[palmer]

He is not a true conservative.

There are no "true" conservatives, only "good enough" conservatives. The trade deal is not a "true" conservative / liberal issue, otherwise you wouldn't see the split in the vote with lots of liberals voting against. The trade deal does show that Cruz is prone to a "moderate" vote from time to time. This is one of those times.

[cripplecreek]

The trade deal is not a "true" conservative / liberal issue

Bingo. Reagan certainly didn't try to eliminate his trade authority and he used it to the advantage of America. Reagan was the one who laid the groundwork for Japanese auto manufacturers to come here. When Bobby Jindal was in Taiwan promoting it he met with the head of a company that already has factories in Louisiana.

My governor (Rick Snyder) has made several trade missions to Israel, India, S Korea and elsewhere. We now have an Indian company producing electric scooters in Ann Arbor, Israel signed a contract with a Michigan company a while back for some type of precision gears.

[tanknetter]

I don’t see it that way.

The trade deal, from my perspective, has turned into a Conservative/Liberal issue because Jeff Sessions and others are saying it includes provisions that would transfer power from the Congress to the President, and sovereign rights from the US to international bodies.

That makes it a Conservative/Liberal issue.

Now that may be true, it may be false. Since TPP won’t be made public until after TPA is passed, stripping the ability to filibuster the thing, it’ll be too late to stop it from being passed on a simple majority vote.