Trump Camp: Ted Cruz Is ‘The Reason Why Obamatrade’ Passed

breitbart ^ | 29MAR16 | Julia Hahn

[central_va]

The reason why Obamatrade became law is because of Sen. Ted Cruz,” said Donald Trump’s senior policy advisor Stephen Miller on Monday’s program of Breitbart News Daily.

Miller — who had been working for Sen. Jeff Sessions at the time that Sessions led the conservative opposition to Obamatrade in the U.S. Senate— said that Cruz’s “lobbying” effort to fast track President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership “was the difference maker” that enabled fast track to pass.

Like Sen. Cruz, Obama had been pushing for fast track to ensure the passage of TPP. Fast track lowers the 67 votes required to pass a treaty to a mere simple majority, it surrenders the 60 vote filibuster, and it forfeits individual senators’ ability to add amendments or changes to the trade deals negotiated by the president. As Sen. Sessions explained, “A vote for fast-track is a vote to authorize the President to ink the secret [TPP] deal contained in these pages—to affix his name on the Union and to therefore enter the United States into it.”

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

So in other words, the Trans-Pacific Partnership mentioned in the article hasn't been voted on at all yet.

Right?

[nathanbedford]

The ignorance by Trump supporters of the TPA and TPP is stunning and would be shocking if it came from any other source.

TPA passed, Cruz having voted against it on final passage but he had voted for is on a crucial cloture vote which as a practical matter assured that it would pass.

TPP, the actual treaty, has not been brought before Congress yet. Cruz is declared his opposition to it and will vote against it. Instead of two thirds of the Senate required to approve it, and instead of senators empowered to offer up amendments, the proposed treaty must pass the House and the Senate by majority vote and without a filibuster.

Steve Miller and most of this article are deliberately deceiving. This article fails to tell us that the majority of trade deals have been negotiated on identical fast-track basis. This has been done for hundreds of years by the United States. Indeed, no treaty could conceivably get through the Senate by two thirds vote if senators, bribed by K St., are entitled to offer amendments. Our trading partners have declared that they would not negotiate with our representatives if our representatives did not have fast-track assurances because they are not fools and they know the certain fate of any trade treaty offered up for ratification. That fate will be dependent not on fairness of the treaty on its merits but on the powers of special interest groups manifested in the Senate. Our trading partners know they would simply be negotiating against themselves under those circumstances and they wisely declined to play.

Cruz and Fifty-nine other senators who voted for TPA (on its first appearance) for the reasons Cruz wrote in the op-ed article in the Wall Street Journal. Those reasons include the dire consequences for the American economy if a trade deal is not consummated. The country goes into a depression without trade. No TPA, no trade deal, no trade deal, look out below. The contemplated treaty affects 40% of the world's trade, that runs in to the trillions of dollars every year.

The Pacific Rim countries and made it clear that they were disinclined to negotiate such a trade deal with America in the absence of fast-track authority which had been the practice on these trade deals the memory of man runneth not to the contrary, hence TPA.

It is a question of balance of imponderables, would Obama come back with a terrible deal, if he did would be impossible to stop under fast-track? Would it be more difficult to stop under fast-track which requires approval by a majority in both houses as opposed to two thirds of the Senate? If so, if the trade deal proves to be as bad as it apparently is, why cannot a majority in one house or the other be found to stop it?

Weigh this against the certainty of no trade deal and Cruz' decision is quite responsible and in keeping with the majority view about trade among conservatives for quite a while. This visceral, mindless opposition to trade is faithful to the ravings of Donald Trump but it is repugnant to classic conservatism.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

After it was too late to stop it.

I count that as a fail.

[Turbo Pig]

The ignorance by Trump supporters of the TPA and TPP is stunning and would be shocking if it came from any other source.

It's almost as if they are liberals backing a liberal candidate, right?

[nathanbedford]

That is the identifiable syndrome.

[jpsb]

Why if you are against TPP would you vote for the enabling legislation (TPA). Why if you are against TPP would you write an op-ed in the WSJ singing the praises of TPP? Now assured of the passage of TPP I can understand a fake conservative like Ted Cruz voting against TPP. Same old, same old, just like all the other anti-American globalists in DC. Back room deals and then; sound and fury for the low info voters like you.

[Ray76]

Cruz is all for it.

[Just mythoughts]

Cruz is quite lawyerly deceptive... just like ol BJClinton... Now there is NO plausible cause to install a VAT tax on Americans... But to fulfill Heidi (Hillry’s) part in drawing up that North American Union paperwork, would require a VAT tax... Cruz proposes a VAT tax in his ‘campaign’ but never speaks about it.

Funny how Cruz plays on all sides and feigns the Jesus act... but just like every thing Cruz, it is the devil in his details.

