We’ve worked hard to lead the fight in Congress against the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement—meeting weekly with colleagues to plan strategy so members on the fence—and the American public—understand that this debacle would cost millions of jobs in a race to the bottom for American manufacturing.
It’s clear the vote whether to “fast track” the TPP through Congress– up or down with no amendments– will be close. And at the end of the day, for each member of Congress– and for our nation–it all boils down to one question: Who are you for?
Are you for the 600 multinational corporations negotiating this agreement in secret so they can send millions of good American jobs overseas? Are you for the billionaires (the 1 percent of the upper 1 percent) and big multinational corporations who will profit when those jobs are shipped off to countries with no minimum wage or worker protections? Are you for the foreign governments who use trade agreements like the TPP to flood our markets with low-grade subsidized steel that’s depressing our markets and costing us thousands of jobs on the Iron Range and across the nation? Are you for trade agreements we can’t enforce–trade agreements that have been destroying the middle class and jeopardizing our national security for decades on end?
Or are you for American workers who need those good jobs to pursue the American dream–a good home, good education for their kids, health care, a secure retirement and some money at the end of the week for dinner, a movie or a fishing trip up north? And are you for the American manufacturers and entrepreneurs who use their genius and determination to create more good-paying jobs that grow our economy and improve our quality of life?
Who are you for? That’s the choice we face and the question we need to answer. We can’t let our leaders off the hook. I’ll be working as hard as I can to make sure Congress gets this one right–defeating the Trans-Pacific Partnership hands down.
Congressman Rick Nolan
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