Yes, this is what several people have told me. Let’s hope it stays this way:
President Barack Obama doesn’t have the votes at this point to win U.S. House passage of legislation that would expedite approval of trade accords, a Democratic leader in the chamber said.
Obama has sought the trade-promotion authority legislation, largely backed by Republicans, to help him close a 12-nation deal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership and submit it to Congress for expedited passage without amendments.
“Does the president have the votes? I’d say at this stage he does not,” Representative Xavier Becerra of California, the fourth-ranking House Democrat, said Thursday at a meeting with Bloomberg reporters and editors. “I think it’s more a matter of: Can Republicans gather Republican votes?”
Mr 4th ranking Dem means that they want us to let our defenses down, and then they do like they did in the Senate. At least they are smart enough to demand that the R’s pass it so that the R’s get the blame for it. But in the end, if Obama needs their votes, they will find just enough for him.