Posted on 06/23/2015 5:43:39 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) has penned a column for Breitbart explaining his shift from support to opposition on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), the “fast track” legislation that would enable the current president and his successor to negotiate trade deals that Congress would then be able to vote up or down, but not amend.
Senator Cruz, a contender for the GOP presidential nomination, still supports free trade and, in principle, sees fast-track as helpful to that end. Nevertheless, he says GOP leadership’s sleight-of-hand has convinced him that, if not amended, the current TPA bill will become a scheme for passing bad legislation having little to do with trade — namely, immigration “reform” and reauthorization of the Export-Import Bank.
In his initial vote in favor of TPA, the senator intimates that he was misled by Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), who, when pressed on the matter, testily represented to him that there were no side-deals on Ex-Im. Cruz opposes reauthorization of the bank, which is scheduled to expire at the end of this month. He describes Ex-Im as “a classic example of corporate welfare” and cronyism at its worst” — a position Veronique de Rugy has repeatedly and (in my view) compellingly argued here on the Corner. (See archive, here.)
Because a bipartisan group of senators who support Ex-Im — led by Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.) and presidential hopeful Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) — blocked TPA when it first came up for a vote in the Senate, Cruz suspects a deal was being pushed to obtain their support for TPA in exchange for a vote to reauthorize the bank.
Though McConnell promised him there was no such understanding, Cruz suggests that this flies in the face of what happened in the House. There, several Republicans proposed to Speaker John Boehner that they would support TPA if he agreed not to cut a deal with Democrats to reauthorize Ex-Im. Cruz writes, “Boehner declined. Instead, it appears he made the deal with Democrats, presumably tossing in the Ex-Im Bank and also increasing tax penalties on businesses.” Moreover, Cruz observes, Boehner is punishing conservatives who opposed him, “wrongly stripping Rep. Mark Meadows (R., N.C.) of his subcommittee chairmanship, and reportedly threatening to strip other conservatives of their chairmanships as well.”
Add to this the specter of TPA as the fast track to immigration amnesty that President Obama and bipartisan “reform” advocates have been unable to pass through the normal legislative process. Senator Cruz notes that he and Senator Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.) were blocked by Republican leadership from votes on amendments they proposed to bar fast-track treatment for any trade deals that attempt to impact U.S. immigration law.
Cruz recalls that he and Senator Sessions were told their fears about the abuse of trade legislation to remake immigration law were “unfounded.” At this point, however, he says he is done with such oral assurances — he wants commitments that are written expressly into the laws:
Enough is enough. I cannot vote for TPA unless McConnell and Boehner both commit publicly to allow the Ex-Im Bank to expire—and stay expired. And, Congress must also pass the Cruz-Sessions amendments to TPA to ensure that no trade agreement can try to back-door changes to our immigration laws. Otherwise, I will have no choice but to vote no.
Cruz further castigates GOP leadership for consistently caving in to Democrats and “disregard[ing] promises made to the conservative grassroots.” The full column is worth reading.
I have argued here against the meritless contention that TPA is unconstitutional. Furthermore, if you think trade agreements are good for the country, the chance of getting good trade agreements without fast-track authority is unlikely. From a strategic standpoint, I continue to believe we are more likely to get bad legislation if Congress can amend these agreements to make them marginally more palatable (but not materially better); a bad deal is more likely to lose in a straight up-or-down vote.
That said, while trade agreements are (or can be) very beneficial, they do not come in a vacuum. Like everything else, the authority for making them in a fast-track mode has to be weighed against other considerations — and trust is a big part of that equation.
If I were convinced, as Senator Cruz appears to be, that TPA — regardless of its legal and policy soundness — had become a smokescreen for slamming through non-trade legislation that would be worse for the country than trade is good for the country, I would not support it either.
Cruz blames others as opposed to being a real leader.
Wrong.
Obama could not even hold certain enlisted military intelligence MOS’s as he has family members in Africa and not all are US citizens. Amazing a man is this nation’s Pres and he cannot hold certain military jobs, yet; he is CIC. Surely we had best realize what the real definition of natural born means. Cruz does not qualify either.
