La Oroya, Peru. Wikicommons/Maurice Chedel. Some rights reserved.Here in the United States, debate over whether to grant the President Fast Track authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership is currently causing much inner-party strife, and fortunately, it is an uphill battle for TPP advocates.
Strangely enough, President Obama has teamed up with the Republican establishment for this massive trade deal, showing how un-socialist he really is, and how Republican’s aren’t really opposed to executive power, as long as it is in support of their policies.
Obviously, controversy over the TPP has made it a tough sell for the President, one that liberals are not buying. The TPP is full of corporate handouts, most notoriously for the pharmaceutical industry, which will be granted patent term extensions, and strengthen monopoly power on important medicines around the world, making them unaffordable in many areas. It will also strengthen intellectual property laws in other industries, specifically in the digital sphere.
