Posted: May 25, 2013
From: Rick Hicks, Teamsters Local #174 Secretary-Treasurer

While scanning the latest headlines, I came across this story in The Washington Post:

GOP hopes to take Obama “scandals” home to the voters

Congress will soon adjourn for the Memorial Day recess, and lawmakers will return to their states and districts to explain their policies, defend their votes, and get input from their constituents. And if they’re Republican members of Congress, they will also work to keep the Obama administration’s “scandals” in the air.

Chris Frates reports for National Journal on the GOP’s strategy for the recess: “Both House and Senate Republicans will focus on the Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative groups for extra scrutiny as well as the still-open questions about Benghazi.” […]

I’m not trying to bash Republicans or any other group.  That’s not my focus here.  But like most Americans I’m fed up with the other Washington’s refusal to focus on the things most of us worry about: jobs, major highway bridges falling into rivers, the destruction of the social safety network, downsizing educational opportunities and good jobs for our kids, the targeting of labor unions, and the overall dismantling of the middle class.

You can find plenty of coverage in newspapers and on the internet regarding those “scandals.”  And that in itself is a shame because it serves to distract the American public from the really critical things, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).  This trade deal is being negotiated in secret and will effectively place corporate conglomerates above and beyond the reach of any nation and its laws.  As our good friends at ‘Teamster Nation’ wrote, “The last thing we need is for Congress to fast-track a trade deal with secret provisions that help their corporate benefactors but screw working and middle class families.”

You want to talk about scandals?  The IRS story is a blip in an election cycle.  The TPP will rip the heart out of your kids’ future.

[divider_top]