MSNBC "The Ed Show"- Transcript: Trans Pacific Partnership
Interview
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
For more let me bring in Congress and Tim Ryan of Ohio and Congresswoman
Maxine Waters of California. Two advocates for workers, no doubt about it.
Congressman, let me ask you first, what has unraveled for the Democrats in
this process in the last 24 hours because TAA was really the last hope that
would turn this whole trade thing around, your thoughts.
REP. TIM RYAN, (D) OHIO: Well we got some clarity with the Senate passing
the TPA given the President the authority to negotiate without any
amendments from the House, that train has left the station that`s going to
pass, they have the votes in the House of Representatives there in the
senate, the president`s going to sign it, train left the station.
And I think now we`re face with the Congresswoman Waters and I, and our
colleagues are face with, you know, those same people that have been
displaced in the past from NAFTA and CAFTA and now will be displaced from
this trade agreement whether or not we`re going to do anything for them and
I think that`s the position that we`re all in and I think, you know, we
have to help them. I have one of the highest concentrations of TAA
members, healthcare tax credit members of any congressional district in the
entire country and here these folks are being used this upon in this game
and now we`re force to choose, you know, we`re going to have to help to the
extend that we can.
But I think to watched democrats pass this bill Ed, is a tragedy and I will
say that I can`t believe not only did democrats vote for this bill, we
think it a damn thing for it, we didn`t get a transportation bill, we
didn`t get an increase in Pell Grant, we didn`t get campaign finance
reform. We have the major corporations coming to this place get exactly
what they want, the pharmaceutical industries getting exactly what we want,
but if you look at immigration, human trafficking, some of this other
issues that are going to be in the trade agreement, those provisions have
all been diminished.
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
RYAN: So we didn`t get a damn thing in this thing and the American workers
left to suffer and now we`ve got a throng (ph) cramps like we always have.
And it`s a shame that`s a tragedy what`s happened here.
SCHULTZ: Congresswoman Waters, some may come to the conclusion that
Democrats didn`t fight to the finish, what`s your response?
REP. MAXINE WATERS, (D), CALIFORNIA: Oh no, we fought and we fought very
hard, as a matter of fact, we won when we refused to allow them to trick us
in voting for the trade adjustment along with the Fast-Track authority, we
beat them, but then the Republicans went and vote it for the agreement for
the President to have this authority and they send it over to the Senate
and Senate that`s agree to it.
So we got out maneuvered. They used a lot of tricks and so what they have
basically done is they have taken the trade adjustment authority and
they`ve coupled it with goal. That is trade with Africa so that it would
handicap of (inaudible)...
SCHULTZ: That would have passed anyway.
WATERS: It would have passed but what they trying to do was, they try to
get the authority for the President to have this authority to move forward
by coupling it with the trade adjustment.
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
WATERS: And we would not allow that so they came back and the Republicans
got their way. Yes?
SCHULTZ: Congresswoman, give us your true assessment of President Obama on
this issue, never talked about it in 2012 of the run up to reelection, it
was being negotiated. We all know this is going to outsource jobs or we
would even be talking about TAA, Trade Adjustment Assistance for displaced
workers. I mean, is this the President Obama that you thought was elected?
I mean, is it this -- isn`t he turning his back on the middle class?
WATERS: Well, you know that we are extremely disappointed. We did not
want him any president to have the authority by which to go and negotiate
without Congress having the ability to vote, to amend, to really be
involved in anyway. What we have now is the possibility that we are going
to have a trade plan that simply will come to the Congress and we can look
at it, but we can`t amend, we can`t do anything.
SCHULTZ: This is for six years...
WATERS: And there a lot of issues to be dealt with, yes.
SCHULTZ: This isn`t
RYAN: Right.
SCHULTZ: ... just for the rest of Obama, this is for six years the next...
WATERS: Absolutely.
SCHULTZ: ... president is going to have to deal with this, so there`s
going to be more trade agreements Congressman Ryan coming down the pipe
that could be worst than this one.
RYAN: Well, there`s no question about it if you get a Republican
president, there`s going to be -- it`s going to happen even quicker and
what`s stunning is, we have the evidence Ed, you`ve been Ohio, I`ve seen
you there many times, you seen what is happen in our communities after
NAFTA after CAFTA. We have the evidence.
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
RYAN: You know, we can see what the end result of these things are and yet
we`ve chose to do it anyway and staying for another six years whatever
president comes in the office, you know, they`re going to have the
ability...
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
RYAN: ... to negotiate this, just bring it the Congress for an up or down
vote. Maxine Waters, Tim Ryan, we don`t have the opportunity to put a
labor amendment in there.
WATERS: No.
SCHULTZ: No.
RYAN: Human trafficking amendment in there...
WATERS: No.
RYAN: ... nothing, we are up now or down and these things already have
being negotiated...
WATERS: And we`re going to watch...
RYAN: ... we`re going to have to say.
WATERS: ...is that watch good jobs...
SCHULTZ: The multi-nationals.
WATERS: ... go offshore, yes.
SCHULTZ: That the corporations a multi-nationals now run the United Stateshttp://www.nbcnews.com/id/57543964/ns/msnbc-the_ed_show/
government they play a big, big hand, a bigger hand that they than ever
before.
RYAN: Ed, Ed.
SCHULTZ: And president that keeps talking about all this customers that 95
percent of the customers are outside of the United States. 80 percent of
the people that live on face off this earth, make less than $10 a day,
where are all this new customers going to come from?
RYAN: Yeah.
WATERS: I don`t know, what I see is exporting jobs offshore.
RYAN: Yes.
WATERS: To these countries that are paying their people penny`s a day or
penny`s an hour to do this work and we`re going to lose jobs and lose
manufacturing that we`re trying to build up here in this country and not do
good job creation here.
SCHULTZ: All right.
WATERS: And I think is going to hurt our economy.
RYAN: It is.
WATERS: I`m really concerned about.
SCHULTZ: It is going to hurt it economy.
RYAN: But, let me just say quickly, the number one issue here is campaign
finance reform, we have got to get the money out of this political system
it`s corrupted the system the average person knows that the deck the stack
against them, they see it particularly with this issue here, we`ve got to
clean up the money and politics.
SCHULTZ: Yeah.
RYAN: Because that`s was driving the whole machine. We can talk about
trade, tax, cuts, whatever you want to talk about. Behind that is the
massive amounts of money that`s in the political system and until we fix
that problem this system is going to continue to be corroded.
SCHULTZ: All right Congressman Tim Ryan, Congresswoman Maxine Water.
Waters, I appreciate you keep it up the fight, thanks for joining us
tonight.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source