Combat Veterans For Congress from Oklahoma and Montana are Battling Obama’s Unconstitutional Fast Track Trade Promotional Legislation‏

TREATIES “WILL CHANGE THE REPUBLIC FOREVER”

by Capt. Joseph R. John (Ret.), ©2015, Co-Founder, CombatVeteransForCongress

(Jun. 16, 2015) — Today Senate Majority Leader McConnell and Speaker Boehner have resurrected the Trans Pacific Partnership Initiative (TPP) again.  Although it did pass last week, the companion bill, the Trade Adjustment Assistance Authority (TAA), was defeated by Congress by a huge margin, so the TPP cannot go forward until the TAA passes.  The TPP and the TAA are bills that very few members of Congress have ever seen or read; the 800 pages of Obama’s Secret Trade Bills are being railroaded through Congress just as the ObamaCare bill was railroaded through Congress by Rep. Nancy Pelosi.  McConnell, Boehner, and Obama are being so secretive that they are not only keeping the text of Obama’s unconstitutional law secret; they are also keeping the log that lists which members of Congress went into the basement of the Capitol to read it private as well, following Pelosi’s example when she said, “We will have to pass it to see what is in it!”

The Republican leaders in the House and Senate are continuing to work very closely with the occupant in the Oval Office, who has repeatedly violated federal laws and the US Constitution in order to pass his unconstitutional Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation.  The Combat Veterans For Congress are not against “Free Trade;” Free Trade is one of the many foundations upon which the Free Enterprise System rests. The Free Enterprise System is supported and endorsed in the Mission Statement of the Combat Veterans For Congress, but the Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation is secretly designed by Socialists to destroy the Free Enterprise System.  Although we absolutely support “Free Trade,” Fast Track Trade Promotional Authority is not about “Free Trade;” it is legislation designed to give Obama unbelievable “Carte Blanche” executive powers over the next 18 months that will damage the Republic.

No president in the 239-year history of the Republic has ever been given so much power.  Unlike the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate, we believe because Obama has repeatedly demonstrated that he cannot be trusted to do what he says he will do, and because he repeatedly lied to the American people about Obamacare, the Battle of Benghazi, the IRS Scandal, the Fast & Furious scandal, in his trade of an army deserter for the five most dangerous radical Islamic terrorists in the world, and ordered a secret amnesty that stopped deportation of illegal aliens, we oppose giving Obama new, massive, unheard-of executive powers.  The unconstitutional proposal also cuts Congress out of its 60% vote to approve treaties which the US Constitution grants it.

The flawed and unconstitutional Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation would allow the occupant of the Oval Office, who very few Republicans and Independents trust, to solely negotiate trade deals, while excluding the normal practice of Congressional input; and the secret bill prevents the Congress from making any changes to a trade treaty Obama negotiates “at all,” or to any UN treaty by which Obama wants the US to abide.  Congress will be able to vote only yes or no, up or down, with a simple 51% of the vote to approve the treaty, not 60% of the vote required by the US Constitution.

Every President of the United States has always had the constitutional authority to negotiate individual trade treaties with individual countries.  Without this secret bill, the President can already negotiate treaties and prevent foreign countries from sending their products to the US if that country erects barriers to “Free Trade.”  The argument being made by the Republican leadership is that if the Fast Track Trade Promotional Authority is voted down, it will be a vote against “Free Trade,” an outright intentional misrepresentation, in their attempt to convince Republican Congressmen to vote for it.  A similar piece of legislation can be easily passed within 18 months which won’t violate the US Constitution after there is a new occupant of the Oval Office who can be trusted.

The problems with Fast Track Authority are itemized below.

1)    It will give Obama authority to bring in millions of illegal aliens from 12 Pacific Rim countries (Mexico, Vietnam, Brunei, Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, etc.) without completing the background check on them to determine if they have terrorist ties, and Obama will give millions of illegal aliens work permits at a time when over 104 million Americans are unemployed—damaging the stability of the Free Enterprise System.

2)    It would allow Obama to recommend acceptance of UN Treaties by only 51% of the vote, a treaty like the UN Small Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which violates the 2^nd Amendment to the US Constitution; the ATT had previously been rejected by the US Senate because it could not get 60% of the US Senate vote.

3)    It will allow importation of dangerous and contaminated fish and meat products from foreign countries without properly labeling their country of origin that would provide consumers with full disclosure of their quality.  Low-cost fish and meat products could be dangerous and negatively affect the health of consumers’ families—undercutting the Free Enterprise System of US businesses that have safe fish and meat products for sale.

4)    It will require the US to abide by UN Climate Change Treaties and by destructive, anti-business EPA regulations that were instituted by Obama’s Executive Orders; those anti-business regulations would seriously damage the viability of many US businesses, further damaging the Free Enterprise System.

5)    There is a SECRET provision in the TPP that would permit Obama to add other countries to it in the future such as Cuba, China, Iran, Russia, Sudan, Somalia, Venezuela, Libya, Syria, etc., which will allow Obama to bring in millions of new illegal immigrants without checking their backgrounds for terrorist ties, ndercutting US labor and damaging the Free Enterprise System.

