Fast-Tracking America's Economic Destruction

Howard Richman, Raymond Richman and Jesse Richman

Last week’s congressional committee votes to give President Obama “Fast Track” negotiating power may go down in economic history as among the most self-destructive ever.  The leaders of the Republican Party betrayed their voters, may have destroyed their own political careers, and may have even destroyed America’s economic future.

In the 2010 and 2014 elections, American voters gave Republican leaders majorities in first the House and then the Senate so that they could stop President Obama’s agenda.  But instead of stopping him, the Republican leadership decided to give him more power.  Republican leaders are determined to advance Obama’s fast-track agenda despite deep opposition by their base.  According to a recent poll:

Two-thirds (68%) of Republicans say they are less likely to vote for a Member of Congress who votes to give President Obama fast-track authority. Among the conservative Republicans who dominate many primary electorates, this figure is an extraordinary 74%.

Some Tea Party groups speak for these voters.  At a recent Capitol Hill Press Conference, Richard Manning of Americans for Limited Government called on Congress to “not cede any additional authority to a president who has spent the past six years shredding the constitutional separation of powers.”  Similarly, Niger Innis of TheTeaParty.net said that Fast Track would be “a monumental failure of congressional Republicans to understand the nature of the president’s fundamental transformation of America.”

Misrepresenting Trade Statistics

Supporters of fast track are selling it with the same lies that were used to sell previous bad deals.  In an April 22 commentary, Representative Paul Ryan and Senator Ted Cruz claimed that Fast Track would produce jobs by reducing America’s huge trade deficits.  They are wrong, as the history of previous trade agreements shows.  They wrote:

The American worker can compete with anybody, if given a fair chance.  If you add up all 20 countries that the U.S. has a trade agreement with, American manufacturers run a $50 billion trade surplus with them.  The problem is that not all countries have a trade agreement with the U.S.: American manufacturers run a $500 billion trade deficit with those nations.

Their $50-billion surplus number is deeply deceptive.   It involves selecting some goods exports and imports while excluding others.  A complete measure of the balance of trade for all goods indicates that the U.S. ran a deficit of 61.7 billion dollars in 2014 with our Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners.

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http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/05/fasttracking_americas_economic_destruction.html#ixzz3Z65EXV00