Ivan Pavlov became famous for conditioning dogs to think they were getting food and to salivate every time he rang a bell. The bell is being rung and just like good Pavlovian dogs, the Republican leadership in Washington is salivating.
For the Republicans in Washington, it is not food they are salivating over but a faux free trade agreement being pushed by the Obama regime. Republicans have been conditioned for decades that if anything has the words “Free Trade” in it, they must reflexively support it, no matter what the bill really says.
Free trade in theory is a great idea. We have free trade in the 50 United States. It works great. Tennessee freely exports country music and Jack Daniels whiskey to other states, and Tennessee freely imports anything the citizens of the state want.
There are two problems with free trade agreements. The first is they aren’t free trade. They are special interest trade. Big corporations and special interests sit at the table. Real Americans are left out.
The second problem is how Barack Obama and the Pavlovian Republicans want to get to free trade. Mr. Obama is pushing the Trans Pacific Partnership free trade agreement. This is a massive free trade deal involving almost every Pacific nation, including Vietnam and the Islamic state of Brunei. The Pavlovian Republicans and the Obama regime want Congress to pass what is called “Trade Promotional Authority.” This is also known as “Fast track.”
Fast track allows Congress to abdicate the responsibility of the Senate to give advice and consent to an international treaty. It also reduces the vote requirements from two-thirds to a simple majority of both Houses.
But wait, this gets even worse. This bill is pure Nancy Pelosi theater. Yes, they must pass this treaty in order to find out what is in it. Fast track authority dictates that there is only a limited amount of time for debating this bill and Congress cannot change the treaty. Congress can only vote yes or no on the treaty.
Why Republicans want to pick this hill to die on is a mystery. Why does any Republican or for that matter, any sane person trust, Mr. Obama to negotiate anything more substantial than the lunch menu at the White House?
Mr. Obama is fresh off his Iran humiliation. He managed to negotiate a deal that would give Iran the bomb and America gets nothing. Back in November, Mr. Obama negotiated a “climate change” agreement with China. “Climate change” is a scam that has been disproven repeatedly. Despite that, Mr. Obama made a deal with the Chinese, who are the world’s leading polluters. Under that agreement, America would cut its so-called greenhouse emissions by 26 percent by 2025. China will think about making cuts starting in 2030.
Economist Stephen Moore at the Heritage Institute called the plan “unilateral economic disarmament.”
So far, the Trans Pacific Partnership has been negotiated in secret. Recently, there have been some hints about what is in the agreement. Among other things, there is talk of “robust environmental standards” for nations signing on. Given Mr. Obama’s history, that sounds like really bad news. First, it probably means America must dismantle its economy first and it sounds like Mr. Obama is fulfilling his promise to destroy the coal industry.
While Republicans can debate the merits of free trade deals, there can be no debate that trusting Mr. Obama is like asking Bernie Madoff to manage your money or trusting Bill Clinton around any woman.
Mr. Obama is the kind of leader America’s Founding Fathers feared. Leaders like Mr. Obama are the reason why the U.S. Constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the Senate to ratify treaties.
Republicans in Congress are insane to trust Mr. Obama on any issue and insane to surrender the power the Constitution gives them. If this is such a good deal, let’s wait until 2017 and let President Ted Cruz negotiate the deal and let it be out in the open for the American people to decide.
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