Posted on 06/11/2015 5:08:44 PM PDT by jazusamo
Constitutional conservatives don't like it. Trade unions abhor it. Obama critics hate it. Environmentalists despise it.
Outside the Beltway bubble, a broad coalition of voters from the left, right and center opposes the mega-trade deal getting rammed through Congress this week by the Republican establishment on behalf of the White House. Here's why.
The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out American sovereignty. Their so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission will have sweeping authority over trade, immigration, environmental, labor and commerce regulations.
As alert watchdogs U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest and U.S. Rep Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., warn: "By adopting fast-track, Congress would be formally authorizing the President to finalize the creation of this Pacific Union and will have surrendered its legislative prerogatives. Before a word, line, paragraph, or page of this plan is made public, Congress will have agreed to give up its treaty powers. ... In effect, one of the most sweeping international agreements seen in years will be given less legislative scrutiny and process than a Post Office reform bill."
The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out legislative transparency. Boehner smugly asserts that so-called Trade Promotion Authority puts Congress in charge and promotes "more openness" on trade talks. Nonsense. Under the Boehner/Obama plan, Congress gives up its ability to amend any trade deals under fast track, severely limits the ability to debate and lowers the vote threshold in the Senate from 61 to 51. The 11 international parties negotiating with Obama on TPP refuse to sign their dotted lines until Congress agrees to pre-agree to behemoth global trade pacts — sight unseen.
(Excerpt) Read more at creators.com ...
Members of both wings of the congressional Uniparty are more than happy to relinquish their few remaining powers to the executive; it makes reelection so much easier. When completed, we'll have a legal tyranny in which the purpose of congress will be to give the patina of constitutionality to the all-powerful chief executive of a police state.
It is way past time to reform our institutions, and return them to their designed republican purposes. That reform will not emerge from Washington, from those who profit so well from the existing system.
It can only happen if we the people assert our sovereignty and press for an Article V state amendments convention to refederalize the government, and divide power once again between the states and the government they created.
We must stop and reverse the unrestricted flow of powers into the executive branch.
Article V before we can't.
I’m talking about the process, the how, of passing the Obamacare bill. Not who voted for the bill.
GOP now in majority is imitating Pelosi/Obama/Reid method for the ‘trade’ bill.
And I tried to remind them how they were returned to control majority, yet no delivery of their so-called pledge.
Sessions is right - and yeah I get your point alsterwartfan... We need to elect more conservative Republicans and fewer sell outs.
“The large majority of conservatives support free trade, they’re been trying to pass fast track for at least 20 years. Protectionism (ie supporting TAXES on imports) is the lib position and protectionist propaganda and fear mongering is tiresome. Cruz is in the right.”
Republicans have in fact been the greatest promoters of free trade. Have you noticed they don’t campaign that much on it, with all the jobs lost due to it and 93 million Americans unemployed. If Obama is for it, and if George Soros is for it, and factoring in the end of national sovereignty Senator Sessions has revealed about it, how on earth can Cruz be right?
It's not a major campaign issue except to the protectionists who whine about and it blame it for "taking jobs". It's far too mundane for the general public to care about.
If Obama is for it, and if George Soros is for it, and factoring in the end of national sovereignty Senator Sessions has revealed about it, how on earth can Cruz be right?
1)Some people would oppose sunshine and lollipops if Obama was for them. I don't care what his position is. He happens to be a broken clock this time. Most of his own stinking party disagrees with him.
2)All business people are for it unless their industry is the one benefiting from the protection. Protectionism
3)There is no threat to national sovereignty, that's protectionist propaganda magnified by (understandable but overblown) distrust of ANYTHING that Obama is favor of.
4)How can Cruz be wrong? Tariffs are taxes. Taking money from consumers (who the tax is passed on to) and putting into the pockets of the government in order to protect favored industries from competition is not the conservative position. 5)How can all the left-wing **cks who oppose it, the majority of democrats, and the union whores, be right?
Ford Motor Company is building a plant in Mexico. It will be profitable for them to do so because the NAFTA areement cancels out protective tariffs, and labor costs are less in Mexico. I would be interested in hearing you explain why that is good for our country. The United States has lost hundreds of thousands of jobs due to NAFTA alone. And, you can multiply that one event (Ford) many times over with industries that have been moved out of the United States due to the other free trade agreements. Are you good with the fact that GATT controls a large part of American trade, not Congress?
Another prevarication. Tariffs have no effect on domestic competition.
Gee who is going to build our tanks and armored vehicles on a massive scale if need be if the infrastructure is off shored TO OUR ENEMIES?
Question: Would you be an advocate of that?
I have misgivings about a national sales tax but it’s an idea that should be explored. The entire tax code should be scrapped and reconstituted from scratch.
So your simple answer is 'no'. You want to scrap the current income tax and replace it with a new income tax. How very PROGRESSIVE of you.
I prefer consumption based tariffs and NSRT's, but hen gain I am patriot and not a gloBULList Free Traitor.
Why is making cars more expensive to prop up dem union bosses “good for the country”? Let them figure out a way to compete without government help. If they can’t, tough.
Do you honestly believe that Ford will lower the price on their autos made in Mexico, by the factor of lower labor cost they achieved?
I believe increased production costs are passed on to the consumer.
Impy would have us believe Ford isn't realizing any additional profit moving a factory to Mexico and it pass ALL the savings on the the consumer. They are doing for altruistic reasons, for the children.
The opposite is not true.
Because for the left a thousand page free trade bill is anything but a free trade bill. It’s probably free immigration or something. There is just a whole big trust issue.
“I believe increased production costs are passed on to the consumer.”
True in most every case. Do you think Ford will decrease its prices to reflect the lower labor cost in Mexico?
My answer, Johnny Reb, you great master debater and “patriot” you, is that the tax code should be scrapped completely and a much simpler one put in place. And while I have misgivings about a sales tax as the primary revenue source it should be throughly explored along with other options like a flat income tax, I certainly do not rule out supporting a good national sales tax plan like the one my homeboy Auh proposed. I do rule out 19th Century fantasy nonsense like a tariffs being a primary revenue source.
In any case, your proposal is not on the table right now, my proposal is not on the table right now, his proposal is not on the table right now. Any tariff we have now is ON TOP of every other tax we have. Screw that. The great whore we call the federal government needs to be stealing less money out of the economy, not more.
No, because they’re EEEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVIIIIIILLLLLLLL capitalist pigs who steal milk from poor little orphans in Detroit. Is that the answer you want?
I believe having a special tax on foreign made products makes those products more expensive. I don’t believe tax policy should be used to prop up dinosaurs who can’t survive without help.
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