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So, Mr. Speaker, I
am left to wonder. I mean, we have not seen this President push this
hard on very many bills over the last 6\1/2\ years, and I am left
wondering: Why would President Obama push so hard to pass this trade
agreement structure that allows him to negotiate so many deals with so
many different countries?
One possibility is he did it because he knew that Speaker Boehner was
pushing to pass it, and it is possible that he really wanted to make
Speaker Boehner and Mitch McConnell, the leader down in the Senate,
look good. That is a possibility. I don’t think it is terribly
probable. In weighing all of the evidence, it would seem to me that it
is far more probable that the TPA will give this President far more
power to fundamentally transform America in his remaining year and a
half or so as President. That is what it appears to be to me....
Mr. MASSIE. I appreciate the gentleman from Texas for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, we had a vote on the TPA here, and I just wanted to take
some time to explain, and I think my colleague from Texas probably
feels the same way. I am for trade. I think trade is good. I am not
against trade, but, today, I voted against the trade promotion
authority, which would fast track the TPP. I just wanted to take a
second to explain why I was compelled to vote against this legislation
today....
The other reason I voted ``no’’ today was the implication of ceding
our authority to the World Trade Organization, which struck me this
week when we voted to overturn our country of origin labeling on beef
and pork. Now, whether you think we should require companies to label
beef and pork when they bring them into this country from another
country—whether that is a good thing or whether that is a bad thing—
that doesn’t matter. What disturbs me is that the reason for writing
this law this week was the World Trade Organization told us we had to.
They said we have got to do that. We swore an oath to the Constitution,
not to the World Trade Organization. My concern is that this trade
agreement could bind us to things that we don’t even understand yet
because, surely, some trade agreement years ago has caused us this week
to change our food labeling laws.
The third and final reason I voted against the TPA today—and this
may be the best reason, in fact—is that my constituents don’t like it.
I have received 30 phone calls a day for the past week against this. I
might have received 1 or 2 all week saying to vote for it. We didn’t
get a chip implanted in our brains when we came to Congress that makes
us smarter than all of our constituents. I think it is important to be
humble, to know that we don’t always have the right answer. We don’t
really have a whole lot more information than our constituents have in
this case. I think that their concern that they expressed to me, like
of the President getting too much authority and that this President
does not need more authority, is a valid concern; that there is not
enough transparency is another valid concern.
I know my friend from Texas has expressed both of those concerns
himself, and I am sure he is hearing those from his constituents as
well....
Constituents were against TARP. There were people here that supported
this free trade agreement, just as you and I support free trade, but
they supported this TPA that truly will give the President more
authority.
I remember some of these same people saying: Look, we don’t have to
worry because by passing the bill we are about to pass, the President
can’t remove anybody from Guantanamo without giving us notice, and when
he gives us notice, we can stop him. I mean, I have been told that. And,
in fact, the law is, he can’t remove anybody from Guantanamo without
first giving us notice. The American people remember that.
They also happen to have noticed that the President cut a deal for a
guy that looks like he is going to be charged with desertion, and
released five terrorists from Guantanamo and didn’t give us notice
until after he had released them. So I love the optimism that says,
yes, there have been misrepresentations from this administration over
and over and over and over, and now we have had 6\1/2\ years of
continued misrepresentations from the administration, and the good news
is this time we really think he means it. Now, I love that kind of
optimism; I really do....