Posted on 06/17/2015 10:16:15 PM PDT by SoConPubbie
The left and even some Republicans have argued that the procedures for agreeing to the Trans Pacific Partnership are undemocratic. A leading argument is that voting for fast track for the TPP violates democratic principles because Congress is changing its rules now in order to later ratify an agreement it has not yet seen.
The arguments are wholly misplaced. Fast track simply permits Congress under its ordinary procedures to commit to a future majority vote of Congress to vote up or down on an agreement that the President has negotiated. Representative democracy is thus served by the later vote on an agreement whose text is known.
It is true that fast track eliminates certain procedural obstacles like the filibuster rule in the Senate and the requirements of committee approval. But there is nothing sacrosanct about a set of procedural rules to democracy. The Senate eliminates its filibuster rules for budgetary reconciliation and the House and Senate often pass legislation that has not been considered in committee. Moreover, parliamentary democracies are democratic and the process of ratification for the TPP actually gives more blocking power than is typical in those forms of government, because Congress imposes some requirements that the TPP must meet to get the advantage of fast track.
The comparison to parliamentary government is particularly relevant, because the TPP is an international agreement. Other nations are unlikely to negotiate seriously if they know that any agreement they make can be amended in Congress to the unilateral advantage of the United States. Given the geopolitical reasons for the TPP, making this procedural precommitment is in the national interest.
The complaints of the left are hypocritical on this matter given their enthusiasm for the administrative state. Remember that there Congress also delegates broad power to the executiveoften under even more elastic standards than the TPP fast track– to implement regulations that Congress has not yet seen. And unlike TPP fast track legislation, these delegations do not guarantee Congress an up or down vote to approve these regulations to make them the law of the land. If the left was truly unhappy about the lack of democracy in the TTP fast track, it would support the REINS act which requires Congresss approval of major regulations that administrative agencies promulgate. The lefts opposition to such legislation shows that their real complaint is not about the loss of democracy, but about deregulation. On the whole, TPP is about removing barriers to free exchange and the administrative state is about raising them.
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Senator Jeff Sessions is worried that the adoption of the Trans-Pacific Partnership would lead to an "historic international regulatory Commission" that would eoncmpass 90 percent of the world's GDP. He's concerned that it would "[create] a self-governing and self-perpetuating Commission with extraordinary implications for American workers and American sovereignty."
The House is preparing to vote again tomorrow on providing fast-track executive authority to the President. If adopted, it will be sent immediately to the Senate for final consideration," Sessions says in a statement to be released tonight.
"It is essential that there be no misunderstanding: fast-track preapproves the formation of not only the unprecedentedly large Trans-Pacific Partnership, but an unlimited number of such agreements over the next six years. Those pacts include three of the most ambitious ever contemplated. After TPP comes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union, followed by the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), seeking as one its goals labor mobility among more than 50 nations. Together, these three international compacts encompass three-fourths of the worlds GDP. Including the nations whose membership is being courted for after enactment, the countries involved would encompass nearly 90 percent of global GDP. Yet, through fast-track, Congress will have authorized the President to ink these deals before a page of them has been made public. Then, the Executive sends Congress 'implementing' legislation to change U.S. lawlegislation which cannot be amended, cannot be filibustered, and will not be subjected to the Constitutional requirement for a two-thirds treaty vote.
This is why the RINO’s are not getting anywhere with their stupid arguments, since the entire legislation is being kept secret from the American people and we are supposed to just [trust] what every comes out of their mouths as the trust!
Really? Go fudge yourselves, I personally don't trust anything that a RINO says period!
Mob rule democracies are found in socialist countries all over the world, not in the United States of America!
Nonsense, it rhymes with tyranny.
Totally false. Probably the most-repeated myth right now isnt even related to TPA but instead to the TPP, which is still being negotiated. According to the anti-TPA script, the TPP is so secret that nobody knows whats in it, andmuch like Obamacare legislationnobody, not even Congress, will know whats in it until the agreement is passed into law. Once again, however, nothing could be further from the truth:
Today's history lesson: Nutty ol' Perot on NAFTA's scary secrecy. Sound familiar? #TPP #TPA https://t.co/YLjlJfusUr pic.twitter.com/l1LGWPftzV
— Scott Lincicome (@scottlincicome) June 5, 2015
Yes, protectionists have been using the same secrecy lines for over 20 years. In fact, if you replaced NAFTA with TPP in those old Ross Perot commercials, theyd be almost indistinguishable from the ones on our TVs today.
