Bernie Sanders praises Trump for TPP withdrawal

Washington Post…

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt), who campaigned hard against the Trans-Pacific Partnership in last year’s Democratic presidential primaries, praised President Trump for an executive order to officially pull the United States out of the deal.

“I am glad the Trans-Pacific Partnership is dead and gone,” Sanders said. “For the last 30 years, we have had a series of trade deals — including the North American Free Trade Agreement, permanent normal trade relations with China and others — which have cost us millions of decent-paying jobs and caused a ‘race to the bottom’ which has lowered wages for American workers. Now is the time to develop a new trade policy that helps working families, not just multinational corporations. If President Trump is serious about a new policy to help American workers, then I would be delighted to work with him.”

No surprise there. If you are an exporter, TPP would benefit you. If you are a importer, TPP would have benefited you. If you are a consumer, TPP would have benefited you. If you are a Union executive, TPP would be a problem. Sanders gets this. So does the AFL-CIO.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka declared, “today’s announcement that the US is withdrawing from TPP and seeking a reopening of NAFTA is an important first step toward a trade policy that works for working people.”

Let me translate that for you. What Trumka is really saying is that “withdrawing from TPP and seeking a reopening of NAFTA is an important first step toward a trade policy that transfers many more millions of dollars from consumers and businesses to union coffers.”

But don’t worry. Any policy that receives high praise from Bernie Sanders and Richard Trumka must be a damned fine policy, huh?