An open letter to our reps

[Fay Dickson-- AKA doofs]

  Speaker Boehner and other House GOP's are making a big mistake on  Presidential authority. I would think they've had enough of President  Obama exceeding his legal 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 power unlawfully. Obama has repeatedly granted  waivers, exceptions, and delays to groups from laws without any  Constitutional authority, such as welfare reform and ObamaCare.    The latest example of Speaker 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 had 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.    We know how Fast Track works because we had it when we joined NAFTA.  Among NAFTA's obnoxious provisions was allowing the President to appoint  700 industry advisers for the trade negotiations who were given access  to confidential negotiating documents that are denied to Congress and  the U.S. public. Obama is pressing hard for the immediate passage of  more Fast Track "authority" so he will have a free hand in making deals  with other countries. 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 Republicans" if they induce us  to pass another trade treaty that creates jobs only in other countries.  For example, Obama promised that our free-trade deal with Korea (KORUS  FTA) would be a major U.S.-job creator. That was a lie: after KORUS went  into effect, sales of U.S. goods to Korea fell 17% (costing 40,000 U.S.  jobs), and imports rose 18%, so KORUS was a jobs-creator in Korea, not  the United States.    In his campaign, Obama promised to eliminate or reform NAFTA-type trade  models, but has now made them a major part of his agenda. That shift is  probably because of the other provisions of the trade agreements that  nobody knows about until after they are locked into U.S. law. And that's  because if Congress and the People knew about them, they would object to  them. As an example, some of the eleven TPP countries are notorious for  their persecution of Christians, including Brunei, Malaysia, and  Vietnam. Brunei, for example, where current negotiations are now going  on in secret, has a Constitution that states: “The religion of Brunei  Darussalam shall be the Muslim religion,” which means Islamic Sharia law  supersedes all other law and regulates all aspects of life. Christians  and their clergy are harassed at every turn in Brunei, Malaysia, and  Vietnam. Spies attend nearly every Christian gathering.    Brunei ranks 28th on the Open Doors Annual World Watch List of 50  nations where Christians suffer the most persecution for their faith by  Muslim governments. Brunei forbids the importation of bibles and all  non-Islamic texts or symbols, yet Obama has the gall to tell us TPP is  “free trade” and that we should give him extraordinary powers under Fast  Track. According to Public Citizen’s Global Trade Watch, 24 of the 29  chapters of TPP are not even about trade, but rewrite our own U.S.  domestic policies. These chapters include provisions about the  environment, health, food safety, and internet freedom protections, and  even give corporations inappropriate privileges that impinge on  Constitutionally granted federal, state, and local government authority.    I'm all in favor of free trade, as it increases world GNP via the  mechanism of comparative advantage. But I am strongly against trade  policies that weaken U.S. employment prospects to the unfair and  "rigged" advantage of trading "partners," as well as trade agreements  that enrich and promote the image of brutal dictatorships. Truly free  trade benefits all parties involved, not just U.S. corporations and  foreign dictatorships, but also U.S. labor. Further, we should be  holding trade agreements back from brutal dictatorships as an inducement  to get them to change their internal policies, not rewarding them with  the increased tax revenue that free trade brings. Finally, the President  should not be granted virtual "fiat powers" in regard to trade  decisions; all treaties, including trade agreements, should involve full  participation of Congress, including adequate time for full  Congressional debate, and the opportunity for members of Congress to  offer Amendments for consideration.    Please do not allow Speaker Boehner and his cadre of House GOP followers  to gut the rightful and Constitutional authority of Congress to fully  participate in the design and implementation of U.S. trade policies.    Sincerely,                                         This was written by a fellow sodahead.  I copy and use all of his letters for my reps.  I'm positive he would not be upset if you all did the same