6)    In order to deal with the millions of Americans who will be losing their jobs because of Fast Track Trade Promotional Authority, a bill was crafted by Congressional leaders known as the Trade Adjustment Assistance Authority Bill (TAA).  The TAA should more appropriately be entitled the “Put all American Workers on Welfare Bill Because of the Fast Track Trade Promotional Authority.”  The TAA is a $450 million/year welfare program specifically targeting millions of American workers and farmers who will lose their livelihoods because of the Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation.  At Pelosi’s insistence, the TAA is going to be paid for by a huge tax increases on small business—which will damage the Free Enterprise System.

7)    The Republican leadership will surrender its authority to write federal Immigration laws by passing Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation, it would leave the southern border of the US even more porous than it is today, and it will allow Obama to change immigration policy “at will” without Congressional approval.  Those proposed provisions in the Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation are UNCONSTITUTIONAL and violate Federal Immigration Laws.

8)    In reviewing the donations reported to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) for the period from January to March 2015 by the 180 corporate members of the US Business Coalition for TPP that were made to US Senators while the Fast Track Trade Promotion legislation was being debated in the Senate, it was reported that a total of $1,148,971 was given collectively to the 65 US senators who cast “yea” votes.  Those votes were not cast in the best interest of unemployed Americans—the TPP will allow millions of illegal aliens to be brought in by Obama.  Those new illegal aliens will be given work permits by Obama so they will be able to compete for scarce jobs with unemployed Americans. Since those illegal aliens will work for much less than unemployed Americans, it will further damage the Free Enterprise System.

9)   The TPP as it is drafted does not deal with a foreign country’s manipulation of their currency.  Currency manipulation continues to seriously damage “Free Trade;” unfortunately, since language has not been inserted in the Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation to protect the United States from currency manipulation, it will further damage the Free Enterprise System.

10)   Republican leaders in Congress have been completely hoodwinked by Obama and should have exercised better intelligence.  Fast Track Trade Promotional Authority is really all about changing federal statutory laws via expedited Congressional procedures.  There are many procedural rules that must be followed, including but not limited to Senate cloture rules, by which bills require a 60-vote super-majority in order to be voted on them in the Senate.  The Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation does away with a great deal of that; in particular, it eliminates the possibility of extended debate, the need to consider amendments, and eliminates the need for the 60-vote threshold in the Senate for any bills that fall within its scope.  Obama outfoxed the Republican leadership and is using Fast Track to pass portions of his agenda (including the UN climate change and gun control) listed above, creating controversial changes in federal statutory laws that would simply not be possible with the Republican Congress.  Fast Track Trade legislation is designed to change US laws that would be virtually impossible under normal congressional procedures.

11) According to the Greek Catholic Relief Agency, for over 6½ years, Obama has refused to allow any of the 300,000 Syrian and Assyrian Christian refugees in the Middle East to enter the US.  However, many of those Syrian and Assyrian Christians are being given refuge in Canada.  Obama is only allowing the resettlement of hundreds of thousands of Muslim refugees through the UN Muslim Refugee Plan.  Those refugees are being resettled in 195 cities across the nation without informing the elected state and city officials with specific details of who is being resettled in their cities, their countries of origin, or telling those officials who is going to pay for the health care costs, resettlement costs, transportation costs, the education cost of refugee children, the welfare costs of refugee families, the cost of food stamps and housing for the thousands of refugees being brought into their communities.  Additional millions of non-Christian Asian and Middle Eastern illegal aliens will be brought in from 12 Pacific participating countries (including Mexico) with no limit to numbers by Obama citing Fast Track Trade Promotional Authority. ISIL has already said they will infiltrate those refugee programs.

Supporters of this aggressive SECRET Obama initiative include Democratic Progressives in Congress, Democratic Congressman Danny K. Davis, who received an award from the Communist Party in 2012; David Cortright, who is Obama’s close Chicago associate on the Committee for a Sane Nuclear policy (SANE); Communist Tom Hayden, who is a member of “Progressives for Obama;” Democratic Congressmen in the “Hanoi Lobby” who are aggressively supporting normalization of relations with Cuba; Cora Weiss, who is a strong supporter of Communism and a member of the Anti-War Movement; Adam Hersh of the Center for American Progress, the left-of-center liberal media establishment; the Democratic Progressive Caucus (the 70-member caucus includes Socialists, Progressives, Marxists, and Communist members of Congress).  It is unbelievable to learn that those leftists, Marxists, Progressives, and Communists have gained the very aggressive support of the Republican leadership in the House and Senate, who have been working hand-in-glove with the Democratic Progressive Caucus to pass the unconstitutional Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation that will change the Republic forever.

Many of the elected Combat Veterans For Congress such as Rep. Steve Russell, LTC-USA (Ret) (Ranger) (R-OK-5) and Rep. Ryan Zinke, Cdr-USN (Ret) (SEAL) (R-MT-1), have been valiantly opposing Fast Track Trade Promotional legislation.  By clicking on the below listed link, you can read an article referring to them.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/11/oklahoma-vet-in-congress-battles-paul-ryans-obamatrade-misinformation-in-the-trenches/