Free Republic

House Speaker John Boehner’s plan, as laid out to several aides and lawmakers, would attempt to pass Trade Promotion Authority as a standalone bill. The Senate, meanwhile, would amend a trade “preferences” bill with Trade Adjustment Assistance, the job-training and program that was defeated on the House floor last week. But Democrats want several assurances before moving forward. For one, pro-trade House Democrats want to be sure that if they back a fast-track bill without the worker aid measure, like-minded Senate Democrats will also vote for it. Senate Democrats want a promise that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Boehner...

When a group of House conservatives voted last week to kill a trade bill favored by President Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and other GOP leaders who support the measure steamed. Representative Mick Mulvaney (R., S.C.) celebrated the revolt as a coming-of-age moment for rebel backbenchers. “Yesterday will be the day that we look back at as the day that conservatives finally started getting organized in the House,” he wrote in a note to the Spartanburg Tea Party. [snip] When GOP leadership ignored them, Jordan and his allies tried to kill the bill on a procedural vote — a rare...

Tuesday at the White House press briefing, press secretary Josh Earnest revealed that President Barack Obama has not talked to House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi since last week when she handed him a resounding defeat on his Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) deal by not supporting a key measure for financial aid to displaced workers. However Earnest said the President has had spoken “on a couple occasions yesterday” with Republican Speaker of the House Rep. John Boehner

The Republican field is crowded, which implies that primary voters have little information about where some of the candidates stand. That is particularly the case this season, with a few relatively unknown contenders who lack legislative experience or a long history of campaign contributions that would allow researchers to precisely identify where they stand on the liberal-to-conservative political dimension.However, one characteristic all candidates share is that they have active and popular Twitter accounts. And as I showed in an article published earlier this year in the journal Political Analysis — now freely available online as an Editors’ Choice article —...

Look, I understand that people have problems with TPA/TPP. Fine. I’m not here to change people’s minds; I make rhetorical weapons for other people to use. That’s what I am reasonably good at, and I let other people be the silver-tongued devils that go out and convert folks. However: please do not be stupid. And ‘stupid,’ in this context, very much includes ‘willing to let people manipulate your opinion without looking them up first.’ A leading voice against a pending Asian free trade agreement is tailoring his message to the country’s grassroots conservatives, but until recently he described himself as...

Curtis Ellis is a long-time Democratic communications aide who runs ObamaTrade.com, a project of the American Jobs Alliance. The site promotes conservative opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, but Ellis is a self-described progressive. A three-time Democratic congressional candidate funds the site. Ellis on Monday criticized Republican TPP supporters for violating Americans for Tax Reform’s no-tax pledge due to a provision that raises penalties for businesses that fail to file 1099 tax forms from $30 to $50.

Self-described progressive Democrat Curtis Ellis finds receptive ears on conservative blogs and talk radio. A leading voice against a pending Asian free trade agreement is tailoring his message to the country’s grassroots conservatives, but until recently he described himself as a progressive and worked for union-backed Democrats.

Peter denied Jesus three times but Hillary Clinton appears to have a much more difficult task; she is going to have to deny herself at least 45 times. Last Friday, Hillary Clinton's spokesperson, Karen Finney, appeared on CNN's The Lead and exasperated Jake Tapper by continuing to avoid avoid answering the important question as to whether her boss still supports or opposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade bill in Congress. Not a smart move in the long run because yesterday Tapper struck back by listing in detail, with her own quotes, 45 times that Hillary pushed the trade bill over the years....

Although he has been embraced by a number of noted conservatives, right-leaning websites and at least one conservative talk show host, one of the leading voices against the free trade agreement known as “Fast-Track” is actually a left-wing operative who has worked for union-backed Democrats. By tailoring his disinformation to appeal to conservatives, the career Democrat operative is attempting to make the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) toxic to Republicans.Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon looked into the group behind the anti- TPP website, ObamaTrade.com, and found it is funded by Curtis Ellis, the progressive three-time...

Just what we need. A squishy (or fluffy, depending upon how you view cellulite) northeast governor considering a run for the presidency visits Iowa and uses talking points lifted directly from progressive propaganda to attack Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) 100%. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie took aim at 2016 Republican presidential hopeful Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) on Friday, accusing him and other lawmakers of “hypocrisy” over federal disaster relief.“We have Sen. Cruz, who voted against Sandy relief. Now he says he’s got floods in Texas. He says, ‘Hey, we need some help down here in Texas.’ It’s great, right?” Christie...

