At a Roosevelt Institute Event, Warren and economist Joseph Stiglitz hit back on the Trans-Pacific Partnership after Obama’s harsh words for the Massachusetts senator.
Speaking at an event held by the Roosevelt Institute Tuesday morning, Sen. Elizabeth Warren did not let up in her critique of the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership that the White House is proposing. And this time, she got a little help from Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz.
Stiglitz, while unveiling a new report on inequality, criticized the TPP, calling it a move to increase corporate power at the expense of average Americans that could lead to increased inequality.
Stiglitz also addressed President Obama’s recent attacks on progressives over trade, and particularly those against Warren, whom Obama recently called “absolutely wrong” for saying the proposed deal could to lead to the dismantling of Dodd-Frank.
“The president is making some fairly nasty remarks about people on the other side that they don’t understand we’re in the 21st century,” Stiglitz said. “Actually, we do. I don’t think he understands what’s happened in the last third of a century.”
Stiglitz, who served as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in former President Bill Clinton’s administration, has long been critical of TPP. Stiglitz’s name did not appear on a letter signed by several former chairpersons of the Council of Economic Advisers from both parties asking Congress to grant Obama Trade Promotion Authority, which would subject trade agreements to an up-or-down vote without the ability to amend.
After Stiglitz, Warren took the stage Tuesday and continued her rhetoric hammering the White House for keeping the text of TPP secret.
“It’s too bad that a Nobel Prize-winning economist isn’t even allowed to read the current trade deal until after Congress votes to grease the skids to make sure that it passes,” Warren said, in reference to Stiglitz.
Last month, Warren and Sen. Sherrod Brown sent a letter to Obama asking him to declassify the negotiating text of TPP. Warren has also posted the same criticism on her website against the White House for conducting negotiations out of the public eye.
On Monday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest suggested Warren “walk over” to read the text. House Democrats have also complained about the difficulty in viewing the documents.
Many on the Left, along with Stiglitz, are taking umbrage with how the White House is handling Warren, with the Progressive Change Campaign Committee sending out an email Tuesday saying that “President Obama has never attacked Republican Leader Mitch McConnell the way he’s attacking Elizabeth Warren.”
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