TED CRUZ ON THE PRIMACY OF AMERICAN LAW
Cruz made his influence felt in the Senate even before he took office. He was invited to join the weekly lunch of the Senate Republican caucus on December 4, 2012, which happened to be the day the full Senate was debating the United Nations treaty on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The treaty seemed fairly uncontroversial, but Cruz, as the tribune of the Tea Party movement, was opposed. “I was a newly elected senator who hadn’t even been sworn in yet, but I did just pass on, having just come from the campaign trail, that issues of U.S. sovereignty resonate powerfully with the American people,” Cruz told me. The issues in the treaty were broadly similar to those in the Medellín case, in that they involved the interplay between American law and international institutions.
Dick Durbin, the Illinois Democrat who is the assistant majority leader, recalled Cruz’s influence on Republicans at that lunch. “These people walked out scared as hell,” he said. “And I thought, This guy is wasting no time to flex his muscles over there.”
The treaty failed. Cruz explained, “I personally have been passionate for a long, long time about protecting U.S. sovereignty, that our laws should reflect American values, American mores, and not be governed by the laws or tribunals of foreign nations or foreign institutions. I urged my soon-to-be colleagues to protect U.S. sovereignty, and ultimately they did so.”
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/06/30/the-absolutist-2
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I believe Cruz intends to say that the final agreement impacts US sovereignty, and he will lead the opposition against it. But the fast track legislation will remain in effect, allowing him to negotiate the trade agreements in 2017.
No, he needs to OPPOSE THE FAST TRACK. Or he’s done.
I could care less about what he says, what he does is the only issue.