Syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin takes apart the arguments of GOP leaders on Capitol Hill who are pushing hard to hand President Barack Obama Fast Track trade negotiation power.
Under Fast Track, the President could negotiate massive trade deals in complete secrecy and simply hand the result to Congress and demand an immediate up or down vote.
The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out American sovereignty. Their so-called Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission will have sweeping authority over trade, immigration, environmental, labor and commerce regulations.
As alert watchdogs U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., chairman of the Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest and U.S. Rep Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., warn: “By adopting fast-track, Congress would be formally authorizing the President to finalize the creation of this Pacific Union and will have surrendered its legislative prerogatives. Before a word, line, paragraph, or page of this plan is made public, Congress will have agreed to give up its treaty powers. … In effect, one of the most sweeping international agreements seen in years will be given less legislative scrutiny and process than a Post Office reform bill.”
Supposedly, immigration law will not be part of any trade agreement. However, from various leaks it has been revealed that any Obama trade deal will have a serious impact on American immigration law and Congress would be nearly powerless to stop it.
The Obama administration, House GOP leader John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have sold out our immigration priorities. Both parties have put cheap labor from illegal immigrants before American workers. Both parties support massive increases in foreign temporary worker programs that favor cheap tech workers from India and China over highly educated, highly skilled American workers who are forced to train their replacements. Both parties back fraud-plagued green card giveaway programs for wealthy immigrant investors that amount to a crony “economic development” racket. More Obamatrade documents disclosed by WikiLeaks indicate that negotiators have discussed unilateral changes to U.S. worker protections in visa law, processing times and temporary visa expiration dates.
Supporting free enterprise in America does not mean supporting a global free-for-all for every last $2.00/hour entry-level foreign tech journeyman. Past free-trade pacts have failed to live up to their overhyped promises. University of Maryland economist Peter Morici notes that under Obama’s free trade pact with South Korea, imports with that country “are up 3.6 billion” while “U.S. exports are down marginally and the U.S. trade deficit with the Asian nation has swelled to 5 billion.”
Malkin boils down the issue to a simple one: it’s the Washington D.C. elites versus the rest of the country:
Here is what those of us against the GOP-Obamatrade bills can all agree on: Both political parties in Washington are screwing over our country. American citizens are sick and tired of the permanent ruling class subverting the will of the people in the name of “bipartisanship.” We’ve had enough of Big Business betrayals and Big Government collusion.
What part of “Stop selling out America!” does D.C. not understand?
