Derail Fast Track! Pat Buchanan on the TPP

[NACBA]

http://buchanan.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/Derail-Fast-Track-2.jpg


By Patrick J. Buchanan

Last November, Republicans grew their strength in Congress to levels unseen since 1946. What united the party and rallied the nation was the GOP’s declared resolve to stand up to an imperious president.

Give us powerful new majorities, said John Boehner and Mitch McConnell, and we shall halt these usurpations of Congressional power.

And, so, what is the first order of business now in the Ways and Means Committee of Paul Ryan and Senate Finance Committee of Orrin Hatch?

“The first thing we ought to do,” says Ryan, “is pass trade promotion authority.” Trade promotion authority, or “fast track,” is a synonym for Congress’s surrender of all rights to amend trade treaties, and a commitment to confine itself to a yes or no vote on whatever deal Obama brings home.

Watching the GOP’s reversion to form calls to mind the term the neocons gave the French for refusing to join Bush II’s big march to Baghdad: “cheese-eating surrender monkeys.”

With the huge Trans-Pacific Partnership in negotiations, Obama wants Boehner and McConnell to agree in advance not to tamper with it. “Hands off!” he demands. If this GOP agrees to this, it will, in its first great decision, be engaging in an act of self-castration.

http://buchanan.org/blog/derail-fast-track-15529

[charrob]

-am not real clear on the difference between the TPP and TTIP, except that the latter seems to be just between the U.S. and Europe? In any case, both treaties seem to point to loss of sovereignty for involved countries. Interestingly the new Syriza Party in Greece is saying they will block the TTIP:




Syriza Official Vows to Kill EU-US Trade Deal (http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/02/02/syriza-official-vows-kill-eu-us-trade-deal-gift-all-european-people)


Threat comes amid continued grassroots opposition to proposed trade deal
by: Andrea Germanos, staff writer

An official with Greece's newly elected Syriza party may have sounded the death knell for a proposed EU-U.S. trade deal that has faced a mountain of opposition from civil society.

The deal is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), now facing its eighth round of talks between negotiators this week in Brussels.

The TTIP, which would be the biggest trade deal ever, has been criticized as a corporate-friendly deal that threatens food and environmental safety under the guise of "harmonization" of regulations.

Georgios Katrougkalos, now deputy minister for administrative reform, confirmed what he had told EurActiv Greece ahead of his Syriza party's victory last week: that his parliament would not ratify the trade deal.

"I can ensure you that a Parliament where Syriza holds the majority will never ratify the deal. And this will be a big gift not only to the Greek people but to all the European people," EurActiv reported Monday.

Because Syriza's coalition partner also appears to share the anti-TTIP views, EurActiv reports, this means the Greeks could issue a veto, thereby threatening to block the deal.

Among Katrougkalos' concerns with the trade deal, shared by many of the deal's critics, is the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) mechanism. As author Glyn Moody explained, it "enables companies to sue for alleged losses caused by government actions." He adds:


ISDS would introduce external tribunals that allowed companies to bypass national laws. It would open up the EU (and US) to the risk of ISDS claims on an unprecedented scale. If TTIP includes ISDS, there are 14,400 US-based corporations owning more than 50,800 subsidiaries in the EU, all of which could use the mechanism to sue the EU and its Member States. Even without TTIP, European nations are already facing claims of at least €30 billion because of ISDS chapters in existing agreements - we don't know exactly, since many cases are still secret. With TTIP, it's easy to imagine that figure multiplied by ten or even more. Moreover, this is money that must be paid by the public, making a mockery of any claims that TTIP will bring benefits to ordinary people.

Several European organizations are mobilizing to show their opposition to the trade deal during this latest round of negotiations.

Among them is Friends of the Earth Europe, which plans to hold a demonstration Wednesday to highlight how the TTIP is a "Trojan treaty."

Also joining the demonstration is Guy Taylor, trade campaigner for Global Justice Now and an organizer for actions Wednesday, who said in a statement: "It’s unheard of to see so many people traveling to Brussels to lobby their MEPs like this, and that’s testament to just how hugely controversial and unpopular TTIP has become. David Cameron waxes lyrical about national sovereignty, but in pushing for this deal he is willfully handing sovereignty to big business. The deal is not really about trade, it’s about entrenching the position of the one percent. It should be abandoned."

Underscoring similar concerns is 31-year-old Ross Mackay, who will be joining the actions in Brussels. He told the Scotland Herald, "TTIP is not really about opening up trade and harmonizing tariffs and regulations; it's about a race to the bottom, locked-in privatization, and a seismic shift in power away from people and their elected governments towards corporations."

[Noob]

Contact your Senators and Representative. Ask them to oppose giving Barack Obama the unbridled authority to impose back-door, UN-styled gun control!

http://www.gunowners.org/news01302015.htm



TELL CONGRESS TO OPPOSE “FAST TRACK” FOR THE TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP TRADE AGREEMENT

http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/1881/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=15359

[Noob]

We Need to Stop the White House From Putting TPP and TTIP on the Fast Track To Ratification


Senators are now working around the clock to re-introduce a bill that would put trade agreements on the fast track to passage in the US after those deals are finalized. Deals like the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) have been negotiated in almost complete secrecy, except for private industry advocates serving on trade advisory committees who can read and comment on these texts. That has enabled these agreements to include extreme copyright and other digital policy provisions that would bind all signatory nations to draconian rules that would hinder free speech, privacy, and access to knowledge. Under fast track, also referred to as Trade Promotion Authority, lawmakers would only have a small window of time to conduct hearings over binding trade provisions and give an up-or-down vote on ratification of the agreement without any ability to amend it before they bind the United States to its terms.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/we-need-stop-white-house-putting-tpp-and-ttip-fast-track-ratification

[Noob]

Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP) - Investment Chapter

https://wikileaks.org/tpp-investment/WikiLeaks-TPP-Investment-Chapter/page-1.html

[Noob]

Committees voting on bill to make it easier for a President to expand guest worker programs without any public debate.



The vote to move the TPA bill to the floor of the House or Senate could come today in the House Ways & Means Committee or the Senate Finance Committee.

Below the red action box, you'll find a list of committee Members. Use the Capitol Hill switchboard number listed above or the direct-dial numbers that we've provided. Call Members from your state or a neighbor.

You can use any of the many talking points that are contained in the blog I've attached below the phone numbers. Or use this one:

https://www.numbersusa.com/faxes?ID=50821003002

[Christopher A. Brown]

We Need to Stop the White House From Putting TPP and TTIP on the Fast Track To Ratification

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/we-need-stop-white-house-putting-tpp-and-ttip-fast-track-ratification

Yes, but congress and the rest of government is TOO INFILTRATED to do it. We need a lawful and peaceful revolution.

We the people, "the rightful masters of the congress and the courts", by our agreement upon constitutional intent have the lawful authority to kick ASS on the infiltration, and get them the F out before its too late!

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?471555-A-lawful-and-peaceful-revolution