Bottom line: when or if TPA is passed, the general public will have monthsand if the presidential elections interfere, maybe yearsto review the TPP before Congress acts on it. Think thats crazy? Well, its precisely what happened to U.S. FTAs with Colombia, Panama and South Korea, which were signed by President Bush but sat around (online) for years before they were submitted to, and passed by, Congress in 2011.
You keep posting these thread touting the TPP and yet it is top secret and probably strips most of us of many of our rights as American Citizens. Yet you just keep posting these Pro TPP threads as if you think that it is the greatest piece of legislation since the Declaration of Independence.
What provisions of the TPP are you so in favor of? How will the TPP improve your life or mine?
If you can't answer that, then you have no business hawking a piece of legislation that pretty much guarantees its implementation.
The proponents and defenders of this stinker can’t overcome the timing.
The fact of Barack Obama sitting in the drivers seat for 15 more months is the end of the hunt on this discussion. Our government is corrupt. Period.
Democracy? We are not a democracy! We are a Republic, and those "procedural obstacles" are the very teeth of the separation of powers which underpin our Republic.
The comparison to parliamentary government is particularly relevant, because the TPP is an international agreement.
Yes, and based upon Senator Sessions' three readings of the secret TPP draft, this sweeping "international agreement" is more like a treaty -- which should require a two-thirds vote of the Senate. TPA's "fast track" provisions would only require a simple majority vote to pass TPP and any other trade treaties over the next six years.
Why is Congress in such a panicked rush to cede its Constitutional authority? Experience shows that whenever one side is in an unexplained rush to get something passed, it is hiding something which would scuttle the deal.
These people are grasping at any straw they can find.
It's funny but the more these people keep posting these pro-TPA threads in order to justify Ted Cruz's stupid vote, the more people realize how stupid that vote was.
So Con thinks he/she is getting people over to his/her side, but the fact is the more light he/she puts on it, the more Freepers become opposed to it.
Ted Cruz needs to backtrack instead of doubling down. He's lost a lot of support. He lost me and I don't think I'm the only one here on Free Republic. If Ted Cruz loses Free Republic, then he has lost the base entirely.
I think SoConPubbie needs to take a break from trying to help Ted Cruz. The more of these thread he/she posts, the worse it get for his/her candidate.
If this passes we must go THIRD PARTY. We are left no choice.
So sad.
What you’re not telling people is why these so-called ‘trade agreements’ are being done: these are not agreements but rather treaties that will subvert the sovereign rights of U.S.citizens. Those sovereign rights are stopping the NWO cartel from seizing our guns.
We will not be truly free until every bankster is strangled by the intestines of the last member of Congress.
seeking as one its goals labor mobility among more than 50 nations.
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WHAT IS LABOR MOBILITY?
A White House news conference on April 28 with President Obama and Japanese Prime Minster Shinzo Abe confirms the TransPacific Partnership will impact our immigration laws. PM Abe described the TPP as a new economic sphere in which people goods and money will flow freely.
Sessions lays it out. It’s a treaty anytime, anywhere without the people or Congress.
If these republocrats pass TPP .....it may end up being more well known as..... TRUMPS PROAMERICA PARTY.
Because we won’t stand for it. We gave the GOP the House ....then the Senate......they gave us promises ....then they lied....and gave us.... Son of NAFTA.
If it’s so innocuous, why are they hiding it from us?
Is Con a Lobbyist?
Why the shilling posts condesending that there’s nothing to worry about, don’t impede, just support and pass TPA & TPP?
What’s so hard to understand that citizens of a Free Republic rightly expect a trade agreement / treaty ‘ s details have Full disclosure and deliberation before passage?
Does Con sign financial documents without reading or understanding the fine print?
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