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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

The Pacific Trade Agreement

It's rather funny that the Pacific Trade Agreement may go down to defeat in the Senate because president Obama cannot get his fellow Democrats to grant him fast track powers to negotiate the final treaty.  Obama, of course, was strongly against trade agreements when he was in the Senate; only once he became president did he change his position.  Now, it is Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats who are trying to block progress on the Pacific trade bill.  One has to wonder where Obama is in all this.  Can't he get even 20% of the senate Democrats to vote for cloture so that the trade bill can be considered?

Over the last six years, Harry Reid and the Democrats prevented most measures from coming to a vote in the senate.  Reid protected Obama from having to issue vetoes by blocking almost every controversial measure.  At the same time, Reid and the media blamed the Republicans for there being no action in the senate.  Now we have proof that those claims were false.  Since the GOP took control of the Senate, there have been a whole series of measures passed, many with bipartisan support.  Clearly, it was Reid who had been the roadblock during the previous six years.  Now we can watch as Reid tries to block the trade bill, this time in direct opposition to Obama.

Reid's conduct is disgusting, but it is not as bad as Obama's.  The president actually is refusing to disclose the text of the draft agreement so that the American people can know what the treaty contains.  No wonder there is so little support for this pact.  In 2008 Obama's slogan was Hope and Change.  Today, the Democrats slogan ought to be "Dishonest and Unethical!"



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