Obamatrade would destroy America

World Tribune ^ | 6/12/15 | Jeffrey T. Kuhner 

President Obama is on the verge of creating the New World Order. He is using Trade Promotion Authority — otherwise known as “fast track” — to pass his globalist dream: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping 12-nation trade pact.
The TPP, however, is much more than about “free trade.” It is a deliberate attempt to create a new Pacific Union — a supranational entity modeled on the European Union. It is an embryonic political and economic union that, if implemented, would destroy U.S. sovereignty, flood America with unlimited immigration and subordinate the Constitution to an unelected, unaccountable international tribunal.
In short, it is a monster, an evil corporatist infant, which must be strangled in its crib.
Yet, Republicans in Congress, who were swept into office to curb Obama’s imperial presidency, are betraying their voters — and their country.
The GOP pledged to roll back Obama’s countless usurpations of power. Instead, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have acted more like the president’s poodles. Their resistance has been close to nothing. On Obamatrade, they have actually empowered his radical, anti-American agenda. Mr. McConnell (and many Senate Republicans) voted for TPA; Mr. Boehner is desperately trying to coerce the House GOP into passing it.
Middle America, however, does not want it. In fact, most Americans are staunchly opposed to it — many conservatives, especially, are against Obamatrade. This begs the question: Why are Beltway Republicans so determined to betray their base? The answer is simple: TPA/TPP represents the GOP establishment’s pay back to its wealthy donors and bundlers. It represents the triumph (again) of the party’s Wall Street-corporatist elite over its working- and middle-class voters. We have been down this road before. The congressional GOP gave both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush fast track authority. For the past 25 years, America has had numerous free trade agreements — NAFTA, GATT, the WTO, MFN, PNTR for China, CAFTA for Central America and a deal with South Korea.
The results have been disastrous: nearly 55,000 U.S. factories shuttered; 5-6 million jobs lost; our manufacturing base decimated; and over $11 trillion in trade deficits. Once great cities, such as Detroit and Baltimore, which had plenty of well-paying, blue-collar factory jobs, are now economic wastelands. China alone has amassed over $4 trillion in trade surpluses. Beijing’s rise has come at our expense. Factories, investment capital, jobs and products once generated here were outsourced to China. Using cheap labor and currency manipulation, Beijing has built a massive military and the world’s largest economy. Its economic growth rate dwarfs our own. The very same open borders-free trade Republicans who decry the rise of communist China are responsible for driving it. As America opened its market to a flood of cheap Asian and Mexican goods, millions of U.S. workers were displaced; U.S. factories simply uprooted and relocated to Mexico or China, taking advantage of low-cost labor and the ability to export those goods, products and services back into America without paying any tariffs. Combined with almost unlimited immigration (both legal and illegal), free trade has led to stagnating wages, growing income equality and an eroding middle-class. Our political class has betrayed American workers. Obamatrade represents the final betrayal.
The TPP remains a top-secret, “highly-classified” text, locked in a room below the Capitol building. Members of Congress can only access it by signing in, and pledging not to reveal its specific contents to the public. Think about this: The largest trade deal in history is being negotiated behind closed doors completely away from the public. What is Obama hiding?
Thanks to WikiLeaks, we now know. The TPP is not a simple trade pact; rather, it grants special powers to a TPP commission — an international tribunal composed of bureaucratic elites — in which on vital areas, such as immigration, labor, the environment, commercial policy and even food, its authority will trump that of Congress. It transfers and surrenders U.S. sovereignty to a globalist entity similar to the EU — a new Pacific Union. Don’t take my word it. Sen. Jeff Sessions, Alabama Republican, is one of the few members of Congress who has actually read the entire text. His conclusion: Obamatrade is a dagger aimed at the heart of our constitutional republic. Should the TPP pass, we will become a self-governing nation in name only.
Mr. Sessions warns “having been to the closed room to review the secret text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, it is clear it more closely resembles a treaty than a trade deal.” In particular, he says the TPP “creates a new transnational governance structure known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission.
The details of this new governance commission are extremely broad and have the earmarks of a nascent European Union, with many similarities.” Hence, congressional Republicans by pushing fast track authority for Obama are simply enabling him to achieve a new Pacific Union.
TPA lowers the Senate threshold for approving treaties from 67 votes or even the 60 votes necessary for major legislation to a simple majority. Moreover, it surrenders Congress’ constitutional prerogatives to amend the deal or strike out any bad provisions — such as the supranational and secretive TPP commission.
If Obama is granted TPA, Congress can only vote up or down on the TPP. And never has a trade deal been defeated after a president acquired fast track authority. In other words, a vote for TPA almost assures passage of Obamatrade.
“The implications of this new Pacific Union are extraordinary and ought to be discussed in full, in public, before Congress even contemplates fast-tracking its creation and pre-surrendering its power to apply the constitutional two-thirds treaty vote,” Sessions wrote in a letter to Obama.
“In effect, to adopt fast-track is to agree to remove the constitutional protections against the creation of global governance structures before those structures are even made public.”
The more information is revealed, the more unpopular Obamatrade becomes. In desperation, Boehner is sending out his secret weapon: Rep. Paul Ryan.
The Wisconsin budget hawk has become the messenger for the House Republican leadership. His latest line is that, like Obamacare, you have to pass Obamatrade to find out what’s in it. He recently said that the TPP would only be made public if — and only if — TPA was approved. This not only violates a central Republican campaign promise to bring real transparency and accountability to Washington — to fully read bills before ramming them through Congress. It also marks a profound abdication of Congress’ constitutional responsibility.
The Constitution is clear: “The Congress shall have Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises … To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations.” Instead of curbing Obama’s power grab, House and Senate Republicans are enabling him to act on behalf of Congress (and the national interest). They are recklessly giving Obama — who has lied repeatedly to the American public on issues ranging from Obamacare to Benghazi to Iran — a blank check to negotiate the most consequential trade pact in U.S. history. This would be like trusting Dracula with a blood bank.
The reason is simple: Big Business that will benefit tremendously from the TPP controls the GOP establishment. McConnell, Boehner, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Marco Rubio and Ryan — none of them have actually read the Obamatrade bills. They are simply mouthpieces for corporate America.
China, however, will be the ultimate winner. Both Obama and Ryan have insisted the TPP is aimed at containing Beijing’s growing economic clout. This is false. WikiLeaks has revealed that China has not only asked to be a member of the new Pacific Union, but the administration has agreed to accept it. In fact, once Obamatrade is implemented, Congress will be powerless to stop China — or any other rival, such as India or Russia — from joining. This is because the TPP Commission, similar to the EU commission, will be vested with permanent, supranational powers.
“Reviewing the secret text, plus the secret guidance document that accompanies it, reveals that this new transnational commission — chartered with a ‘Living Agreement’ clause — would have the authority to amend the agreement after its adoption, to add new members, and to issue regulations impacting labor, immigration, environmental, and commercial policy,” Sessions said.“Under this new commission, the Sultan of Brunei would have an equal vote to that of the United States.” Obama is on the verge of completing his fundamental transformation of America. Obamatrade would be the final hammer blow.
It would allow for an unlimited number of Third World immigrants — Chinese, Mexicans, Malaysians — to flood our country, swamping us with cheap labor and even cheaper goods. America’s borders, sovereignty and Constitution would be rendered meaningless.
Similar to EU member states, we would be subject to the whims of progressive globalist elites. Our national independence would be a thing of the past. That Obama’s treachery is being aided and abetted by the GOP leadership reveals a harsh reality. America is now divided into two camps. It is not, however, between Republicans and Democrats. Rather, it is between our ruling class and the citizens they seek to rule.