Today, the House will either advance—or imperil—President
Obama’s trade agenda when it votes on legislation to give him more power to ink
deals with other nations. For Obama to win the power he craves, he will have to
lean heavily on Republicans—and hope just enough Democrats side with
him—showcasing the odd alliances that have defined the trade battle. The debate is about what’s known as trade
promotion authority. Fast-track trade authority, as it’s better known, would
leave Congress with the power to vote up or down on trade deals but with no
ability to amend such deals.
Obama says he needs such power to assure the 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership—which would link 40 percent of the world’s economy—that Congress won’t unravel it. The Senate already barely passed legislation giving Obama trade promotion authority. In a sign of how tight the vote will be in the House, the chamber narrowly passed a procedural rule Thursday that allowed the trade vote to occur today…… “Free trade is good for all Americans, but this fast-track authority has gotten bogged down in the politics of corporate welfare, protectionism and labor union handouts,” said Dan Holler, a spokesman for Heritage Action, the sister organization of The Heritage Foundation……To Read More….
See How Your Representative Voted on the Rule
My Take - I would echo the question - why do we need an agreement to have trade with anyone? Unless there's a ton of benefits for special interests, big government, big business and activists? And why would we want people who've never started a business, never ran a business, never had to meet a payroll and for the most part never had a real job negotiating these agreements? Especially since they're all pretty much big government, big taxes, big regulation leftists. Under those circumstances I think a reasonable person has to ask.....why is this a good thing?
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