5/12/2015 - Phyllis Schlafly Townhall.com
Congress, led by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Speaker
John Boehner (R-OH), is preparing to betray American workers, and the
grassroots should rise up and say, "No, you don't." The secretive
underhanded deal is called Fast Track, and that's an appropriate title because,
indeed, it puts Americans on a fast track to lower wages and fewer available
jobs.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), one of the few members of
Congress who have actually read and studied Fast Track plus its companion trade
bill called Trans-Pacific Partnership, has compiled a list of objections to it
that are downright frightening. They should be read by all who care about their
own future and the future of our once-prosperous nation. Here are some of the
ways that Fast Track and TPP will betray us.
The text of TPP emphasizes that it is a "living
agreement." Translated out of bureaucratese code language, that means the
text of TPP can be changed in major and minor ways by executive action after
Congress passes the document. Congress can, for example, add additional
countries such as Communist China, which for years has been cheating America
coming and going.
TPP will facilitate the expanded movement of foreign workers
into the United States. TPP opens the door to more waves of illegal immigrants
and allows Obama to make future changes without any congressional oversight or
expiration date.
Kevin L. Kearns of the U.S. Business and Industry Council
calls this "another power grab" that will let Obama and his employees
rule by executive action. By the device of not calling TPP a treaty (even
though it involves 12 countries on three continents), the globalists induce the
Senate to abandon the 67-vote threshold for treaty ratification and even the
60-vote threshold for important legislation.
Fast Track consolidates power in the executive branch and
eliminates Congress' constitutional power to amend or even debate trade
legislation. Fast Track allows only a specified up-or-down vote on this
momentous international agreement without any public oversight or ability to
amend it or filibuster it.
Fast Track will increase our trade deficits, which reduce
economic growth. Economists have estimated that the last trade deal, which we
made with South Korea and which is the template for TPP, wiped out 50,000
American jobs.
Sen. Sessions called on Obama to rewrite the deal. Sessions
said, "We don't need a Fast Track but a regular track" so we can
evaluate the false promises.
Fast Track turns over some of our authority as a sovereign
nation to international authorities, which is a major longtime goal of the
internationalists, the so-called kingmakers and big business lobbyists. The
code language that hides this in TPP is the statement that calls it a
"living agreement."
This means Obama and his executive-branch pals can take all
kinds of actions that Article I of the U.S. Constitution reserves to the
legislative branch, such as ratifying or changing a treaty and controlling
immigration.
Why should we trust the Obama administration and its foreign
partners to rewrite international agreements without congressional approval? Is
Congress simply giving away its constitutional authority to global busybodies?
Is Congress using secret agreements to cede our
once-remarkable American prosperity to Asia? As former Nucor Steel Chairman Daniel
DiMicco said, free trade is really "unilateral trade disarmament and
enablement of foreign mercantilism."
Most presidential candidates are trying to avoid this issue,
but Mike Huckabee was blunt, warning of "dire consequences if we let Obama
have this victory." Huckabee said he opposes trade agreements that push
wages "lower than the Dead Sea."
Huckabee also reminded us that, "the last time we
really fast-tracked something was Obamacare. Why do we want to believe that the
government fast-tracking something without thoroughly understanding the
implications is the best way to go?"
Another possible presidential candidate, Donald Trump, who
literally wrote the book on "The Art of the Deal," tweeted that TPP
is a "bad, bad deal" in part because it fails to address Japan's
outrageous currency manipulation, which has caused many U.S. steel plants to
shut down this year, idling thousands of American steelmakers. Yet Japan's
prime minister was recently honored with the rare privilege of addressing a
joint meeting of Congress (at which he openly lobbied for the TPP) and
entertained at a White House State Dinner.
Another likely presidential candidate is Louisiana Gov.
Bobby Jindal, who declared, "I'm for free trade, but I am not for giving
more authority to a president who ignores the Constitution, the separation of
powers and will of the American people."
"This particular president must not be given any more
power to do anything else to harm this country," Jindal continued.
"He cannot be trusted."
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