Obama to Congress: Give In on TPP

The White House notified Congress that it will be sending lawmakers legislation to implement President Obama’s Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement later this year.

The White House submitted a Statement of Administrative Action telling Congress that the administration plans to seek congressional approval of the TPP. Under the trade promotion authority legislation passed last year, the White House is required to notify Congress at least 30 days in advance of submitting legislation implementing the TPP.

The timing of the president’s announcement raised eyebrows — and the ire of liberals within the president’s own party.

But the president is unlikely to push TPP in the midst of a campaign in which trade has become a major issue. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he would not consider the so-called “free trade” deal before the election. He left the door open to taking it up in a lame-duck session of Congress after the election.

Earlier this month, Obama said he will sit down with lawmakers to sell his globalist pact “after the election is over” when “it won’t just be a political symbol or a political football.”

The White House notice came the day after Hillary Clinton delivered a speech in which she criticized the TPP, saying, “I oppose it now, I’ll oppose it after the election, and I’ll oppose it as president.”

The timing of the president’s announcement raised eyebrows — and the ire of liberals within the president’s own party.

Over at the progressive Campaign for America’s Future, Dave Johnson noted, “One day after presidential candidate Hillary Clinton strongly underscored her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership in a speech in Detroit, President Obama officially started the clock on a lame-duck congressional vote on that agreement … It is not enough for Clinton to say she is against TPP; [she needs to be] putting herself on the front line, calling Democrats and twisting arms and making deals to persuade members of Congress to vote against it.”

Clinton’s campaign has repeatedly said she will not lobby against the TPP if Obama brings it up in a lame-duck session, and she did not speak out following Obama’s latest move.

Sources close to the Clinton campaign say it’s clear there is a “mutual nonaggression pact” between Obama and Clinton: Clinton promises to stay on the sidelines as Obama pushes the TPP in a lame duck, and Obama promises to sideline any inquiries into Clinton’s emails, Clinton Foundation, and State Department affairs.

The liberal groups Democracy for America and CREDO are blasting Clinton in an online petition that gained over 60,000 signatures within hours.

“Sec. Clinton herself has yet to make a public statement opposing a lame-duck vote,” the petition says. “Tell Sec. Clinton: Publicly oppose a lame-duck vote on TPP … we need to let her know we are counting on her to take the lead in opposing a lame-duck vote.”

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For its part, Fight for the Future is sponsoring “Rock Against the TPP” free concerts featuring Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello, hip-hop artist Talib Kweli, and Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly, with shows in the liberal enclaves of Seattle, San Francisco, and Portland, Oregon.

Bernie Sanders, whose opposition to TPP forced Hillary Clinton to disavow the deal she once hailed as the “gold standard,” said in a statement “I will continue to do everything I can to make sure that the TPP does not get implemented.”

Sanders is not alone in calling on Congress to reject the TPP. The Republican Party platform declared that trade agreements like the TPP should not be taken up in a lame-duck session of Congress. Sen. Jeff Sessions, an outspoken opponent of the TPP and top adviser to Donald Trump, blasted Obama for disregarding the will of the American people.

“Americans know these agreements have allowed trade practices that unfairly close manufacturing plants, costing millions of high-paying jobs,” Sessions said.

“President Obama knows that the only chance he has of passing the TPP is during this short window [of the lame duck]. His determination flies in the face of the clear will of the American people, as demonstrated in the primaries,” he added.

Under the terms of the agreement, Congress would have no role in creating or approving the rules this commission writes.

Sessions said the lame-duck session is tailor-made for special interests to sneak unpopular legislation through. “Our nation is about to see once again how powerful forces work overtime to advance a globalist agenda that the people oppose,” the senator from Alabama said.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a global regulatory pact that involves 12 countries on four continents. Obama says it will “write the rules for the global economy.”

While the TPP is being presented as a trade agreement, it is far more comprehensive — and undermines U.S. national sovereignty.

“The 5,554-page accord, disguised as a simple trade agreement, commits the American people to an international commission with the power to act around Congress. It allows 12 nations, some with less than 1 percent of the GDP of the United States, an equal vote in the TPP Commission. Actions by this commission separate the American people from the policy decisions that affect their lives. The TPP Commission is a direct threat to representative democracy and accountability,” said Sessions.

The TPP sets up a Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission that would have sweeping regulatory powers over immigration, food, energy, medicine, Internet, intellectual property, and businesses within our borders as well as across borders.

Under the terms of the agreement, Congress would have no role in creating or approving the rules this commission writes. “President Obama does not care what the good people of this nation want. He arrogantly thinks he knows best. If he could pass it with his ‘pen and phone,’ he surely would,” Sessions said.

Lame-duck sessions of Congress are notorious for being unaccountable by their very nature. Members who are retiring or who’ve been rejected at the polls can vote on crucial legislation on their way out their door. Many are looking for jobs as lobbyists and have every incentive to trade their vote for a fat paycheck from a future employer.

Congress and the states set out to kill the lame duck with the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, known as “the lame-duck amendment.”

Proponents of the amendment introduced a resolution declaring all members defeated for re-election should abstain from voting on anything but routine legislation in a lame duck. They knew that members who were defeated needed jobs and were open to influence from special interests.

Donald Trump has made opposition to TPP a centerpiece of his campaign. Trump has repeatedly said he will withdraw from the agreement on day one of his presidency, should it be approved.