I disagree. I think the outrage is warranted. This process they are voting on is to lower the bar on passing this secret trade agreement. Why? What is in this trade agreement, which deserves the bar to be lowered? Why shouldn’t it go through the normal process? Perhaps this is a completely legitimate trade deal, and all U.S. citizens will benefit, but keeping it secret leads me to believe it is not. I have yet to hear a compelling argument as to why this needs to be kept from the public.
>>I disagree. I think the outrage is warranted. This process they are voting on is to lower the bar on passing this secret trade agreement. Why? What is in this trade agreement, which deserves the bar to be lowered? Why shouldn’t it go through the normal process? <<
First, this is the normal process for negotiating trade agreements. The reason for the authorization bill is to set the process by which the final trade agreement gets an up or down vote with no amendments. If amendments were allowed, Congress could amend the agreement, after which each of the signatory countries would also have to agree to the amendment for the amended agreement to go into effect. Meanwhile, other countries would be making differing amendments. No agreement would every be reached.
Trade agreements are tough to negotiate because they require give and take by most of the countries party to them. Tariffs are lowered, or dropped altogether. Existing quotas that frustrate international trade are addressed. Anything one country does to protect its own industry might become a subject of negotiation. If all negotiations were out in the open, each country’s leaders would be assailed every time a concession was made and nothing could be hammered out.
Instead, the parties negotiate through give and take, bearing in mind that every country’s governing body has to approve the final deal that results. If the U.S. is taken to the cleaners because President Obama is a lousy negotiator, a GOP-controlled Congress won’t approve it, despite the cries of all the cynics.