Sessions Rips Trade Bill Trickery

While President Obama and House Speaker Paul Ryan are in cahoots to impose the unpopular Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal on an unreceptive public, Sen. Jeff Sessions is speaking up for average Americans who don’t wish to see jobs disappear from Main Street just so profits can rise on Wall Street — at the expense of national sovereignty, no less.

“I am firmly opposed to this agreement,” Sessions said in an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Monday afternoon. “I believe it is bad for our country and it bothers me that if it’s such a good deal, why don’t they bring it forward? Why don’t we have a debate here, while elections are on? Why aren’t people willing to go home and explain to their constituents how and why they voted the way they did, and why and how they believe the way they do?”

[lz_third_party includes=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rT5svvp9T8″]

Sessions noted Obama’s statement in Hamburg that “after the primary season is over the politics settle down a little bit in Congress … we’ll be in a position to start moving forward” on passing the TPP. “I would suggest that the American people should be very uneasy about their president making such a statement as that,” Sessions said.

He stressed that the very fact that Obama feels it necessary to wait until after election season to pass the TPP proves that “the American people are uneasy about it … support for it is sinking, elections are turning on it, and it does not need to become law.”

“Support for it is sinking, elections are turning on it, and it does not need to become law.”

[lz_table title=”Support for the TPP” source=”Caddell & Associates”]Republicans
Oppose,66%
Support,15%
|Independents
Oppose,52%
Support,19%
|Democrats
Oppose,44%
Support,30%
|Overall
Oppose,53%
Support,23%
[/lz_table]

The special interests that stand to benefit from the TPP are “fundamentally saying” to Congress that “‘we’ll have this trade agreement, but we understand you probably shouldn’t do it right now while elections are going on because … they might vote you out of office, so we’ll see if we can’t work up a way to pass it sometime in the future,'” Sessions said.

Obama’s words in Germany made it “clear he intends to continue to push through this 5,544 page trade agreement that the American people don’t want,” Sessions said.

It’s not difficult to see why Americans don’t want the TPP. Sessions noted that even the Obama administration’s “own report and study which they cite the most [predicts] that signing the agreement will decrease the rate of American manufacturing jobs by 120,000.”

“Signing the agreement will decrease the rate of American manufacturing jobs by 120,000.”

Sessions also cited a study by Tufts University which predicted that the country would lose 400,000 jobs. Another study by the pro-TPP Peterson Institute for International Economics estimated that around 800,000 American jobs will be lost due the TPP.

[lz_table title=”Americans’ Attitudes on Free Trade” source=”Caddell & Associates”]Trade policies should always put American needs and American jobs first
Agree,75%
Disagree,13%
|Free trade agreements signed by US in last 20 years were:
More beneficial to other countries,63%
More beneficial for US,12%
|Protecting US jobs more important than allowing free trade
Agree,82%
Disagree,18%
[/lz_table]

Americans have become increasingly disillusioned with free trade deals, recognizing that — despite the name — they come at a significant cost to the country. A 2015 poll survey performed by Caddell & Associates on behalf of Americans for Limited Government found that majorities of Republicans and independents opposed the TPP, and that more Democrats are opposed to the deal than are in favor.

The survey also found that a majority of Americans across the board are more likely to vote for an anti-TPP, protectionist candidate and that significant majorities of Americans believe that trade policies should always put American needs and American jobs first — that protecting US jobs is more important than allowing free trade.

“Who’s right here?” asked Sessions. “The American people, who are worried about their jobs, their wages, their incomes — or the experts who promise all these grand things if we would just sign these agreements.”