MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript: Trade Agreements

Interview

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Joining me tonight in our "Rapid Response" panel Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky of Illinois. Also with us tonight, Larry Cohen, president of the Communication Workers of America.

Great to have both of you with us tonight. Both of you have done yeoman`s works --

REP. JAN SCHAKOWSKY (D), ILLINOIS: Happy new year.

SCHULTZ: You bet. Happy new year to you, Congresswoman. Thank you.

Both of you have done yeoman`s work on trying to alert the American people on this. But President Obama -- I mean, Congresswoman, why doesn`t -- what does the president see in this that is so good or does he just want to do a deal with Republicans for some reason? How do you see this?

SCHAKOWSKY: I think in part the president sees that having U.S. influence in the Asian rim is a really good idea. And I, for one, would not be against any old trade agreement. But this one doesn`t do what we need to do.

You mentioned wages as the first thing that are at risk. Americans need a raise. American workers, ordinary people have not seen their income go up for three decades. And as the economy is beginning to take off, it would be an absolute tragedy to pass a trade agreement that actually erode wages. And all the other things that you mentioned, too.

But if this is going to lower American wages, encourage jobs to go overseas and fail to actually bring the middle class any benefits, this deal is a bad deal.

SCHULTZ: No trade agreements that we`ve been involved in over the last 30 years have done anything for American workers. It`s outsourced jobs, has put downward pressure on wages. So I don`t -- I don`t think that the president has explained to the American people what the upside is. He talks about exports a lot. Well, but if you are importing a lot more, the conservatives will tell you this is all about emerging markets.

Mr. Cohen, what`s your response to that?

LARRY COHEN, PRESIDENT, CWA: Well, first of all, any fifth grader knows how to do subtraction as well as addition, and it`s very easy to measure new jobs or new exports but it`s just as easy to measure jobs that are shut down and lost and it`s just as easy to measure the effect on wages as the congresswoman just said which has been devastating. It`s one of the two major causes for wage inequality in the U.S. It`s been these rotten trade deals for 20 years.

So there`s nothing good in the TPP, yet the president will say to us directly, it`s better than nothing. It is not better than nothing because the subtractions in it are much more important to the American people regardless of where you are politically than the additions in it.

We know how to do subtraction, Mr. President, don`t just tell us about the additions.

SCHULTZ: Mitch McConnell made it clear that this is going to be his top priority in the new session.

Mr. Cohen, how do you stop it? And I`ll ask you that, too, as well, Congresswoman. What`s the plan to stop it in the next 90 days, Larry?

COHEN: We are building the broadest coalition for fair trade that this country has seen including in the NAFTA years when you heard Ross Perot talk about the sucking sound. We are building a coalition in the key congressional districts, the swing districts, that include conservatives, environmentalists, students, human rights advocates as well as labor. This will not be labor against trade. This will be the American people talking about fair trade, united with people around the world who are talking about fair trade, not corporate trade.

(CROSSTALK)

SCHULTZ: It seems to me the president has come around a little bit. Go ahead. Go ahead, Congresswoman. Go ahead.

SCHAKOWSKY: I was just -- Larry is absolutely right. I think the American people have had experience with trade agreements and it has not been good. And so the more we can build a coalition. But let`s remember the first step is fast track. That is to allow a clean up or down vote on a trade agreement without any real input, without any amendments, without a full debate of all those sectors that are really impacted, and I think there`s going to be a lot of Republicans as well as Democrats that don`t want to give this fast track authority for a bad trade deal for TPP.

SCHULTZ: Well, Jan, the president wants it. The president wants fast track and he`s talked about that quite a bit.

SCHAKOWSKY: I know.

SCHULTZ: So if you`re sitting down with him, what do you say to him? I mean, how are progressives going to tell the president this is a bad move for America and get an answer out of him why it`s so good?

SCHAKOWSKY: Well, I think if I were meeting with the president I would say look, you`ve made some enormous progress in setting the economy on the right track, don`t ruin it for middle class people now. Don`t ruin it for people who are working every day and are expecting that they`re going to see some benefit from increased wages. Let`s instead invest in infrastructure. Let`s raise the minimum wage. Let`s make sure that there are good jobs in America and this deal is not going to contribute to that.

Let`s go back to the drawing boards, Mr. President. Let people who have been cut out from the secret process at the table to make suggestions so that labor not only in the United States but around the world, is going to benefit. That we don`t hurt the environment, that consumer standards are maintained, the health standards are maintained. We can do better than this, Mr. President.

That`s what I`d say.

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