NumbersUSA Director of Government Relations Rosemary Jenks stated that if fast-track passed, Congress would not reject the Trade in Services Agreement, which could make the US “open up it’s immigration laws” on Monday’s “Laura Ingraham Show.” Jenks said, “We have had Ambassador Froman, the US Trade Rep., go to Congress on multiple occasions and assure members of Congress that the United States is not negotiating immigration in TPP, the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Well, we know that there is in fact an immigration chapter in TPP, but it looks relatively harmless. What he failed to tell us, and members of Congress, is...

A lot of misinformation is being spread about Trade Promotion Authority or TPA that is currently being debated in Congress. First and foremost I want to tell you why I support TPA and why I think it's an important step forward for not only West Michigan but the entire country. The Constitution lays out specific roles for both the President as well as Congress in terms of trade. The President's role is to negotiate with foreign counties on behalf of the United States, while the role of Congress is to review any potential trade agreement and then vote to either...

Bernie Sanders, the outspoken progressive U.S. senator challenging Hillary Clinton for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, urged her on Sunday to take a stand on a big trade deal that has divided the Democratic Party. Clinton aides appearing on Sunday television news shows said she would not weigh in until negotiations were complete. Sanders, a vocal critic of free trade, called on Clinton to join labor unions, environmentalists and other opponents of the trade package before it is brought up for another vote this week. Clinton is the front-runner among candidates to be the Democratic Party nominee for the November...

WikiLeaks released another chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), the still-secret mega-treaty between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations, on Wednesday, two days before a planned vote in the House of Representatives to give President Obama Trade Promotion Authority (TPA, also known as Fast Track).The secret text, ironically (or cynically) titled “TPP Transparency Chapter Annex on Transparency and Procedural Fairness for Pharmaceutical Products and Medical Devices,” appears to confirm the charges of TPP critics who have characterized the treaty as a sellout to “Big Pharma,” the giant pharmaceutical companies.Commenting on the leaked TPP texts, financial website ZeroHedge.com noted:It...

When the proceeds of growth are not widely shared, the consensus in favor of pro-growth measures cracks. A decade and a half ago, I filled my days writing speeches urging Congress to grant President George W. Bush fast-track trade authority. If memory serves, I wrote more speeches on that one subject than on any other. Obviously, I didn’t earn my pay: Despite Republican majorities in both Houses, Congress balked. This past year, President Obama has worked as hard for fast-track authority as President Bush ever did. It now seems that his efforts will prove as unavailing. This time, if anything,...

For those Freepers who are not able to do their own research: Go to the web page of Kenny Marchant,Texas 24th district, and click on the little link thingy that says "Full Legislative Text Of TPA". You may then download the damn thing and read it. It has never been a secret, in spite of what all the Jebbie's say. This is what was passed on Friday. It is not a trade bill. I repeat, IT IS NOT A TRADE BILL. The big super dooper trade bill, the TPP, has not been voted on. It is not yet finalized. Ted...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)96%, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, defended his decision to vote for Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) that would fast-track the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) and Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)—among other deals—during a Thursday interview with the Hugh Hewitt radio program. Hewitt started his line of questioning with coming out of a commercial. “Let’s take that opportunity, then, to go and talk about free trade—TPA, TPP, Export-Import Bank. Sen. Cruz, for clarity’s sake, can you quickly give us an overview on where you are on those three issues, as there’s quite...

Sen. Ted Cruz is usually in lockstep with the conservative base. But as the far right worries about the content of a pending trade deal and the power that related legislation could give the president, Cruz has not been in lockstep. And he’s been using conservative talk radio to defend his support for two critical parts of President Barack Obama’s trade agenda: Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). TPA, also known as “fast track,” means Congress can only approve or reject a trade deal without amending it. TPP is a pending trade deal with up to a...

Senator Cruz entirely understands the widespread suspicion of the President. Nobody has been more vocal in pointing out the President’s lawlessness or more passionate about fighting his usurpation of congressional authority. Senator Cruz would not and will not give President Obama one more inch of unrestricted power. There have been a lot of questions and concerns about the ongoing Pacific trade negotiations. Many of those concerns, fueled by the media, stem from confusion about Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and the proposed Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). Let’s unpack the issues one by one. What are TPA and TPP? TPA stands for Trade...

Hillary Clinton's Saturday campaign reboot isn't just her first public rally. Coming a day after President Obama suffered an embarrassing legislative defeat, it is a changing of the guard for the Democratic Party. Make no mistake: while House Republicans also voted overwhelmingly against the president on a key trade bill Friday, it was his fellow Democrats who handed him the most stinging rebuke. Just 40 Democrats out of 188 voted with Obama. Nearly 80 percent of House Democrats, including Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, went against him. A mere two of the 10 Democrats representing Obama's home state of Illinois in...