Sen. Sessions explains Obamatrade in key Senate speech

[Draggingtree]

:

 

May 23, 2015

Sen. Sessions explains Obamatrade in key Senate speech

By Howard Richman

Senator Sessions’s floor speech against Obamatrade on Friday could go down as one of the most important Senate speeches ever. Already it is getting rave reviews:

• Rush Limbaugh hailed it (Odds are Obamatrade screws America): “Jeff Sessions had a massive op-ed piece and floor speech in the Senate about this.”
• 
  
• Michelle Malkin gushed: “I wish that Sen. Jeff Sessions would run for president, because I would sign up in a heartbeat.”
• Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon set the stage for Sessions’s speech by lauding Obamatrade as “the most progressive trade policy in our country’s history” because it regulates much more than just trade:
• 
• 
  

[Draggingtree]

‘Critical Alert': Jeff Sessions Warns America Against Potentially Disastrous Obama Trade Deal

04 May 2015 by Matthew Boyle

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is sounding the alarm to his colleagues Senate-wide, warning them and the American public with a “critical alert” published Sunday evening that voting for the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) deal that would set up the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal with Asian countries is fraught with problems and concerns.

“Congress has the responsibility to ensure that any international trade agreement entered into by the United States must serve the national interest, not merely the interests of those crafting the proposal in secret,” Sessions’ team writes in a document that lays out the top five concerns with the Obama trade deal

http://joemiller.us/2015/05/critical-alert-jeff-sessions-warns-america-against-potentially-disastrous-obama-trade-deal/

[Draggingtree]

MAY 29, 2015|Democracy, Fast Track, REINS Act, Trans Pacific Partnership

Fast Track for the Trans Pacific Partnership Accords with Democracy

by JOHN O. MCGINNIS|4 Comments

The left and even some Republicans have argued that the procedures for agreeing to the Trans Pacific Partnership are undemocratic. A leading argument is that voting for “fast track” for the TPP violates democratic principles because Congress is changing its rules now in order to later ratify an agreement it has not yet seen.

 

The arguments are wholly misplaced. “Fast track” simply permits Congress under its ordinary procedures to commit to a future majority vote of Congress to vote up or down on an agreement that the President has negotiated. Representative democracy is thus served by the later vote on an agreement whose text is known.

 

It is true that fast track eliminates certain procedural obstacles like the filibuster rule in the Senate and the requirements of committee approval. But there is nothing sacrosanct about a set of procedural rules to democracy.

http://www.libertylawsite.org/2015/05/29/fast-track-for-the-trans-pacific-partnership-accords-with-democracy/