Whoops! We forgot to include the VAT in the TPP

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/245880-whoops-we-forgot-to-include-the-vat-in-the-tpp

[nathanbedford]

Why if you are against TPP would you vote for the enabling legislation (TPA).

For all the compelling reasons enumerated in my previous reply.

Why…would you write an op-ed in the WSJ singing the praises of TPP?

I believe the editorial, without checking, was in support of TPA as an indispensable prerequisite for any TPP treaty to be negotiated at all.

Now assured of the passage of TPP

Not true. It could easily be stopped in the House, depending on what Paul Ryan does with it. I ask, if the treaty is so bad why can it not be stopped in either the House or the Senate? What you are really saying is that Ted Cruz should be blamed for not having second sight, he should have anticipated all of the bad features of the multitrillion dollar trade deal and then anticipated that Paul Ryan would be Speaker of the House and that he would slip the treaty through. This is such a departure from reality which is typical of Trump and his supporters to require Cruz to defend against something that is not yet happened and to assume future facts.

Back room deals

Backroom deals? You Trump supporters have been excoriating Ted Cruz because he cannot get along with his colleagues in the Senate when it was Ted Cruz who strode onto the floor of the Senate and called the Majority Leader of his own party a liar to his face. Back room indeed!

It is Trump who claims to have "the art of the deal" as a special gift (remember?) And it is Trump who has made secret deals all his life. Trump's latest deal was just reported today, his secret deal to buy litigants' silence, litigants who had accused him of fraud in the sale of his condos and requiring everyone to otherwise keep the deal secret.

Now, that is later today, we are to believe that once Trump gets ultimate power he will have an epiphany? How big a fool does he take us for?

[amihow]

The ignorance by Trump supporters of the TPA and TPP is stunning and would be shocking if it came from any other source.

---

The ignorance and arrogance of the Cruz supporters about the ignorance of the Trump supporters and the TPA TPP is astounding.

Cruz supporters, such as yourself do much harm to yourself, your children and grandchildren, other Cruz supporters and America itself with such arrogant tweet like posts.

Cruz will help destroy America with the very trade deals you mention, albeit with magnificent lawyer dancing which can only be done by someone with no regard for transparency or straightforwardness. In addition, Cruz will bring in more legal immigrants to further flood the labor market.

Yes, Trump has a lot of non-traditional supporters. They do not have long term familiarity with the political scene. They are too busy trying to survive in the deteriorating culture the establishment has caused with their greed and abandonment of the idea of government for the common good. They are the ones hurting from the Cruzes and the other gope/dems out there.

Cruz is from the exact playbook as Obama. It is a play to fool people with puppet/actors like Cruz playing the role of outsider. The establishment is pulling the strings. TWICE in a row?

[katana]

Yes, he and a majority voted to require an up or down vote without amendment to the Pacific Rim trade pact, NOT the pact itself. The pact has not been brought up for a vote. In the current political climate during an election year, with both trade unions and TEA Party enthusiasts opposing passage, if the agreement reaches the Senate floor it will probably get about as many votes as Kyoto did years ago. Obfuscating the difference between TPA and TPP is a neat trick but the people doing it are either ignorant or intentionally disingenuous.

[11th Commandment]

It would seem that you are correct. The article is hard to follow because of all the acronyms, but it would seems all the was passed was reauthorization of TPA from 1974 (plus the TAA which is a giveaway to the Unions). Obama has once again kicked the can down the road for the next president....

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Sen. Cruz is but one of 100 vermin in the senate. And almost all of the other 99 can’t stand him. To say Sen. Cruz is responsible for anything the senate did or didn’t do is sheer lunacy from Mr. Trump and his campaign staff.

[Cyman]

Donald Trump is the reason for every Democrat in the White House starting with Jimmy Carter

[conservativejoy]

Cruz voted against TPA. TPP has not been voted on, but Cruz is solidly against it.

[conservativejoy]

Cruz voted against TPA. When the bill came back from the House, it did not have the immigration language that he and Sessions wanted and McConnell was doing back room deals to try to get it through. Cruz voted “No”.

Cruz is solidly against TPP, which has not ben voted on yet.

[central_va]

Cruz voted for it. I posted the link to the vote in post 16. Deal with reality. He voted "Yea".

[firebrand]

Every low-information phony was talking about that op-ed in the Wall Street Journal with SB Ryan. It convinced a lot of dopes that Fast Track was OK.

The John Birch Society and others have pointed out that only 5 items in the TPP have to do with trade. There are 29 items. The rest take away everything we hold dear.

Thanks, Ted.

[fortheDeclaration]

Yes, he voted to give Obama fast track authority.

[ModelBreaker]

Obamatrade has not passed. Fast track authority did pass.