TPA, TPP, TiSA, T-TIP (Confusion by Design)
Recent heated debate over the alphabet soup of legislation consisting of TPA, TPP, TiSA, and T-TIP, dubbed as Obamatrade by opponents, has more than a few conservatives scratching their head in confusion and many more at odds with their GOP representation.
First, Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) has been granted in the past and allows the President to negotiate trade agreements with other countries. Otherwise known as “fast-track,” Congress cannot amend or filibuster the agreement, only vote it up or down, and the agreement only requires fifty-one votes, not sixty, to pass.
The enormous controversy exists with the remaining parts of the puzzle: the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP). Why so controversial to conservatives, especially if they are being touted as free trade by the GOP House and Senate leadership? Because we don’t know what’s in them and by giving fast-track authority to the President to negotiate these agreements, Congress is limiting its ability to an up or down vote. According to the one of the most vocal opponents, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL):
When the Senate voted on fast-track, many Senators were unaware that they were voting to authorize the President to form a new transnational governance structure. The Trans-Pacific Partnership resembles a treaty more than a trade deal. And like a treaty, it confers the power to both compel and restrict changes to U.S. policy, to commit the U.S. to new international obligations, and to cede sovereign authority to a foreign body. Specifically, TPP calls for the formation of a permanent political and economic union known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission, which will have the power to issue regulations impacting not only trade but immigration, the environment, labor, and commerce. This global union would be able to add new member countries and, because TPP is a ‘living agreement,’ it will be able to change the agreement after its ratification.
Prior to passage of TPA in the House, conservatives were melting the phones of their representatives, only to be assured by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) that the TPA had been misrepresented by the groups opposed to it, an interesting alliance of TEA party conservatives and big labor Democrats. Sen. Cruz went as far to say that Sen. Sessions was not accurate in his interpretation.
However, since casting his first vote for TPA in May of this year, Sen. Cruz revealed this week that “…TPA in this Congress has become so enmeshed in corrupt Washington backroom deal-making, along with serious concerns that it would open up the potential for sweeping changes in our laws that trade agreements typically do not include.”
In a piece exclusive to Breitbart.com, Sen. Cruz continues: “…TPA’s progress through the House and Senate appears to have been made possible by secret deals between Republican Leadership and the Democrats.”
Well, isn’t that special. Wasn’t it the GOP members of Congress who were wailing over the “Louisiana Purchase” and the “Cornhusker Kickback” bribes to pass Obamacare? Now, it’s the Republican side of the aisle doing the wheeling-and-dealing for votes by using the Export-Import Bank reauthorization and all other sorts of goodies yet to be revealed.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) hailed the cloture vote on Tuesday which advanced the TPA to final passage today as “an important day for our country.” For conservatives opposed to the granting of this authority to President Obama, it won’t be hailed as anything other than essentially delivering unfettered power to the executive branch to negotiate deals that cannot be amended or filibustered by Congress.
All this from a GOP-led House and Senate that just last year promised to rein in President Obama if they took over the Senate in the 2014 mid-term elections. Oh, and as far as transparency? We’re not getting that from either side of the political aisle.
