Our Governor is making vicious attacks on the American middle class, taking our hard-earned dollars and squandering them by giving them to Big Corporations. When does all of the child play and greed stop?

The United States and eleven other nations are working on a massive new trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP. According to Public Policy Polling, 63% of Oregonians oppose the TPP, and 73% oppose giving the president “Fast Track” authority to ram trade deals through Congress without amendments. Oregonians are right. In 2012, President Obama pushed through a similar “free trade” agreement with Korea. He promised it would increase exports and create jobs. He was wrong. It hurt exports and killed more than 93,000 US jobs. The failed Korea agreement is the template for the TPP. The TPP would increase the number of foreign corporations able to challenge any US federal, state, or local law: any law that might jeopardize foreign corporate profit, including laws on environmental protection, food and water safety, public health, working conditions, and internet network equality. Forget due process. Judgment is passed by secretive tribunals whose rulings are final. There is no appeal to regular US courts. The number of such claims filed under existing “free trade” agreements is increasing: from a few in 1995 to at least 600 by 2014. But the proceedings are conducted in secrecy. The actual number may be higher. The TPP will fuel inequality, kill jobs, and undermine health, environmental and financial regulations. Oregonians are right: it must be stopped.

I cannot support any agreement that is kept secret. The whole Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement should be made public. We have lost too many jobs overseas. Not everyone has a college degree and we need manufacturing jobs to fulfill that need. Plus, we can't even enforce laws to protect our environment, we definitely won't be able to control countries like China. I think what really amazes me is that while people complain about unemployment insurance, welfare, food stamps, and Medicaid we are ignoring the ways to eliminate the need for them. Birth control, education, and jobs. Our teachers, in Pagosa Springs, Colorado are being asked to take another cut in their salary. My husband was a teacher for 44 years, I was an Instructional Aide for children with special needs. I would not encourage anyone to go into teaching. People don't have any idea what teacher do, what they are responsible for and the hours they put in. We need to take care of our future generations.

It is important because people that do know about it are not taking action against children working in sweatshops. Our school group wants to raise awareness about these unfair working conditions. The children are working 18 hours a day, for little pay, that goes back to their families. They are working in poor conditions, being abused and receive little to no education.

Because this is one of the most important issues going on in our country currently. Past trade agreements have cost our country millions of good, high paying jobs that have now been sent overseas.

Arizona Republicans are ripping away the meager benefits nearly 1 million people rely on to survive. Wisconsin Republicans are mandating drug testing and outlawing junk food. A bill in Missouri would ban food stamp users from buying seafood. Junk food bans and mandatory drug testing have popped up across the nation. Kansas might be the worst, with Republicans there pushing unprecedented restrictions on where and how people who receive public help can spend it. These efforts would be silly if they weren't so mean-spirited. A USDA survey found that people who receive nutrition assistance have a very similar diet to those who don't, and it doesn't include frequent luxury food. Most of the concern about fraud and abuse can be traced back to one misleading FOX News report. States that actually test for drug use found that those who receive public assistance use drugs at a lower rate than the rest of the population. This is nothing more than cruel, racially-tinged demagoguery. It is an attempt to demean the poor in order to excuse the failure of conservative economics to bring about shared prosperity. Perhaps worst of all, it is hypocritical: The biggest financial institutions, the so-called "too big to fail" banks officially designated for more oversight by the Financial Stability Oversight Council, receive an implicit subsidy of as much as $102 billion dollars. If our leaders are going to be mean to people who are able to survive because of public help, they should start with the big banks.

Corporate welfare is just wrong. U.S. citizens pay our fair share of taxes, and when Congress does anything concerning the budget, they want to eliminate programs that benefit ordinary citizens while many corporations pay no taxes. Corporations use our roads and other resources to make profits while we pay them subsidies. That makes no sense to me.

Every Detroit homeowner paying the 18 mills in property school taxes, is affected, because there is a 2 Billion deficit created by the Governor, and taxpayers get nothing for their taxes. Taxation without representation.

The United States and eleven other nations are working on a massive new trade agreement called the Trans-Pacific Partnership or TPP. This deal is the latest and largest in a series of international agreements that have attacked working women and men, fueled mindless and carbon-intensive consumption, and prevented governments from enforcing their own laws to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Trade deals such as NAFTA and the TPP bestow corporations with outrageous new powers, including the right to directly challenge participating governments for enacting any measures that jeopardize their profits. These corporate grievances are heard by unelected, unaccountable trade tribunals—and as history has shown, the energy and mining giants will seize on them to try to gut all manner of environmental laws. The expansion of such agreements has gone hand in hand with the accelerating rise in greenhouse gas emissions. In short, this corporate free trade model that the TPP represents isn't only destabilizing our economies—it's also a key reason why our governments have failed to come to grips with the climate crisis. If President Obama and the U.S. Congress are going to be serious about climate change, they need to start by rejecting the TPP.

If the Trans-Pacific Partnership is passed, like other trade agreements it will hurt workers by exporting U.S. jobs and it will allow trans-national corporations to sue to block U.S. environmental, health, consumer safety and financial regulations by alleging they would decrease future profits.

New Mexico needs to keep jobs and create new jobs. If the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission rejects PNM’s request for a Conditional Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for San Juan Unit 4, more than 700 New Mexicans will lose their jobs at the generation plant and coal mine. This equates to a loss of $100 million in annual payroll to our state, and take a toll on the service-based businesses that rely on PNM’s employees and the company’s purchases. Additionally, it’s a potential loss of more than $31 million annually in state and local taxes. The negative consequences of rejecting PNM’s request for the Conditional CCN reach far beyond direct job loss in the Farmington region, however. It would also damage our state’s efforts to put New Mexicans back to work and negatively affect the future of the Albuquerque metropolitan area. For the last few years, New Mexico’s Governor and Legislature have worked together to pass a series of laws to improve New Mexico’s ability to recruit manufacturers and other employers. For example, legislation enacted in 2015 allows utilities to offer an economic development incentive rate to expanding employers, an important tool that other states have used against us to create jobs for their residents. Rejection of PNM's request would render worthless this critical legislation, designed to boost the state economy and get New Mexicans back to work. In addition to higher commercial electric rates, it is anticipated that PNM's residential electric rates will increase more than double what they would under PNM's plan if the PRC rejects PNM's request. It could unnecessarily raise PNM's costs and could prevent PNM from being able to offer discounted rates, which is critical to economic development and the recruitment of new employers. It also will likely lead to a shutdown of all San Juan generation, which is the backbone of PNM's system and its cheapest source of power. The company will have to replace coal generation with expensive generation sources. This will mean much higher electric bills for Albuquerque businesses and create financial hardship for many residents. I urge you to protect job creation in Albuquerque and New Mexico and grant PNM’s request for a Conditional CCN for San Juan Unit 4. Supported by: Albuquerque Economic Development, Inc. Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce Associated Builders and Contractors of New Mexico Associated General Contractors of New Mexico Commercial Association of Realtors of New Mexico Commercial Real Estate Development Association – New Mexico Economic Forum of Albuquerque Estancia Valley Economic Development Association Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico NAIOP, the Commercial Real Estate Development Association New Mexico Association of Commerce and Industry Realtors Association of New Mexico Sandoval Economic Alliance

Worker wages have been under attack in Indiana based upon a false belief that lower wages are good for business and taxpayers. There is no support for these positions. In fact, workers making a living wage are more productive and also contribute to the building up of the local economy thereby creating a better business community.