Posted on 06/23/2015 4:29:02 AM PDT by Leto
As a general matter, I agree (as did Ronald Reagan) that free trade is good for America; when we open up foreign markets, it helps American farmers, ranchers, and manufacturers. But TPA in this Congress has become enmeshed in corrupt Washington backroom deal-making, along with serious concerns that it would open up the potential for sweeping changes in our laws that trade agreements typically do not include. Since the Senate first voted on TPA, there have been two material changes. First, WikiLeaks subsequently revealed new troubling information regarding the Trade in Services Agreement, or TiSA, one of the trade deals being negotiated by Obama. Despite the administration’s public assurances that it was not negotiating on immigration, several chapters of the TiSA draft posted online explicitly contained potential changes in federal immigration law. TPA would cover TiSA, and therefore these changes would presumably be subject to be fast-track. When TPA last came up for a vote, both Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)80% and I introduced amendments that would have barred fast-track treatment for any trade agreement that attempted to impact immigration law. Two other Republican senators objected, and we were both denied votes on our amendments. Instead, the House inserted substantially weaker language in related legislation.
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
The corruption in Washington has become so obvious that even those people in Washington can’t avoid the smell and the stink. All these political leaders, whether democrat or republican, are oblivious of the fact that every body in the country knows how corrupt they are, They really don’t care whether the whole population of this country knows how corrupt they are, they will feather their nests in defiance of what the rest of the population are saying. What we need is a complete house cleaning in Washington, from the top down.
” I feel like I’m using my old 486 again when I hit most sites.
I just avoid those sites now.”
Zerohedge is the worst.
Well well, Sessions was correct Ted.
And, to think, Ted Cruz CALLED OUT Sen Sessions - a fine man and patriot - on this.
Ted Cruz: Jeff Sessions is WRONG about ObamaTrade deal – [FULL AUDIO]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3299746/posts
Let’s see how many of those, who DEFENDED Sen Cruz slamming Sen Sessions, come by to make amends.
Yup, and on every single one of those threads, those of us who refused to drink the GOP-E kool-aid were subjected to vitriol that was vicious even by FR standards. I can’t count how many times I was called a troll or worse during those arguments.
He will change his position on H1-B visas if people will contact him and let him know how they are effecting American workers and how companies are abusing them.
Cruz is a reasonable person and man enough to change his position when it is the right thing to do.
There’s no excusing his (former) support of it. Like another poster mentioned...he even went as far as to write an op-ed with Lyin’ Paul Ryan to extoll the *virtues* of this cr@p sandwich.
A little to little, too late? We’ll see.
“Yeah, he was for it before he was against it”
So, guess you are voting for Rubio or Bush? Maybe Christie??
Guess you are left with Wacko trump. Good luck with that.
At the tine that Cruz was saying that Sessions was misinterpreting the TPP Bill, I believe he was correct. It is the emergence of the other two bills that were being negotiated that have brought about his change of mind.
Don’t give a second thought to dio, anyone he speaks against is who the better candidate more likely is. He’s so anti, maybe he practices reverse psychology.
Even being a Cruz supporter, I still listen to him very closely trying to see if anything ‘revealing’ comes out to make me concerned.
I did not appreciate his original support of this TPA, TPP or wtf its called today, but his original stated reasoning was sound, ‘trade is good for his constituents’. Since he has discovered his mistake, he was man enough to explain both positions without hiding in lame excuses.
In observing Ted Cruz intently since he first came up in the run for the Senate, he is either the greatest political actor ever to fool us or he is the most genuine conservative Constitution respecting and influential politician in our lifetime.
Cruz’ biggest threat is a certain Midwestern governor who has had some measure of success busting unions ...
Cruz changed his mind based on what has emerged about the two other bills. The controversy between Cruz and Sessions was on TPP. The immigration language problem is on the other two trade bills. The U.S. was not signed onto the TPP immigration section.
The proper question here I believe is is Ted Cruz still in favor of TPP. Discussing TPA and not TPP especially at this point really just confuses the issue at least the way they are doing it.
Good for Ted! It has gotten to the point where, in my opinion, anything this president is for should be considered potentially toxic. The Republicans never seem to actually be fully aware of how devious Democrats can be.
Those muffled cries you hear are coming from under the bus tires that Cruz threw his FR bots under. They did their best to defend the indefensible in the creepiest most annoying way possible and all they got were tire tread imprints.
It’s about time Cruz came around. He obviously knows that his base would disappear if he continued to support this bill.
I’ll take his no vote anyway we can get it. We need to continue to call our Senators to vote against this bill.
Oh puh-leeze! Everybody knew about those two other bills, and I pointed folks to them repeatedly on the Cruz threads, only to be attacked for it.
Time to eat some crow. Hope you enjoy it.
The controversy was over the TPP Bill. Cruz came out against TPA based on what has been disclosed on the two other bills that are secret. That is not what he and Sessions has disagreed on.
I don’t know if it will matter, since the TPA Bill passed the first time by a wide margin and Cruz’s vote didn’t make much difference.
It is the emergence of the other two bills that were being negotiated that have brought about his change of mind.
The other two “trade” agreements were always 100% secret. Cruz voted to fast track secret Obama bills when nobody had any idea what was in them. Whatever Cruz does now doesn’t change his past promoting and enabling of this TPA garbage.
You and I were together on a lot of those threads.
My suggestion here is to forgive quickly and generously, even if it’s not asked for. It doesn’t serve any of us to do anything else.
Candidates make mistakes. Cruz made a big one, not just with his vote but also with his repeated doubling down on it and his seeming attack on Sessions.
But Cruz seems to have learned from it. Which should make him a better candidate. And it’s better to make mistakes like this now, in the primaries, when there’s time to learn from them. For whoever gets the nomination there won’t be that sort of luxury in the General.
There are TWO copies of this agreement in the Congress building. They are located in the basement of the building, one on each end. The documents are listed TOP SECRET. Only the congress-critter can go into the room, none of his/her staff. They get one portion of the document at a time to read only. They cannot make copies, the document cannot leave the room, and there is a guard that watches them the entire time. IF they take notes, they have to give all notes back to the guard before they leave, they can take nothing out of the room with them. Because the document is listed TOP SECRET they cannot discuss what they read with anyone on their staffs.
This gives Obama complete and utter power over everything to do with this agreement. If you go to Hal's website, The Hal Lindsey Report, you can watch his program last week and listen to the entire description of what He reported on. He said it was like ole Nancy Pep-pill-loser telling everyone that the bill had to be passed so everyone could read it to find out what it said back on Obamacare. This bill gives Obama huge power on immigration which allows him to get more muzzies into the country.
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