constitution (3)

NEW YORK – As President Obama prepares to deliver his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, powerful groups in the Democratic Party base are organizing to oppose “fast track” authority for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a sweeping free-trade agreement the Obama administration is ready to push through Congress.

On Monday, an impressive group of 564 political analysts from labor, environmental, family-farm and community organizations sent Obama a strongly worded letter to the White House arguing that pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, undermines the president’s message on income inequality.

“President Obama can’t have it both ways,” Arthur Stamoulis, the spokesman for Citizens Trade Campaign, the group organizing the letter, told WND. “Either the president is for reducing income eligibility as we expect he will say in the State of the Union address, or he can push for fast-track legislation on the job-destroying TPP free-trade agreement. He can’t have it both ways.”

Jerome Corsi’s “Late Great USA” uncovers government deceptions that threaten U.S. sovereignty

The TPP is the first part of a two-ocean globalist plan the Obama administration is working quietly to put into place. The aim is to follow up the passage of the TPP with the finalization of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the United States and the European Union.

As WND reported, Obama announced in his 2013 State of the Union address the plan to add the trans-Pacific free-trade agreement to the trans-Atlantic agreement already in place.

“Fast-track” authority would allow the Obama administration to ram the TPP through Congress with a simple majority vote. The rules would limit debate so that no amendments could be introduced to modify the language of the agreement the Obama administration has negotiated behind closed doors.

Meanwhile, the power of the punch the Citizens Trade Campaign plans to deliver the White House can be seen by the letter’s signatories.

They include labor unions such as the AFL-CIO; American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME); American Federation of Teachers; International Brotherhood of Teamsters; United Autoworkers (UAW); United Brotherhood of Carpenters; United Steelworkers (USW); and Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Among the environmental organizations are 350.org, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, League of Conservation Voters, National Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Rainforest Action Network and the Sierra Club.

Family farm organizations include the National Family Farm Coalition, National Farmers Union and the Western Organization of Resource Councils. Consumer groups include Food & Water Watch, Organic Consumers Association, National Consumers League and Public Citizen.

“Income inequality and long-term unemployment are serious problems that the job-killing TPP would only worsen,” Stamoulis said.

He said calling for fast-track authority in the State of the Union address Tuesday night “would undercut positive proposals to battle growing income inequality and create middle class jobs which are expected to be the central focus of the president’s speech.”

“As short-sighted as such a call would be, even more short-sighted would be for Congress members on either side of the aisle to answer it, as they’re the ones who would be dealing with the political repercussions this November,” Stamoulis said.

On Wednesday, another group opposed to TPP, the U.S. Business & Industry Council, plans to deliver the second punch in the one-two punch act by following up the State of the Union address with a national press conference revealing the results of a bipartisan national poll on TPP.

In an unusual move, two pollsters that usually do not work together, Democratic pollster Gary Molyneux of Hart Research and Republican pollster Bob Carpenter of Chesapeake Beach Consulting, have collaborated to take the poll and report the results.

While Eden Gorden, spokeswoman for the U.S. Business & Industry Council, would not say in advance precisely what the poll results will show, it’s likely that the majority of responders would oppose the TPP as a job-killing measure. Critics charge the Obama administration negotiated it in secret and is now trying to rush it through Congress before the American public finds out how the trade measure compromises U.S. sovereignty.

On Jan. 14, WND reported Republicans in the House are preparing to follow the lead of the White House and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to rubber-stamp the TPP, the most sweeping free-trade agreement since NAFTA.

On Jan. 9, in a little-noticed statement, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont, together with ranking member Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Mich., announced they were introducing “fast track” trade promotion authority.

The last line of congressional resistance to TPP appears to be coming from House Democrats concerned that more U.S. union jobs will be lost in the free-trade “fast track” steamroller Republicans under Boehner and Democrats aligning with Reid plan to run through Congress.

Last year, 151 House Democrats, led by Representatives Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., and George Miller, D-Calif., opposed to TPP wrote a letter to President Obama stating their opposition to using “outdated ‘Fast Track’ procedures that usurp Congress’s authority over trade matters.”

With Boehner’s decision to support Obama on TPP, the Republican Party appears ready to ignore concerns raised by GOP conservatives and various tea-party groups that the 12-nation deal further undermines U.S. sovereignty. The opponents argue it places major sectors of the U.S. economy under a new dispute-regulation mechanism that takes precedence over U.S. judges and courts.

