MSNBC "The Ed Show"- Transcript: Trans Pacific Partnership

Interview

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Congressman, good to have you with us tonight.

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI, (D) CALIFORNIA: Mr. Speaker, I move that you give out
Mr. Schultz another five minutes. He could not be more correct. He could
not be more accurate about what is actually going on here. So, Mr.
Speaker, I move another five minutes for Congressman Schultz.

SCHULTZ: Well.

GARAMENDI: Ed, you did it.

SCHULTZ: Thank you Mr. Garamendi. I`m bringing you here tonight to the
floor, giving up my time, because of the work that you`ve done on make it
in America. And I just want you to tell our colleagues, make sure that
they know that there is no make it in America provision in this trade
agreement, is that correct, sir?

GARAMENDI: Well, it`s worse than that, Mr. Schultz. If you take a look at
this trade agreement, we have had on the books in America for more than
half a century the buy America provision, using our constituents` tax money
to buy American made products.

Incidentally, this goes back to George Washington and Alexander Hamilton,
where they suggested that you use the purchasing power of the federal
government to enhance American businesses, but in this trade agreement,
there is a gutting of the buy America. It would give Japan companies
located manufacturing facilities in Japan. The same access to the buy
America provisions as that manufacturing company in Ohio. It is dead-
wrong. It is going to be the American taxpayer money going out.

And remember, the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge where Chinese steel was
used, doubled, tripled the cost. And besides that, the welds were bad, the
steel was bad. No, no, we want to bring it home. We want those jobs in
America.

And that`s just the beginning of the problems. And you correctly pointed
out that this is not just one trade deal. This is not just the Trans-
Pacific Partnership. This happens to be also the European as well as a
third negotiation that`s under way for services. And that negotiation
includes countries like Pakistan, and you mentioned others.

No, no. We`re not beginning to give the President or the next president --
because it is a six-year deal. We`re not going to give all of this power
and it is the constitution that gives the power to the Congress to
negotiate trade deals. Not the administration, not the President, not
George Washington, not George Bush and not Barack Obama. It is our power,
and we should not concede that power.

SCHULTZ: Congressman Garamendi, I appreciate your time tonight on the Ed
Show. Back to live action.

GARAMENDI: Thank you.

SCHULTZ: Thank you very much. I appreciate your time, sir. Thank you.

GARAMENDI: You hang on there and you keep preaching the gospel here,
you`re absolutely right.

SCHULTZ: You know, when we have warn notices being given to American
workers, I don`t know what`s going to wake our elected officials up to
realize the seriousness of this.

GARAMENDI: Ed, why would they put into the provisions a trailer bill that
would provide what is called trade -- they would give American workers that
have lost their jobs a welfare check. Why would they put that in if this
was all good for American workers?

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

GARAMENDI: And by the way, you talk about the auto industry. Why did the
auto industry have to go to a bifurcated wage scale? Where a new hires get
one half of what people that have been on the job for five or six or 10
years.

SCHULTZ: Well, the automobile industry, the big three have made about $53
billion since 2009. And now the auto workers have got to go back and
negotiate for a lower wage.

GARAMENDI: Exactly.

SCHULTZ: I mean it is absolutely stunning to me. Congressman, quickly...

GARAMENDI: Yeah.

SCHULTZ: ... the votes. Do you think they`ll be there? Do you think the
President will turn enough people on this? What`s going to happen?

GARAMENDI: I don`t think he`s going to. I think the kind of information
that you just put out on national media will carry the day. There is
nothing good for American workers in this proposal. There may be some
things for Wall Street. There may be some things for the high-tech
community and their ability to maintain their intellectual property in
Hollywood.

But you go down to middle class, you go down to the Rust Belt, you go down
to the 9 million jobs lost in the manufacturing sector after NAFTA and try
to figure out what`s good in a new trade promotion authority or in the TPP,
it`s not there.

SCHULTZ: OK.

GARAMENDI: It is not there at all. And for agriculture, hey, it`s not
going to improve the agricultural scene across the United States.

SCHULTZ: That`s another chapter. Congressman, great to have you with us
tonight. I appreciate your time.

GARAMENDI: You got it.

SCHULTZ: John Garamendi from California with us on the Ed Show.

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