Boehner says Hillary Clinton should support White House on trade

On NBC's 'Meet the Press' Speaker of the House John Boehner exhorted Clinton to support Republicans and the White House, in fast-tracking controversial trade agreements opposed by many Democrats.

|
Bloomberg
In an interview with Bloomberg Politics’ Mark Halperin, Speaker of the House John Boehner comments on cooperation in Congress, foreign policy and what he thinks is our national pastime.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner challenged Hillary Clinton on Sunday to help the White House get trade legislation through the U.S. Congress by speaking out in favor of it.

Lawmakers are debating whether to give President Barack Obama "fast-track" authority to negotiate deals such as the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Trade is a rare issue on which the White House enjoys support from Republicans, but many Democrats are opposed.

"She can't sit on the sidelines and let the president swing in the wind here," Boehner said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Boehner said Clinton, 2016 presidential contender and a former secretary of state, supports both fast-track authority and the TPP, but "she just won't say so."

The White House says free-trade deals open up new markets to U.S. exports and help businesses compete abroad. But many Democrats and their supporters, including labor unions, say the deals help big corporations at the expense of American jobs.

Clinton has not stated a clear position on either fast-track legislation or the negotiation of the TPP deal with Asia. She recently said that any trade deal "has to produce jobs and raise wages and increase prosperity and protect our security."

Representative James Clyburn, a member of House Democratic leadership, said this week he didn't know whether there were even 20 votes out of a total of 188 Democrats in the House for fast-track authority, also known as Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).

"The fact is that the president needs her help in order to get Democrat votes in the House and Senate to get this passed," Boehner said on Sunday.

There are 244 Republicans in the House, but not all of them support trade deals; Boehner's allies estimate that he may be only able to get 180 to 200 Republican votes for TPA.

Boehner told NBC that every Democratic leader in Congress is opposed to the president's position.

"We've got the majority here in the House and the Senate, but we can't do this by ourselves," Boehner said of the Republicans.

Clinton has also been criticized by Republican Jeb Bush, a potential presidential candidate, for her reticence on trade.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Boehner says Hillary Clinton should support White House on trade
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2015/0503/Boehner-says-Hillary-Clinton-should-support-White-House-on-trade
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe