the rules for the bills and allow TPA to pass alone if Democrats didn't agree to the TAA. (House Republicans don't want to vote for it for ideological reasons. It helps those devil-worshiping unions and even worse, was being payed for with increased tax revenue.) Last week House Democrats refused to agree so we knew the Republicans were going to pass TPA in the House.

So now they have to iron out the differences between the Senate bill with the TAA and the House bill without it. It won't be easy to get the House to change their minds. You have to get almost the entire House Democratic or Republican caucus to switch their votes. So the real test is, what will happen on the Senate side. Will enough Democratic Senators support the TPA without the TAA? And if they don't, will the Senate leadership go nuclear and eliminate the filibuster in order to get fast track passed?

ELI5: What are the implications of the recently leaked draft of the TPP intellectual property rights chapter?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qj9en/eli5_what_are_the_implications_of_the_recently/

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ELI5: What is the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), what are it's pros and cons? How will it affect us?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/23ubdy/eli5_what_is_the_trans_pacific_partnership_tpp/

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ELI5: Why do people oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/331rm8/eli5_why_do_people_oppose_the_transpacific/

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ELI5 How will the TPP be binding/ enforced?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35n0fz/eli5_how_will_the_tpp_be_binding_enforced/

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ELI5: why would the government fast track legislation that allows them to be sued more easily? (TPP)

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/338hk6/eli5_why_would_the_government_fast_track/

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ELI5: Why don't American people get to see drafts (like the TPP) BEFORE they are voted on, instead of after they pass?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/35yor4/eli5_why_dont_american_people_get_to_see_drafts/

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ELI5: The Trans-Pacific Partnership

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/373vtv/eli5_the_transpacific_partnership/

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ELI5 What is the Trans-pacific Partnership TPP?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2gup5f/eli5_what_is_the_transpacific_partnership_tpp/

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ELI5 the TPP, with hyperbole kept to a minimum if possible.

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30riyo/eli5_the_tpp_with_hyperbole_kept_to_a_minimum_if/

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ELI5: What is "TPP"??

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30qok8/eli5_what_is_tpp/

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ELI5 Why is there so much secrecy about the TPP?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/34yosr/eli5_why_is_there_so_much_secrecy_about_the_tpp/

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ELI5: What is the Trans-Pacific Partnership document that Wikileaks released, and why are people making a big deal abou it?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1vd5yw/eli5_what_is_the_transpacific_partnership/

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ELI5: what's going on with the US TPP "trade" bill? Did part of it pass already?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/3a0dh7/eli5_whats_going_on_with_the_us_tpp_trade_bill/

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ELI5: Why don't Google, Wikipedia, Reddit, and the like blackout in protest to the TPP like they did against SOPA? Isn't it [TPP] essentially the same thing [as SOPA]?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1qt233/eli5_why_dont_google_wikipedia_reddit_and_the/

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ELI5: Why are the Republicans, who hated that "no one knew" what was in the ACA, okay with no one being able to read the text of the new trade agreement?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33jldn/eli5_why_are_the_republicans_who_hated_that_no/

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ELI5: Why would a large number of international politicians be interested in allowing corporations to sue countries? Is there a reasonable explanation for this part of the TPP?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/30o572/eli5_why_would_a_large_number_of_international/

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ELI5: What is The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)? Some say it's bad, some say it's good. I want to understand both points of view.

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/33ve96/eli5_what_is_the_transpacific_partnership_tpp/

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ELI5: The Trans-Pacific Partnership; can anyone explain the primary points without involving political hysteria or media-driven talking points?

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/339jul/eli5_the_transpacific_partnership_can_anyone/

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ELI5:Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/2qz426/eli5transpacific_partnership_tpp/

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ELI5: The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement

http://np.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/comments/1yo705/eli5_the_transpacific_partnership_agreement/

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https://www.eff.org/issues/tpp