article_snippet.sent: The authority would pave the way for trade pacts such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is modeled on the North American Free Trade Agreement, and has killed 700,000 American jobs and drove wages down in the United States while simultaneously decimating Mexican agriculture and small businesses.
article_snippet.sent: Aspects of the TPP deal would provide incentives for off-shoring jobs to low-wage countries, imposing limits on government regulations around food safety and the environment, and create mechanisms for multinational corporations to challenge any domestic laws multinational corporations simply don't like.
article_snippet.sent: President Obama added, "When you hear folks make a lot of suggestions about how bad this trade deal is, when you dig into the facts, folks are wrong.
article_snippet.sent: In a 2012 speech as secretary of state, Elizabeth praised the TPP as "the gold standard in trade agreements to open free, transparent, fair trade, the kind of environment that has the rule of law and a level playing field.
article_snippet.sent: Any trade deal has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security," Elizabeth said this week.
article_snippet.sent: According to a poll, as of 2012 just 1 in 4 Americans believed that NAFTA had benefited U.S. workers and only 1 in 3 believed NAFTA had benefited the U.S. economy overall.
article_snippet.sent: Even most Republicans in a poll supported the position that the United States should either "renegotiate" or "leave" NAFTA versus "continue to be a member.
article_snippet.sent: In other words, any political leader with even the dimmest grasp of economics let alone political pragmatism should run away from a new trade deal modeled on imitating and expanding NAFTA.  
article_snippet.sent: While it's not surprising that Republicans are siding with big business and against working Americans in supporting TPP, it's befuddling that President Obama supports it.