Eric Zuesse
The key vote, in the U.S. Senate, to transfer to international corporate panels America’s democratic national sovereignty over the laws and regulations on the environment, workers’ rights, consumers’ rights, and finance, was officially titled with the misleadingly unrelated phrase “Ensuring Tax Exempt Organizations the Right to Appeal Act,” and it passed the U.S. Senate as “H.R. 1314,” by 65 to 33 votes, at 1:55 in the afternoon of Thursday 14 May 2015.
That’s five votes more than the 60 votes that the measure needed in order to pass. This is the key congressional action among the many that are required in order for U.S. President Barack Obama’s international-‘trade’ treaties – TPP, TTIP, and TISA – to become law in the United States. It’s the ultimate decision-moment, concerning America’s future.
A “Nay” vote meant that the Senator opposed this transfer of democratic national sovereignty, away from elected representatives of the public, to international corporate panels, whose members will be appointed solely by executives chosen by the controlling stockholders in large international corporations. A “Yea” vote meant that the Senator favored this transfer of democratic national sovereignty over to international corporate panels.
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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity, and of Feudalism, Fascism, Libertarianism and Economics.