Senate leaders appear to have
found a compromise on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal that could sway enough Democrats to give President Obama fast-track negotiating authority and strip Congress of the ability to amend the deal once it's inked. At that point, Congress would only be able to take an up or down vote. Mitch McConnell can't wait to green light the so-called Trade Promotion Authority, or fast-track, which will stay in effect for six years. But he isn't voting to empower President Obama, he's voting to arm a potential future Republican president with the tools to dismantle financial reforms. Here's what McConnell
said Wednesday in an interview:
“If we had a Republican president right now, not a single Democrat would vote for Trade Promotion Authority. So what I’ve said to my members, if we want the next Republican president—who we hope will be sworn in less than two years from now—to have a chance to do trade agreements with the rest of the world, this bill is about that president as well as this one.”
As we've noted
here before, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) has been pointing out just how problematic extending that power that could be.
“In the next few weeks, Congress will decide whether to give the President Fast Track authority. That authority would prevent Congress from amending trade deals and reduce its ability to block trade deals — not just for the upcoming transpacific trade deal, but for ANY trade deal cut by ANY president over the next six years…
“This is a long-term problem — a six-year problem, if Fast Track passes. A Republican President could easily use a future trade deal to override our domestic financial rules. And this is hardly a hypothetical possibility: We are already deep into negotiations with the European Union on a trade agreement and big banks on both sides of the Atlantic are gearing up to use that agreement to water down financial regulations. A six-year Fast Track bill is the missing link they need to make that happen.”