OPINION:
The legacy media and the federal bureaucracy are really, really, hoping you’ll be distracted by the arrests of soccer executives. And if that’s not your speed, they have the drama of federal charges against former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, sparking questions about blackmail, “bad acts” and Mr. Hastert’s time as a teacher and wrestling coach in his hometown.
But there is something much more ominous facing the United States, which is not just being pushed by President Obama. Rather, it is facilitated by Senate Republicans — the secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Recently passed in the GOP-controlled Senate, the Trans-Pacific Partnership has less to do with trade than it does with ushering in a globalist agenda that usurps American sovereignty. Dick Morris notes: “The TPP is nothing but an effort by the globalists to circumvent American sovereignty, transferring a host of issues from the control of the U.S. Congress and the various state legislatures to international trade courts … . Start with the fact that nobody knows what is in the TPP. President Obama will not let anyone see it. Indeed, many of the provisions are said to be aspirational, setting policy goals and leaving it to the trade courts to sort out.”
I know — it sounds dramatic. While I’m not a conspiracy theorist and certainly never thought I’d reference Mr. Morris, in this case he is absolutely on target.
The keeping of the details of this agreement from Congress is stunning, but makes sense, as Mr. Obama is doing an end-run around the Constitution. Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio writes in The Hill: “For six years the U.S. trade representative has kept the TPP buried under a top secret classification. Even members of Congress can only read it in a secure room under the watchful eye of a security monitor. I visited that room last week to review several sections of the deal and was not allowed to make copies, keep notes, take pictures, or share anything I learned with anyone unless they have Top Secret security clearance, all under threat of prosecution.”
This absurd secrecy alone should have made the TPP a non-starter. Yet GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell is one of TPP’s biggest boosters and helped it pass that chamber. He did this all without knowing the details, giving Mr. Obama unprecedented power. Now the fight moves to the House.
Mr. McConnell had hoped to jam it through during the Memorial Day weekend (ironically) because he knows if you have time to notice what lawmakers up to, you just may stop them. And you certainly can’t be trusted with what’s in the agreement. Fortunately, we are learning the details from none other than a man the Obama regime remains fixated on: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
In the Ecuadorian embassy in London sits Mr. Assange, out of reach from Swedish authorizes who want him for “questioning” about a crime for which no charges have been filed. Mr. Assange says the Swedish accusations against him are false and, as Foreign Policy magazine reports he asserts, are “part of a plot to extradite him to the United States, where a secret grand jury has reportedly been impaneled to consider unspecified charges against him.”
WikiLeaks has published four chapters of the TPP online allowing you and your member of Congress to read it, and even take notes and pictures if you so choose. What a concept. In an interview with Amy Goodman of Democracynow.org, Mr. Assange shares what they’ve found in the TPP, making it clear why Mr. Obama is trying so desperately to keep it secret:
“First of all, it is the largest ever international economic treaty that has ever been negotiated, very considerably larger than NAFTA. It is mostly not about trade, only five of the 29 chapters are about traditional trade,” said Mr. Assange.
“The others are about regulating the Internet, and what information Internet service providers have to collect, they have to hand it over to companies under certain circumstances, the regulation of labor conditions, regulating the way you can favor local industry, regulating the hospital, health care system, privatization of hospitals, so essentially every aspect of a modern economy, even banking services are in the TPP,” he concluded.
Surprise! Part of this 1,000-page monstrosity perpetuates the regulation of the Internet, on a global scale. The method of using a treaty to accomplish this means the United States would be bound by it, and Congress would be unable to change it — just bureaucratic managers of the monster. How convenient for both parties to ultimately claim that they are as upset as we are, but alas, their hands are tied.
While critics of the deal, such as Sens. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, believe the agreement will usher in more outsourcing of jobs and lower labor standards, it is clear that is only the tip of the iceberg.
The outsourcing of American regulation effectively sets the precedent for so-called “international treaties” to determine American law. If this passes and we subjugate this nation to international courts and bureaucratic regulations, we will essentially be handing over the Constitution in favor of rule by the United Nations.
This sort of debacle is exactly why the Founders created the best system in the world to stop tyrants. We now must rely on their genius and make sure our representatives in the House do not acquiesce to this madness.
• Tammy Bruce is a radio talk show host.
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