Posted on 05/13/2015 2:18:50 PM PDT by Drew68
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., today blasted the secrecy shrouding the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations.
“They said, well, it’s very transparent. Go down and look at it,” said Boxer on the floor of the Senate. “Let me tell you what you have to do to read this agreement. Follow this: you can only take a few of your staffers who happen to have a security clearance — because, God knows why, this is secure, this is classified. It has nothing to do with defense. It has nothing to do with going after ISIS.”
Boxer, who has served in the House and Senate for 33 years, then described the restrictions under which members of Congress can look at the current TPP text.
“The guard says, ‘you can’t take notes.’ I said, ‘I can’t take notes?’” Boxer recalled. “‘Well, you can take notes, but have to give them back to me, and I’ll put them in a file.’ So I said: ‘Wait a minute. I’m going to take notes and then you’re going to take my notes away from me and then you’re going to have them in a file, and you can read my notes? Not on your life.’”
Boxer noted at the start of her speech that she hoped opponents of the trade promotion authority bill — the so-called fast-track legislation required to advance the TPP — would be able to block the bill via a filibuster. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is expected to file a motion to invoke cloture on the measure later this afternoon.
“Instead of standing in a corner, trying to figure out a way to bring a trade bill to the floor that doesn’t do anything for the middle class — that is held so secretively that you need to go down there and hand over your electronics and give up your right to take notes and bring them back to your office — they ought to come over here and figure out how to help the middle class,” Boxer said.
In 2012, U.S. chief TPP negotiator Barbara Weisel said that “constantly evolving TPP chapter texts cannot be released to the public.” The same year, then-U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk claimed that secrecy was justified because openness and debate last decade killed talks surrounding the Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Can't have any openness and debate, can we?
Video of Senator Boxer's speech here.
33 years?
Now she stands up for something worth a damn.
But when it was 0bamacare, she was just fine with “We’ll have to pass the bill in order to find out what’s in it”.
“God knows why this is secure.”
It’s all about f—king over the country,that’s why it’s secure.Get a clue woman.
I can’t believe that I actually agree w/someone she said.
Racis!!!
This shows that Barak Obama is worse than even Boxer. Obama IS THE greater evil, the most evil ever.
This trade deal basically removes the United States border. Any 3rd world country can literally flood the USA with products and unlimited immigrant “workers” or “trade in services”
It’s a trojan horse to destroy America
This power would allow Obama to flood the USA with hundreds of millions of 3rd world immigrants:
I will go instead with what Senator Jeff Sessions has to say on this: Sen. Jeff Sessions: Top Five Concerns With Trade Promotion Authority
http://www.conservativehq.com/node/20233
I can’t believe that I actually agree w/something she said.
Hell hath no furry like that of an ugly stupid brain dead decaying old bucket of bones.
Tell me the truth Barbara, how have you slept with eyelids that haven’t been shut in 20 years?
Okay, maybe that’s overkill. Ten? Five?
I know. The world is upside down.
This TPP trade deal basically removes the United States border. Any 3rd world country can literally flood the USA with products and unlimited immigrant “workers” or “trade in services”
It’s a trojan horse to destroy America
This power would allow Obama to flood the USA with hundreds of millions of 3rd world immigrants:
I will go instead with what Senator Jeff Sessions has to say on this: Sen. Jeff Sessions: Top Five Concerns With Trade Promotion Authority
http://www.conservativehq.com/node/20233
Key words in the TPP “free trade in SERVICES” . That means unrestricted immigration
Boxer and her friends have all the power they need to change this.
She’s a United States Senator. The people who classified the briefing are bound by laws made by...the Congress.
Of which the Senate is the foremost entity.
The idea that the USTR can trump a Senator is ridiculous.
Let me know when Kirk or Weisel run for an election.
Until then, everything they do is at the leisure of the Congress.
For Better or for Worse.
I know of a trojan horse that sees illegal immigrants pay a penalty and get access to full citizenship.
Sure is interesting who finds that to be a problem and who doesn’t.
You wouldn’t know anyone like that would you?
If other senate Democrats feel the same way about Obama TPP secrecy as Sen. Boxer does, then doesn’t the RINO-controlled Senate know that Congress can override an Obama veto of an access demand bill for TPP with 2/3 majority vote of each House (1.7.2)?
Or would Sen. Boxer not get the support of the corrupt, RINO-controlled House for a veto override?
I suspect that even if Congress overrode a presidential veto that they still would not get what they wanted from lawless Obama.
Is hell freezing over?
Am I in agreement with Babs Boxer?
WTF?
A broken clock is right 2 times a day.
I have no idea what is in the TPP, but I do know that Obama does nothing good for the US people, so for that reason alone I am against this treaty.
I read on another thread hear a few days ago that it also includes UN rules and restrictions on firearms and ammunition.
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