« The Trans Pacific Partnership: The most DANGEROUS legislation you never heard of…until now | Main | Record Number Of Americans Renounced Their U.S. Citizenship In 2015 »
June 11, 2015
Sen. Jeff Sessions Warns TPA Would Create ‘Pacific Union’ Akin to European Union
Sessions Warns TPA Would Create ‘Pacific Union’ Akin to European Union
In a joint appearance on Sean Hannity’s radio show on Wednesday, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL)
and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) warned against the passage of the so-called Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) currently being considered by the Congress.
Sessions argued it was more than just a framework for a process for the president of the United States to use in negotiating trade agreements, but instead was creating an economic union with wide-ranging powers.
“I’ve been there three times and I can tell you it is far more than a trade agreement,” he said. “It is a creating of an economic union. The congressional resource said it is a wide-ranging political and economic partnership that is created where the Sultan of Brunei gets one vote. The president of the United States gets one vote. Twelve countries – they have the ability to add other treaties and pass them. They have the ability to deal with climate issues, wage issues and environmental issues. There’s just no doubt about that.”
The junior Alabama senator went on to explain that he felt it was being kept secret because if the public were aware of this union, which he likened to the European Union, it would be stopped dead in its tracks.
“I think it’s because if the trade commission – if the international commission, the Pacific union that is being created here – were made public, it wouldn’t go anywhere. I just don’t think it has any chance – look, England found out after they joined the EU they can’t fox hunt anymore.”
Here is the letter that Sessions and Duncan Hunter sent...............
Sen. Sessions and U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California issued this joint statement regarding the impending vote on fast-track executive authority:
“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.
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. Not only that, but Congress will have also given up its powers to amend the deal, revise the deal, fully debate the deal, or apply a cloture vote in the Senate. 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. And, once the trade implementing legislation is enacted, that implementing language itself will necessarily supersede U.S. law.
In its rush to approve these new powers for the President, Congress risks the jobs, wages, rights, and sovereignty of U.S. citizens. President Obama demands we give him this new authority, yet he refuses to answer even the most basic questions about it. What we do know is that whatever structure the President creates with these new powers—we are told that the plan is ‘the most progressive in history’—it will endure long after he has left office.”
Wild Thing's comment............
Posted by Wild Thing at June 11, 2015 12:55 AM
