Trade agreement | Breaking Big Money's Grip on America

Hi! I’m back. I’m sorry that I’ve neglected my blog for the last 5 months or so. I was busy finishing, editing and preparing to publish my book, Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America: Working Together To Revive Our Democracy.

I’m happy to report that the book is going to the printer this week. The ebook should be on sale in the next few weeks and the paperback should be available the first or second week in December. At the same time, I’ve gotten my website, breakingbigmoneysgrip.com, up and running, though it still needs some finishing touches. Hopefully, they will all be done in the next couple of weeks as well.

So, why did I write Breaking Big Moneys Grip on America?

I wrote this book to focus attention on a very critical issue that Americans need to understand: the United States is on the brink of becoming a plutocracy run by and for the very rich. Our political system is broken, and we must fix it before we lose our representative democracy. Both as a nation and as individual Americans, we are in grave danger due to Big Money’s increasing control of our government. Here are just two examples of how Big Money’s control over our government has caused tremendous harm to our nation as well as to a great many Americans.

The Iraq War

When George W. Bush became president in 2001 the giant oil corporations led by oilman-turned-vice president Dick Cheney manipulated the country into believing that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction that posed an international security threat. While Ambassador Joe Wilson tried to alert us to the truth, Cheney’s Chief of Staff “Scooter” Libby lied and was later found guilty of perjury and obstruction of justice. Big oil’s extreme influence over our government resulted in the United States initiating the Iraq War to gain access to Iraq’s huge oil and gas reserves. In doing big oil’s bidding, our country spent close to $2 trillion of our tax dollars; sacrificed thousands of American lives as well as hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilian lives; and effectively bred more support for militant extremists.

The Great Recession of 2008

During the Great Recession of 2008, while our government bailed out the big banks that had been primarily responsible for the economic crash, it did not aid the millions of Americans who had lost their homes or jobs. Despite the fraudulent and unethical business practices that had caused such devastating hardship, the Obama administration never prosecuted any of the Wall Street executives who had been largely responsible for it. Since Democrats and Republicans alike receive huge campaign contributions from Wall Street, no one in Washington wanted to risk damaging those relations. Now Wall Street is aggressively lobbying for less government regulation with some success, which may well lead to another financial disaster.

A current example of Big Money’s control of our government which will also cause great harm to a majority of Americans is the Trans Pacific Partnership trade agreement. I will address that in my next blog, which will appear in the next couple of days. I will be blogging regularly from now on, at least 2-3x per week. So, stay tuned and pass the word on to your friends and others. More information about my book can be found at breakingbigmoneysgrip.com. Thanks! And hope you’ll join in the conversation.

It turns out that the TPP is not the only secret trade agreement the Obama administration is pushing. The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) agreement, which would be the largest “free trade” deal in world history, is now being negotiated between the U.S. and E.U.

Obama seems to think that corporations and not democratically elected governments should control our economic future. The TTIP contains an “investor-state dispute settlement” system (ISDS), which would provide a framework for corporations to sue governments over alleged lost profits and overrule national laws, courts, and democratic processes. Such corporate tribunals have become hallmarks of so-called “free trade” agreements, included in 3,000 such deals world-wide, such as the infamous North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). These tribunals are an attempt to escape the jurisdiction of national courts and bypass the obligation of all states to ensure that all legal cases are tried before independent, public tribunals.

President Obama is currently pressing for passage of “Fast Track” legislation for the TPP and other trade deals that would allow the White House to ram through these secret deals currently under negotiation. This certainly looks like another example of Obama’s close ties with Wall Street and Big Money winning out over the American people. We, the people, need to get money out of politics so Obama and Congress stop working for their corporate sponsors and start working for the people and what’s in our best interests.

Labor, environmental, community, and human rights organizations around the world have mobilized for years against these and other such pacts, with organized opposition to the TTIP mounting on both sides of the Atlantic. We need to stand up and make our voices heard.