Secret Obama Admin. Trade Document Exposes More Broken Promises/Foreign Corporate Kowtowing

A document from President Barack Obama’s free trade negotiations with eight Pacific nations has been leaked exposing his intentions to hand radical new political powers to multinational corporations.

The leaked document has been posted on the website of Public Citizen. The leaked information follows complaints from members of Congress that they are not being given the same access to trade documents that corporate officials are.

“The outrageous stuff in this leaked text may well be why U.S. trade officials have been so extremely secretive about these past two years of [trade] negotiations,” said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) has introduced legislation requiring further disclosure while House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has posted a separate document from the talks on his website. Other Senators are considering writing a letter to Ron Kirk, the top trade negotiator under Obama, demanding more disclosure.

The newly leaked document addresses a broad sweep of regulations governing international investment and reveals the Obama administration’s advocacy for policies that environmental activists, financial reform advocates and labor unions have long rejected for eroding key protections currently in domestic laws.

Under the agreement the Obama administration would allow foreign corporations operating within the U.S. to appeal key legal or regulatory rulings on the environment, banking and other issues to an international tribunal. That tribunal would be granted the power to overrule American law and impose trade sanctions on the United States for failing to abide by its rulings.

Yet again the president is breaking a promise he made during the 2008 campaign.

“We will not negotiate bilateral trade agreements that stop the government from protecting the environment, food safety, or the health of its citizens; give greater rights to foreign investors than to U.S. investors; require the privatization of our vital public services; or prevent developing country governments from adopting humanitarian licensing policies to improve access to life-saving medications,” reads the campaign document.

“Bush was better than Obama on this,” said Judit Rius, U.S. manager of Doctors Without Borders Access to Medicines Campaign, referring to the medication rules. “It’s pathetic, but it is what it is. The world’s upside-down.”

In a statement provided to HuffPost, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative downplayed the concerns.

“This administration is committed to ensuring strong environmental, public health and safety laws,” said USTR spokesperson Nkenge Harmon. “Nothing in our TPP investment proposal could impair our government’s ability to pursue legitimate, non-discriminatory public interest regulation, including measures to protect public health, public safety and the environment.”

Trans-Pacific negotiations have been taking place throughout the Obama presidency. The deal is strongly supported by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the top lobbying group for American corporations. Obama’s Republican opponent in the 2012 presidential elections, Mitt Romney, has urged the U.S. to finalize the deal as soon as possible.

Federal Reserve: Middle Class Lost 40% of Wealth

The Great Depression 2.0 wiped out close to two decades of American wealth, with ­middle-class families, predictably, bearing the brunt of the losses.

According to the Federal Reserve the median net worth of families dropped from $126,400 in 2007 to $77,300 in 2010.

Over the span of three years, the progress that took almost a generation to accumulate disappeared.

“It’s hard to overstate how serious the collapse in the economy was,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics. “We were in free fall.”

Only about half of middle-class Americans remained on the same economic footing during the downturn. The value of assets such as homes, automobiles and stocks minus any debt suffered the biggest drops while the wealthiest families’ median net worth rose slightly.

Median income also fell by nearly 8 percent, to $45,800, in 2010. The median value of stock-market-based retirement accounts declined 7 percent, to $44,000 while the median value of Americans’ stake in their homes fell by 42 percent between 2007 and 2010, to $55,000, according to the Fed.

“Recovery from the so-called Great Recession has also been particularly slow,” the report said.

Spain Contemplates Taxing Church Property

Three different laws, including a 1979 agreement with the Vatican, exempt the Catholic Church from paying property tax in Spain. Other recognized religions and non-profit organizations like the Red Cross enjoy the same exemption, but because of the Catholic Church’s vast holdings there are many who argue that the church should not get such preferential treatment. España Laica, a pro-secularism group, estimates that the church would owe 2.5 to 3 billion euros in property taxes annually.

Now with austerity measures and a European bailout looming, the idea of the church paying property taxes is a real possibility.

“With the crisis, we all have to tighten our belts,” says David Cerdán, the Socialist Party councilman in Aspe who, together with a colleague from the United Left party, presented the motion to abolish the exemption. “Our sense of social justice, which I believe Catholicism shares, tells us that those who have the most should help those who have the least.”

In Aspe, located in the southeastern province of Alicante, the measure would only affect holdings that are not strictly devoted to religious practice or to social services. Only three of the church’s 11 properties — a storefront that houses a restaurant and the two parish priests’ homes — would be subject to the tax, which Cerdán estimates would annually bring an additional 7,000 euros into the municipal coffers.

“This doesn’t have to do with God,” Cerdán says, rejecting claims that anti-clericalism is motivating the change. “This has to do with problems on earth.”

Many Catholic schools and hospitals are subsidized by the State and each year citizens have the option to dedicate 0.7% of their income tax to the Catholic Church (they may also choose that the same amount go to unspecified “social services” or be divided between both). In 2010, the church earned 248 million euros from income tax returns.

In May, the opposition Socialist Party pledged to change the legislation that guarantees the church’s property tax privileges. Like Aspe, Alcalá de Henares, a city of 204,000, and tiny Amoeiro, in northwestern Galicia, have decided to bill taxes on properties that the church rents out or that aren’t being used at all. Others cities like Zamora in central Spain, will begin billing for trash collection, another charge the church has avoided.

Church representatives, including Cardinal Antonio María Rouco, head of Spain’s Council of Bishops, have stated publicly that they will comply with their legal obligations. But Rouco also suggested that a change in the tax regimen “would have a detrimental effect on other possible actions, like Caritas,” the Church’s charitable organization. The governing Popular Party (PP), which opposes a change, agrees with him. “The Catholic church fulfills a very important social function in Spain,” says Manuel Cobo, the PP’s secretary general for local policy. “Especially in extreme situations like this crisis, religious organizations offer critical assistance to our most underprivileged citizens.”

Cobo doesn’t believe that the Socialist Party’s campaign to overturn the exemption is truly motivated by economic concerns. “The Socialists were in power for the last eight years. Why didn’t they do away with the exemption then?” he asks. “They’re only doing it now because they think it will win them votes. It’s an electoral strategy.”