Last month, during the government shutdown, a very important and far-reaching Supreme court case was litigated; which basically upheld the Citizen United case and the influx of unlimited amounts of money that can be put into the political process in many different forms. That case [ McCutcheon v. Federal Election ?Commission?]?is the type of measure that is allowing for our Democracy to be put on the open market, which basically renders a “For Sale” sign on the American Government.
As reported by Liberal America, Trans Pacific Partnership: Corporate Handout Disguised As A Trade Deal, we established that much of this money goes to the right-wing echo chamber of position papers, pundits, media and politicians. However, with the Trans Pacific Partnership trade ?deal this has not been the case. Most of the negotiations of this trade deal have been done in secret with senators only getting tidbits of info on the particulars.
?What’s important about the aforementioned court case is that the same factions that were pushing for its success are largely the same ones pushing for fast tracking this trade deal as well. McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission posed the following legal questions:
- Whether the biennial limit on contributions to non-candidate committees, 2 U.S.C. 441a(a)(3)(B), is unconstitutional for lacking a constitutionally cognizable interest as applied to contributions to national party committees;
- ?Whether the biennial limits on contributions to non-candidate committees, 2 U.S.C. 441a(a)(3)(B), are unconstitutional facially for lacking a constitutionally cognizable interest;
- Whether the biennial limits on contributions to non-candidate committees are unconstitutionally too low, as applied and facially; and?
- Whether the biennial limit on contributions to candidate committees, 2 U.S.C. 441a(a)(3)(A), is unconstitutional for lacking a constitutionally cognizable interest. ( Source SCOTUS )
Senator Bernie Sanders( I, VT) ,made these remarks back in early October while in the middle of government shutdown,
In 2002, Congress passed the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act (BCRA), which established two sets of limits to campaign contributions. The base limit placed restrictions on how much money a contributor?defined broadly as individuals, partnerships, and other organizations?may give to specified categories of recipients. The aggregate limit restricted how much money an individual may donate in a two-year election cycle. The limits were periodically recalibrated to factor in inflation. (Source SCOTUS)
This huge case went largely uncovered by the mainstream media and the reason this case is relative to the Trans Pacific Partnership [TPP] is because these limits now being lifted have allowed for unfettered amounts of money to be put into the push to have this legislation fast tracked, in which President Obama has been complicit too. Involved in negotiations for the TPP have included representatives from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Chile, Singapore, Peru, Vietnam, and Brunei; but have been conducted behind closed doors.
Even members of the US Congress were only allowed to view selected portions of the documents under supervision.
Seems money can buy some “Hush Hush” as well in Washington. It was not until?the leak?on November 13th 2013, when??WikiLeaks released the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter, did some of the “bread and butter” come to the public light. While at the same time, now with the amount of money unrestricted?to flood into their echo chamber; the Koch Bros, Citizens United of the World, and over 600 signed on corporations have pulled the old ” flip the script” and kept secret from the American people what a bad news deal this would mean for the American workers and people.
?”We’re really worried about a process which is so difficult for those who take an interest in these agreements to deal with. We rely on leaks like these to know what people are talking about,” says Peter Bradwell, policy director of the London-based Open Rights Group.
A lot of people in civil society have stressed that being more transparent, and talking about the text on the table, is crucial to give treaties like this any legitimacy. We shouldn’t have to rely on leaks to start a debate about what’s in them.
Embattled Wikileaks founder Julian Assange goes on to say:
America attempting to enforce its highly restrictive vision of intellectual property on the world ? and on itself. “The US administration is aggressively pushing the TPP through the US legislative process on the sly,”?”the TPP’s intellectual property regime would trample over individual rights and free expression, as well as ride roughshod over the intellectual and creative commons. If you read, write, publish, think, listen, dance, sing or invent; if you farm or consume food; if you’re ill now or might one day be ill, the TPP has you in its crosshairs.”
Yes, research on this important issue leads one quickly to the realization that the Trans Pacific Partnership trade deal better known as the ” TPP” will affect all of us. So why the hush hush? If you stop and put the TPP deal under a microscope what’s striking is much of this bill has nothing to do with trade whatsoever. Do you think the powers that be might want to keep that on the down low? ?Why the secrecy?
- ?Will make it easier for pharmaceutical companies to get patents, including in developing countries.
- Extend the ability of these companies to limit access to the scientific data that is necessary for other researchers to develop new medicines.
- The United States is even pushing for provisions that would allow surgical procedures to be patented ? provisions that may be currently against US law.
However, where the real horror lies is what this trade deal means to the everyday person. Actually, one could argue this is not just a trade deal but more a protectionism tool for the corporate barons.
The Trans Pacific Partnership would, in effect, undermine “We The People” rights to proper Food Safety.
At present there are regulations in place that protect the people from unsavory and unhealthy practice by the Farm & Food service industries. Examples are:?pesticide levels, bacterial contamination, fecal exposure, toxic additives, etc. Food labeling laws (organic, country-of-origin, animal-welfare approved, GMO-free, etc.
The agreement would impose a less stringent international standard on these regulations and trade courts could rule them as “illegal trade barriers.” This would force America to lower our current stricter standard to comply with the proposed new?International Standard.?
Our Department of Energy would lose its authority to regulate exports of natural gas to any TPP nation. Moreover, it would allow the controversial and destructive harvesting process known as” Fracking. More importantly this would allow both foreign and domestic corporation to side-step the environmental and local economic impact reviews that are now required.
Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!
U.S. corporations would get special foreign-investor protections. This would be an incentive to lure corporations to relocate to these low wage nations which would drive profits. Many of the experts on this issue all agree that the TPP is quite in reality “NAFTA”, on steroids.
The Pharmaceutical corporations would be given more time to manipulate their patents and leverage to block distribution of lower cheaper generic drugs. This allows these corporations to continue to gouge us with AstroTurf pricing by monopolizing the market and limiting the access which is a ?death sentence to many people suffering from cancer, HIV, AIDS, tuberculosis and other treatable diseases in impoverished lands.
The TPP prohibits transaction taxes. The purposed “Robin Hood Tax” is an example of a transaction tax. This has both bankers in the TPP member nations and Wall Street salivating and busting at the seams. It would undo many of the restrictions that were put in place after the crash of 2007 which saw an unregulated banking system run a muck. Lastly, the Trans Pacific Partnership would provide a path for banks to escape national rules that would limit the “Too Big To Fail” behemoths.
“Stop Online Piracy Act,” failed in Congress last year so the corporate barons just slipped its most wanted provision into the TPP. There is a push to turn Internet Service Providers into a private watchdog agency [Big Brother] to not only police us but to monitor our online activity and you better cool believe it’s for a multitude of reason and purpose they want to gather it.
The TPP puts at risk some of the most fundamental rights that enable access to knowledge for the world’s citizens.
