Senate GOP Stages Some Silly Political Theater

(Cartoon image is by Tom Toles in The Washington Post.)

Last Thursday, Senate Democrats defeated a cloture motion (which would have brought the anit Iran Agreement bill to the Senate floor) on a 58 to 42 vote (with 60 votes being needed). Yesterday, the GOP again held the same vote -- and again it was defeated (this time on a 56 to 42 vote).

This was nothing more than some ridiculous GOP political theater. They knew full well that no Democratic votes had changed, and they would lose again -- but they didn't care. They were just trying to make some political hay out of the issue. They knew that the lies that they have been spreading about the agreement have scared a lot of Americans -- and they want to keep the issue alive in hopes of stealing some votes away from Democrats in the next election.

And as I watched the floor debate before the vote, I noticed that the Republicans are still offering no sensible alternative to the agreement. The best they could come up with was to continue the sanctions and make President Obama go back and negotiate a better deal. Neither of those things is going to happen -- even if they could somehow kill the agreement.

The sanctions (except for those of the U.S.) are gone. The U.N. has already voted to remove the sanctions, and no other country is willing to re-impose them -- not Russia, China, or our Western allies. Those countries feel the deal is a good one. And none of them are willing to go back to the negotiating table just because U.S. Republicans want to play political games.

The only real alternative to the Iran Agreement is to have no agreement at all -- giving Iran free rein to do whatever it wants to do, including building of a nuclear bomb. And the only way to stop them from doing that would be to go to war with them. In other words, the Senate Republicans voted for a new war.

Fortunately, that's not going to happen. The two senate votes, and the threatened veto by the president, insures that. The Republicans will probably continue to play their political games on this issue -- but the agreement will go into effect -- and that's a good thing for this country and the world.

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NOTE -- Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) once again voted with the Republicans to kill the agreement. That's sad, considering he is supposed to be the favorite to be the next Senate Democratic Leader (after the retirement of Harry Reid). That should NOT happen. Schumer has abandoned the president, his party, and the American people. He simply can no longer be trusted to lead Senate Democrats.

TPP Suffers A Crushing Defeat In The U.S. Senate

(Photo of Senator Warren and President Obama is from Mother Jones.)

President Obama has been negotiating a new trade agreement with the Pacific nations (called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP). The contents of that agreement have been kept secret, and the president has asked Congress to"fast track" the agreement -- i.e., pass it without knowing what's in it, or without Congress having the ability to change it.

This was fine with Republicans, because they love free trade agreements -- agreements that help corporations and hurt workers. But a group of progressives in the Senate, led by Senator Elizabeth Warren, thinks this deal (like other trade agreements) is a bad deal for American workers and consumers -- and believe it will give the giant corporations the ability to offshore more American jobs, and possibly even overrule governments (including our own government).

On Tuesday, Majority Leader Mitchell tried to cut off a filibuster by those progressive Democrats and bring the bill to the Senate floor for a vote. Most believed he had the 60 votes to do that. But the discontent among many senators was underestimated. Every Democrat but one, and both Independent Senators, voted against the cloture motion -- and it fell 8 votes short of the 60 needed. The vote was 52 to 47.

This was a crushing defeat for the TPP fast-track bill. It could still be brought back up, but unless it is opened for examination and allowed to be amended by Congress, it will probably be defeated again. I couldn't be prouder of the Senate Democrats. They stood firm against the mega-corporations, and in support of American workers. This is a bad bill as it stands, and unless it is changed they should remain firm in their opposition.