Or a lame excuse. :>)
If it weren’t a treaty why would we need TPA? It is a treaty.
Beyond that - didn’t Ryan gut another bill that had been passed and inserted this TPA? Isn’t that how 0bamacare passed?
I’m a Cruz supporter and have sent money twice - I will probably resolve that he is the best alternative still b/c he clearly is. However, this debacle has knocked him down a notch for the time being.
I still trust that he’s strayegerizing and this will all come out his way and most of us will say “ohhhhh... THAT’S what he was up to”... b/c right now, nobody knows. And the people that are pretending to know are doing much more damage trying to explain things imo.
I enjoyed reading your post. May I quote your comment in the future to fight back the trolls?
Do you have any insight on NAFTA?
Kool-aid....a sugary flavored drink made to color your tongue and the hide the fact that you are drinking empty calories. Just like the political version hides the empty promises the dems make.
....”When Ted Cruz read the Wiki-Leaks leak on the TPA and found out the ‘Immigration language’ was still in the TPA and Additionally, when ‘McConnell refused to let the Ex-IM bank expire’ (Corporate Welfare and Corporate Cronyism to the tune of Hundreds of Billions of Loan Guarantee)... Cruz refused to vote for it on the second vote”...(to proceed).
Over and over Cruz made it clear until the “language” was clear he was not going to say how he would vote...when “language” is changed or omitted altogether that makes a huge difference. Cruz knows how the democrats operate and we need to give him room to see for himself what matters are all about rather than jump the gun as is so often.
Toast Cruz, lawyer from Harvard, was caught lying
and voting against American interests.
He is just like the others.
>He was ‘misled’. So what? As if that doesn’t happen everyday in Congress?<
Wait a second. How can the genius Ted Cruz be misled, especially if he actually read all the bill?
The pretzel twisting going on here by sheep is embarrassing.
Roger that.
You are correct. It is sad how Cruz fans make excuses for him and crucify others for a similar or lesser screw up.
It appears you’ve appointed yourself as the “take down Cruz” hall monitor posting the same posts from one thread to another....so do you not have any other interests besides Cruz?
How about sharing who you think might do better?
This Obama trade deal is a trojan horse.It’s disguised as “free trade” What It really allows is for Obama to flood the USA with an unlimited number of 3rd world immigrants ...
http://www.thenewamerican.com/usnews/immigration/item/20710-obama-gop-trade-scheme-includes-unrestricted-immigration
This Fast track gives Obama power to make agreements that override U.S. IMMIGRATION laws and any law. It’s the destruction of the republic.It gives obama unlimited dictatorial power to destroy the U.S. Proof here :
http://getliberty.org/oppose-trade-authority-for-obama-on-pacific-trade-deal/
http://www.conservativehq.com/node/20233 .
Your discussion about what Cruz read or didn’t and then voted on seems to me a non sequitur.
What Cruz read on WikiLeaks was text from TiSA not from TPA.
- TiSA is a trade agreement with the same levels of secrecy being used with the TPP trade agreement.
- TPA is the congressional legislation that delegates authority to a POTUS to negotiate trade deals (TiSA, TPP) on Congress’ behalf and provides for that negotiated deal to be fast-tracked through Congress to get an up-or-down vote w/o amendments.
Cruz was not voting on TiSA or TPP. He was voting on TPA.
FWIW.
And this illustrates the problem with the issues around TPA, TPP, TiSA, etc.
NO ONE knows what they are talking about. Everything seems to be built on untested and unsupportable assumptions. Unsupportable from a perspective of facts.
And yet, EVERYONE is posting opinions as if they were fact.
I am not confused about TPA, TPP, TiSA, etc. If you’d like to get a clearer understanding, I recommend starting here:
Exactly. It was overdue.
You are right. It gets old when one either has an excuse or boasts he/she was right. The real leaders I always got along with just did their job very well everyday and that is what earns respect.
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