Boy, Republicans really want to help President Obama on his top secret trade deal. They are going to vote again in the House any moment now.
The House will vote Thursday on a “Fast Track” trade bill that most Democrats oppose, with passage hinging on a coalition of Republicans and a small faction of Democrats.
The bill will not include a provision to extend a program that provides aid to workers displaced by new trade deals, a provision known as Trade Adjustment Assistance. Instead, the Senate will take up that measure and send it back to the House for approval, Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, said Wednesday.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said in a joint statement that they are “committed to ensuring”‘ both the “Fast Track” and TAA measures “get votes in the House and Senate and are sent to the president for signature.” (Read More)
We keep hearing that opposing this bill means being opposed to free trade. But this isn’t about free trade, as former Senator Jim DeMint recently explained.
Instead of focusing on advancing free trade, the congressional process has turned into a special interest boondoggle. Liberals in the House want to make this about infrastructure spending, but most notable was the deal-cutting on the Senate floor last month.
I've seen deals cut on the floor, and this had all the hallmarks. A vote held open. A gaggle of key senators. A sudden change in votes. Reuters explained that once Senate leadership "pledged to schedule a reauthorization vote [on the Export-Import Bank], the trade bill gained enough Democratic support to narrowly pass a procedural Senate hurdle."
That wasn't legislative horse trading designed to advance free trade; it was designed to advance the interests of a handful of well-connected special interests. It also runs contrary to another laudable object of free traders which is actually part of this TPA agreement: The elimination of foreign, state-owned enterprises.
Five of the top 10 foreign beneficiaries of America's Ex-Im Bank are state-owned or state-operated enterprises, including national airlines and national oil companies. These companies, and their countries, distort trade across the globe. A commitment to free trade means a commitment to ending these arrangements.
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