End It, Don't Mend It

(AP photo)

Senator Jeff Sessions on the TPP:

“It is essential that there be no misunderstanding: fast-track preapproves the formation of not only the unprecedentedly large Trans-Pacific Partnership, but an unlimited number of such agreements over the next six years,” Sessions said. “Those pacts include three of the most ambitious ever contemplated. After TPP comes the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) between the United States and the European Union, followed by the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), seeking as one its goals labor mobility among more than 50 nations. Together, these three international compacts encompass three-fourths of the world’s GDP. Including the nations whose membership is being courted for after enactment, the countries involved would encompass nearly 90 percent of global GDP. Yet, through fast-track, Congress will have authorized the President to ink these deals before a page of them has been made public. Then, the Executive sends Congress ‘implementing’ legislation to change U.S. law—legislation which cannot be amended, cannot be filibustered, and will not be subjected to the Constitutional requirement for a two-thirds treaty vote.”

I have wholeheartedly supported every other fast-track trade deal to come before Congress, but I am adamantly opposed to this one.

This isn’t a free trade deal. This is something much bigger, requiring thorough public debate, and full advice and consent from 2/3rds of the Senate.

But I do not trust this President with his ambitions, and I cannot trust any Congress with its willingness to cede power and authority to the Executive. Let’s just kill this thing and, if necessary, start over in two years. Trade is pretty damn free already, and there’s no rush to push through…

…to push through whatever this TPP arrangement actually is.