As WND has reported, “fast track authority,” a provision under the Trade Promotion Authority also has the function of reassuring foreign partners that the FTA negotiated by the executive branch will not be altered by Congress during the legislative process.

In his 2013 State of the Union address, Obama declared that to “boost American exports, support American jobs and level the playing field in the growing markets of Asia, we intend to complete negotiations on a Trans-Pacific Partnership.”

“And tonight,” he said, “I’m announcing that we will launch talks on a comprehensive Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with the European Union – because trade that is fair and free across the Atlantic supports millions of good-paying American jobs.”

The promise of creating new jobs drew congressional applause despite legitimate concerns that previous trade agreements, including NAFTA and U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization, have resulted in the loss of millions of high-salary U.S. jobs to nations with less expensive job markets.

The 12 nations involved in the TPP are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Vietnam and the United States.

 

Read more at http://mobile.wnd.com/2014/01/democrats-scramble-to-block-new-world-order/#vIUGpstMDfZkpJZ3.99

Read more…

Feb. 22, 2012

As a variety of names are now being floated for presidential running mates, Republican candidate Ron Paul says ousted Fox News host Judge Andrew Napolitano might be at the top of his list.

Paul was asked the question about whom he would like on a White House ticket with him at a recent public meeting, and he said, “One time somebody asked me who I’d have to consider and the name Judge Napolitano jumps right out at me.”

While the audience erupted with cheers of approval, Paul continued: “But when you think about the danger of mentioning one or two means you’re not going to mention quite a few others that would certainly be qualified. That’s a great story, you know, the fact that there are a lot of people now that are well-known and well-educated and know the issues and would do a very good job.”

Napolitano’s “Freedom Watch” show was recently canceled by the Fox Business Channel, but during numerous on-air segments, Napolitano had frequent flattering remarks about Paul, while criticizing other presidential hopefuls including former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

“There is a hunger in the land for a game changer, and Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are not up to that,” Napolitano said in early January. “There is a need in the country for a government that stays within the confines of the Constitution, or we’ll all end up like the socialists in Europe, and Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are not up to that. There is a rumbling in the countryside that the government should shrink and live within its means, and Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are not gonna make that happen.”

With a giant photo of Paul on the screen behind him, Napolitano said, “Only one man remains faithful to the principles of free market and small government, to the Constitution and to personal freedom, to defending the nation without being the world’s police force. Only one. You know who he is.”

Judge Andrew Napolitano examines the concept the government hates and fears the most: Freedom. Read the judge’s new book, “It Is Dangerous to Be Right When the Government Is Wrong.”

On another program this month, Napolitano asked, “What if Ron Paul is being ignored by the media not because, as he claims, he’s unappealing or unelectable, but because he doesn’t fit into the premanufactured, public-opinion mold used by the establishment to pigeon-hole the electorate, and create the so-called narrative that drives media coverage of elections?”

On the same show, the judge noted, “What if Rick Santorum is being embraced by voters who want small government, even though Senator Santorum voted for the Patriot Act, for an expansion of Medicare and for raising the debt ceiling by trillions of dollars? What if Mitt Romney is being embraced by voters who want anyone but Barack Obama, but they don’t realize that Mitt Romney might as well be Barack Obama on everything from warfare to welfare?”

Napolitano’s support for Paul is not new.

In a 2007 speech, the judge had more praise, saying, “The Thomas Jefferson of our day, Ron Paul, is one of us!”

While Paul considers his running-mate options, WND reported yesterday on a new national poll of Republicans and independents revealing Florida U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio is the top choice for the vice-presidential slot on the GOP ticket this year, despite his avowed non-interest and the fact he may not even be constitutionally eligible to hold the office, since his parents were not U.S. citizens when he was born, raising doubt about his natural-born citizenship.

The national survey of 800 registered voters by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind shows Rubio receiving 66 mentions, more than 8 percent of the time, followed by Santorum, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and, surprisingly, Democrat Hillary Clinton.

VIEW THESE VIDEOS

http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/fox-news-star-to-be-ron-pauls-vp/print/

Read more…

Blog Topics by Tags

Monthly Archives