News

Heinrich opposes TPP fast track

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U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich announced Friday that he opposes a fast track for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, the latest in a line of controversial trade agreements. Heinrich, a Democrat, is going against President Barack Obama in opposing the quick approval of the treaty. The TPP is a rare occasion where Republicans and Obama are on the same page and the deal is expected to get a Senate vote. “They call that Trade Promotion Authority or TPA, but it’s really just re-branded ‘Fast Track’ legislation designed to allow trade deals to be pushed through Congress with little or no debate,” Heinrich wrote on Facebook late last week. Heinrich outlined some of his concerns with possibilities of what could be in the treaty including, saying that changes could not be made if the quick approval makes it through Congress.

Community Voices

Is a Multiparty System the Key to a Better Democracy? | by Rick Lass

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[box type=”info” style=”rounded”]RICK LASS is a graduate of St. John’s College and a veteran of New Mexico politics. A former Green Party candidate for the PRC, Lass is heavily involved in good government and voting rights issues and runs the blog www.votingmatters.net[/box]

Happily, someone in the main stream is talking about the possibilities of a multiparty system. Blogger Philip Bump has a brief piece in the Washington Post imagining our Congress divided into four parties, based on how current members voted on the recent budget bill. From the article:
If we assign members of Congress to political parties based on the spending votes, we end up with four parties.