It's On Democrats to Show they Can Govern

WashingtonExaminer.com

On Tuesday, the Senate failed to move forward on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) — the legislative framework under which Congress must consider future trade agreements if they are to be enacted into law. TPA must pass first so that Congress can consider the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement between the U.S. and 11 countries in the Pacific rim, from Peru to Japan to New Zealand.

This agreement does not include China — an important fact to remember amid the ongoing debate.

The Senate may still move on TPA, but Tuesday night's scramble came about only because Senate Democrats broke a bipartisan agreement that should have secured the necessary 60 votes. And the way they moved the goalposts -- for reasons that can only be described as ridiculous -- should give Republicans pause about trusting them in the future.

The protectionist Democrats' chief demand, which the Obama administration and Republicans had rejected much earlier in the process, is to insert a provision that punishes nations that manipulate their currency in order to boost imports into the U.S. The nation perennially accused of doing this is China.

But no one is proposing a trade deal with China at the moment. And TPP is actually intended to strengthen the U.S. trade position against China. These facts made the Democrats' sudden demand on currency manipulation all the more nonsensical. One cannot punish currency manipulation by rewarding it, which is exactly what the Senate would do by killing TPP. This is why President Obama had threatened to veto the bill if it contained the currency language.

Hours after throwing their live grenade into the Senate chamber, Democrats seem to have talked themselves down from their high ledge. Late in the evening, they presented Republicans -- suddenly the only grown-ups in the room -- with more reasonable demands that might actually form the basis of a new agreement. Maybe they'll even keep their word this time, who knows?

The merits of the trade issue are settled. There are only two potential outcomes here: Either TPP passes and American producers and exporters get a say in the rules of the game within these Pacific markets, or else China goes on to dominate them instead. There is no third alternative that will bring back the manufacturing jobs lost 30 or 40 years ago. No one can reverse the inevitable post-World War II rise of foreign industry or the intransigence of U.S. labor unions that caused the demise of American manufacturing.

As for the unseemly process that brought the Senate to this point, Democrats have electoral politics on the brain already, just as they did when they blocked human trafficking legislation earlier this year. They are captive to a fevered political fringe so beset by backward economic thinking that they would be happy to see Obama fail in what is arguably the last chance in his presidency to do anything constructive legislatively.

For much-needed trade agreements to pass, a few good Democrats will have to step forward and show their party can keep promises and govern. Otherwise, it's going to be a long 18 months until the next election.