[CTC] Elizabeth Warren: You Can't Trust Barack Obama's Promises

[Mark Harrison]

CQ NEWS - POTUS OPERANDI
May 18, 2015 - 11:01 a.m.
Elizabeth Warren: You Can't Trust Barack Obama's Promises
By Steven T. Dennis
[cid:image001.jpg at 01D0915C.A1808E80]
Warren dismissed "empty promises" made about trade agreements. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call)

After President Barack Obama<http://www.cq.com/person/7612> called out Elizabeth Warren<http://www.cq.com/person/46463> for being a politician "like everybody else<http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/us/politics/obama-calls-elizabeth-warren-absolutely-wrong-on-trans-pacific-trade-deal.html?_r=0>," the Massachusetts senator is calling out the president, suggesting you can't trust his promises.
Warren released a 15-page report Monday<http://www.warren.senate.gov/files/documents/BrokenPromises.pdf> saying the United States had failed to enforce labor and environmental standards for two decades in previous trade agreements.
A statement from her office noted Obama recently promised the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) will be "the most progressive trade bill in history" and will have "higher labor standards, higher environmental standards," and "new tools to hold countries accountable."
Warren's rebuttal amounts to: That's what they always say.
"Supporters of past trade agreements have said again and again that these deals would include strong protections for workers, but assurances without strong enforcement are just empty promises," she said in a statement. "The facts show that, despite all the promises, these trade deals were just another tool to tilt the playing field in favor of multinational corporations and against working families."
Warren's salvo comes as the Senate debates whether to give this president - and the next - fast-track trade authority<http://blogs.rollcall.com/wgdb/senate-roll-call-vote-to-advance-fast-track-trade-bill/?dcz=> to get up-or-down votes on trade agreements, with Asia and Europe on deck.

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