Boehner Republicans Heading for Big Mistake by Phyllis Schlafly September 18, 2013
What in the world is the matter with Boehner Republicans in the U.S. House? Haven’t they had enough of Obama exceeding his presidential authority, disobeying the Constitution by refusing to “take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” and issuing executive regulations to “legislate” what Congress refuses to pass, such as the Dream Act?
We’ve never had a president who so arrogantly grabs and uses such unlawful power. He repeatedly granted waivers or exceptions or delays to groups from laws that gave the president no such authority, such as welfare reform and ObamaCare.
The latest example of Speaker John Boehner’s coziness with Barack Obama is the current plan to give the President a grant of tremendous power, not authorized in the Constitution, called Fast Track. The Constitution gives Congress exclusive authority “to regulate commerce with foreign nations,” but Fast Track would give the president power to sign trade agreements before Congress has an opportunity to vote on them and then unilaterally write legislation making those agreements U.S. federal law.
Fast Track allows the president to send these executive-written bills directly to the House under rules that limit debate, forbid all amendments, and require a vote within a preset time period. In other words, the House cedes to the president its constitutional power to write legislation that regulates commerce with foreign nations . . . Now in the fast lane is a new trade treaty called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with eleven countries: Mexico, Canada, Japan, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Australia, New Zealand, Peru and Chile.
All trade treaties come encrusted with glowing predictions of creating new jobs for Americans, and those promises always turn out to be false. Like the old saying, Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, and it is shame on the Boehner . . . According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade watch, 24 of the 29 chapters of TPP are not really about trade, but rewrite some of our domestic policies. These chapters include provisions about the environment, health, food safety, and internet freedom protections, plus giving corporations expanded privileges over federal, state and local governments. . . ."