April 21, 2015, Fairfax, Va.—Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning today issued the following statement in opposition to trade promotion authority for President Barack Obama to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership:
“Proponents of the Pacific trade deal face irreconcilable problems that on one hand, they bemoan Obama’s executive regulatory overreach in areas like amnesty, Obamacare, and Net Neutrality, yet, they claim that Congress should cede to the same president an enormous grant of power that eviscerates the advice and consent treaty ratification process. You can’t be pro-Constitution with one press release and in favor of shredding it in the next and call yourself a constitutional conservative.
“It is also almost become a standard talking point for conservative groups that President Obama’s foreign policy has been a disaster, with the China climate deal treaty, the Iran nuclear treaty, and the opening of Cuba serving as prime examples of this president’s failure to stand up as the leader of the free world. Yet, some conservative groups are willing to trust this same failed president to negotiate the rules for the world economy without even the ability to read the treaty that he’s negotiating. This is either abject naiveté or willful blindness of the goals of Obama’s multinational, corporate partners who helped him make the deal.
“What’s more, the big lie that fast track legislation allows Congress to have input in the treaty-making process should never be repeated again. The Trans-Pacific Partnership is 99 percent completed after almost 5 years of negotiations. The time for a fast track bill might have been at the beginning of that process, not at its conclusion.
“Finally, Obama is under no legal compunction to do anything that Congress requests. The proof lies in the rejection by his of a demand by the majority of the Senate and House to include currency manipulation language in the trade deal, creating an avenue for China to dock into the trade agreement at a later date without ever reconciling their supposed currency manipulation. The key trade issue between the U.S. and China and other nations is currency and price competition.”
Attachments:
Americans for Limited Government letter to Rep. Tom Emmer opposing fast track, Feb. 25, 2015 at http://getliberty.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/LettertoEmmerandHouseGOP2-25-15.pdf
Interview Availability: Please contact Americans for Limited Government at (703) 383-0880 ext. 106 or at media@limitgov.org to arrange an interview with ALG experts including ALG President Rick Manning.
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