Posted on 06/05/2015 7:02:34 AM PDT by xzins
Conservatives have long considered it a given that free trade was a benefit to the American economy and that opening trade and reducing trade barriers would be a net positive for the United States. Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to advance it have turned that calculus on its head and amount to a new looting of American workers by the Republican and Democratic elites who are pushing it through Congress without even reading it.
The fact that the document is classified and may only be accessed by Members of Congress after they’ve signed a non-disclosure agreement, and then only through a burdensome process of personal review without notes, was our first clue that something was amiss.
Who, exactly, is the text of the TPP being kept secret from?
It’s not secret from the other countries with which we are negotiating – they’re all in the room.
It’s probably not secret from our adversaries, like Russia and China, who regularly penetrate the Obama administration’s websites and email.
It’s only secret from American workers and voters who in the end are the parties being treated as adversaries by the treaty’s advocates among Washington’s ruling elite.
What do we know about the TPA and TPP so far?
First of all, we know that two of their strongest Republican advocates – Republican Whip Rep. Steve Scalise and Rules Committee chairman Rep. Pete Sessions – refused to admit through spokespersons to Breitbart News whether they have read the text of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Pacific Rim trade deal, but they still support granting President Barack Obama the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to fast track it.
We know that Senator Rand Paul has reviewed it and then came out against both the trade deal and the “fast track” authority to rush it through Congress.
We know that Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama has written to President Obama asking him to make the highly controversial so-called “living agreement” from inside the TPP deal—which again is currently secret—public before the Senate gives him TPA fast-track authority for the deal. Also, this TPA would be a six-year authority and would apply to other trade deals, not just TPP—and give them an up-or-down vote rather than the 60-vote threshold, like most things in the Senate, or the 67-vote threshold for international treaties.
We know in a June 3 interview on NPR’s Marketplace President Obama said that enforcing climate change regulations will indeed be part of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, despite the previous denials of TPP advocates, such as Democratic senator Ron Wyden of Oregon.
We know that Curtis Ellis, executive director of the American Jobs Alliance calls the trade deal "a Trojan horse for Obama's immigration agenda." He notes that "one corporate trade association says bluntly that 'The TPP should remove restrictions on nationality or residency requirements for the selection of personnel.'"
And we know commentators from Senator Sessions to political pundit Dick Morris have outlined how TPP makes provision for needed labor to move across national boundaries without restraint. While much of the commentary on the deal has been focused on high-skill, white-collar migration, it could easily be interpreted as allowing farm workers and others to flow back and forth without legal regulation.
We know that the TPP has been touted as an economic bulwark against an increasingly aggressive China, yet President Obama confirmed just this week that China has been angling to get into the deal – something that could be allowed without consulting Congress once the TPP is in effect.
And we know, as Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO and 2016 Republican presidential candidate said, “…President Obama has made lofty promises before and we’ve learned with this White House that the devil is in the details. And the details are frequently very different than the lofty goals with which he describes the deal.”
In a truly outstanding piece on illegal immigration for Conservative Review Daniel Horowitz wrote “What is completely lost throughout this entire debate are the needs and demands of the forgotten men – the American taxpayer and worker who must bear the brunt of appalling crime, schools overrun with illegal aliens who can’t speak English, hospitals flooded with the massive unfunded liability of caring for their primary care needs, and with the gargantuan wealth transfer in the form of welfare and refundable tax credits. “
The same must be said for TPA and TPA.
What is forgotten – indeed being purposely kept secret by the ruling elite of the Republican and Democratic Parties – is the effect of the Trans Pacific Partnership on America’s working families, who have been devastated by the open borders policies of the past 20 years, and who will bear the brunt of increased energy costs and decreased income and job prospects of this secret deal.
If it passes, and the things hinted at in this are true, that would mark the end of that "awkward time" Claire Wolf talked about.
There would be no place to hide for the ba*tards pushing this.
A bill taylor made for crooks, big corps, red china& foreign big business at the expense of the American worker. It is only secret because o knows that the American people would be livid if they saw what is in it. Yet another step on the road to socialism and fascism.
Secret Government bump for later..
Ask Senator Cruz to address the specifics rather than offering the platitudes about Free Trade he has offered to date.
The bigger problem is that conservative media types like Fox News, National Review, and Rush Limbaugh are hush hush about TPP.
I wrote my congressman and my Sentors. That is all I can do. They are all bought and stay bought. It is beyond repair.
We have seen the results of other ‘free trade’ agreements. Wages are less, both parents have to work, children grow up without guidance, workers suck up cheap prices without realizing they are voting for cheap wages, manufacturing leaves for areas that can ‘freely’ export to the USA, and invariably, the other nations to the pact look for ways to undercut ‘free’ access of the USA to their markets.
Free Trade is a lie. Ted Cruz is wrong about this and he’s wrong about visas.
I am starting to lean toward protectionism until our bought leaders learn how to apply “free trade” when nobody else we trade with participates and screw us.
And that's the truth right there, I don't care who you are.
I believe in free markets. Manipulative trade pacts are not the free market. They are a manipulated market.
We have not seen free trade in this country for over 20 years. We p lay by BS rules while everyone else is willy-nilly (like labor laws). It is time to either make it truly free or choke it off.
When I go to the ballpark, I pay ballpark prices because I expect a different and better experience for that evening. America is the world’s best market. If an outsider comes here to trade, they should expect to pay a premium for the opportunity. Pay to play.
The mythical, Smithsonian Free Trade as advocated by the uniparty (though the dems like to posture differently) is a ruse to deceive the American people that they are not being sold into the slavery of the Mercantilists.
They point their fingers and laugh at us.
"Lemme see. I get unencumbered access to the single largest market in the world, don't have to comply with ANY labor laws around children or safety...minimum wage...retirement/Social Security...don't have to pay sh!t in taxes and don't have a single EPA regulation to worry about"? "And no environmental rules either? AND you'll put up all the money to get this started?"
"Yeah, I'll sign that deal!"
secret law, selling out the middle class, unfettered immigration, and a backdoor for the UN treaty on small arms. If the ‘rats were selling this we’d be outraged. But since it has the Ted Cruz seal of approval, it must be great!
Ted Cruz is my favorite. However, I disagree with those who think explaining problems away is a responsibility of supporters. I think much more is accomplished by dealing with the problems or by agreeing to disagree
The folks you mentioned are not conservatives in the sense you and I would normally understand the term.
We disagree on this. Years, decades really in gun politics, have taught me two important lessons.First what a politician says doesn’t matter worth a damn. What matters is what they do and how they vote. Second, there is no such thing as loyalty when it comes to professional politicians. They view The People not as a group that they serve, but as chattel to be traded and exploited as the political expediency of the moment dictates.
If I came up to you and said that “x” politician had supported a bill that would sell out the middle class, open a door that would allow unfettered immigration, anhd possibly bring about the UN small arms treaty one week, and the next week supported a bill to increase domestic spying, you would have a hard time defending those actions as even remotely conservative. But because it’s Ted Cruz we’re supposed to turn our common sense off and declare the second coming of Ronald Reagan?
Ted Cruz is a professional politician who happens to have an incredibly good conservative schtick. That he is an exceptionally good hustler doesn’t mean he isn’t any less of a hustler.
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