WASHINGTON: President made an unusual 11th-hour request to dubious Democrats in a tense run-up to a House vote on legislation to strengthen his hand in global trade talks Cheers Barrack Obama greeted the president as he strode into a meeting that could make or break a key second-term priority. But it was converts he needed to assure success of a bill to let him complete global trade deals that Congress could approve or reject, but not change.
Asked on his way back to the White House if he had nailed down the support he sought, Obama replied cryptically. “I don’t think you ever nail anything down around here. It’s always moving,” he saidhe president’s hastily scheduled trip to the Capitol coincided with the beginning of debate on the House floor.“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.
