http://news.yahoo.com/obamas-trade-bill-faces-showdown-vote-capitol-hill-071110191--finance.html#Obama makes personal appeal on trade with key vote in House
Associated Press By ERICA WERNER and CHARLES BABINGTON
13 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama made an 11th-hour appeal to dubious Democrats on Friday in a tense run-up to a House showdown on legislation to strengthen his hand in global trade talks.
The president's hastily scheduled trip to the Capitol coincided with the beginning of debate on the House floor on the legislation, which stands near the top of his second-term agenda.
"Is America going to shape the global economy, or is it going to shape us?" said Rep. Paul Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who is head of the House Ways and Means Committee and a GOP pointman on an issue that scrambled the normal party alignment in divided government.
But Rep. Sander Levin, D-Mich., countered that the legislation heading toward a showdown vote included "no meaningful protections whatever against currency manipulation" by some of America's trading partners, whose actions he said have "ruined millions of middle class jobs."
The legislation would allow Obama to complete global trade deals that Congress could approve or reject, but not change. Other presidents have had the authority, which is dubbed "fast track." The White House wants the authority as he works to wrap up a round of talks with 11 Pacific Area countries.
The same measure included a renewal of assistance for workers who lose their jobs as a result of global trade. Normally, that is a Democratic priority, but in this case, Levin and other opponents of the measure mounted an effort to kill the aid package, as a way of toppling the entire bill.
The president's last-minute visit to Capitol Hill marked a bid to stave off a humiliating defeat at the hands of his own party on a top second-term priority.
The move caught the GOP off-guard. House Republicans, already in the awkward position of allying themselves with Obama, found themselves being asked by their leaders to vote for a worker retraining program that most have long opposed as wasteful. Many were reluctant to do so, leaving the fate of the entire package up in the air, and Obama facing the prospect of a brutal loss — unless he can eke out what all predict would be the narrowest of wins.
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