URGENT: Huizenga Strongly Pushing Secret, Shady #Obamatrade Bill As Battle Continues

 

By Brandon Hall
(Email him at WestMiPolitics@Gmail.com)

Congressman Bill Huizenga has taken to Facebook this week to vigorously defend and promote the shady, secret "Obamatrade" bills that continue to generate controversy. Though one of the bills was defeated overwhelmingly Friday (302 NAY, 126 YEA), it will be brought up for a vote again as soon as Monday after a weekend of arm twisting House Dems by President Obama.... (The President already knows he can count on Huizenga, but Rep. Justin Amash won't get a "thank you" call anytime soon: Amash voted against the bill and is a staunch opponent of Obamatrade.)

What are they HIDING?! What is going on? According to Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama:

"It appears there will be another attempt by Tuesday to force through new executive powers for President Obama. A vote for TAA next week is a vote to send fast-track to the President’s desk and to grant him these broad new executive authorities. If that happens, it will empower the President to form a Pacific Union encompassing 40 percent of the world’s economy and 12 nations—each with one equal vote.

Once the union is formed, foreign bureaucrats will be required to meet regularly to write the Commission’s rules, regulations, and directives—impacting Americans’ jobs, wages, and sovereignty. The union is chartered with a “Living Agreement,” and there is no doubt it will seek to expand its membership and reach over time. Fast-track will not only apply to the Pacific Union, but can expedite an unlimited number of yet-unseen international compacts for six years. There are already plans to advance through fast-track the Trade in Services Agreement, the goal of which includes labor mobility among more than 50 nations, further eroding the ability of the American people to control their own affairs."

Before voting for the bill that was resoundingly defeated Friday, Huizenga posted: "TPA empowers Congress, not the President on trade. There is an incredible amount of misinformation being spread across the airwaves and the internet regarding TPA."

Constituents didn't buy it...

• Derek Gray Yup...Obama wants this so bad because it empowers congress. You are a liar and your entire district is starting to realize that. Passing "fast track" hands over Congress's power to the President and will 100% ensure that this is passed with a rubber stamp. A vote for this is a vote for increased Executive Branch power and is a dereliction of your duties.
• 
• Marcia Perry Please vote NO on TPP. Not to is to betray your constituency. Agreeing to secretive pacts is NOT how you represent the well-being of citizens. In what ways does this document protect the safety and health of workers? Why has it been crafted by multi-national corporate interests? Where are the consumer protections? Have you read and studied the bill personally?

  
  
• 
• Rep. Bill Huizenga There is no vote scheduled for TPP
• 
• Chuck Bates Rep. Bill Huizenga you seem to have missed this part of Marcia's question. Have you read and studied the bill personally?

  
  
• 
Rep. Bill Huizenga Chuck, There is no TPP bill. The negotiations are on going.

 

In another post, Huizenga wrote: "There is a lot of misinformation floating around these days regarding a potential bill the House is considering. Here is what you need to know about TPA (Trade Promotion Authority) and how it reins in the President and puts American workers first."

He then attached the following picture:



An interesting discussion involving the Congressman then ensued:

• Derek Gray You are a liar.

  
  
• 
• David Ressler Sounds like RINO crap. Publish the bill before voting on it. Just more RINO sellout BS

  
  
• 
• Rep. Bill Huizenga: David Ressler - the Bill being discussed for a vote this week can be found here: https://www.congress.gov/.../hr1314/BILLS-114hr1314eas.pdf
• 
• David Ressler Yeah, I just read it, sounds like a lot of long winded crap. The BDS of Israel won't get enforced, we will surrender to the Arab block, border taxes, blah, blah blah, and the prez can determine whatever he wants. Don't worry I am sure this will pass
• 
• Chris Tjapkes THAT is NOT the TPA bill. The TPA bill is locked away in a secret room and is 600 pages long?

  
  

  
  

  Write a reply...
• 
  
• 
• Vicki McConnell Stuart Then why is this agreement NOT AVAILABLE for the public to read?
• 
• Rep. Bill Huizenga No agreement currently exists Vicki. TPA, which is coming before the House, makes sure any potential trade deal is open and available for 60 days so everyone can read it. This would be the first time that has ever been done.

  
  
• 
• Vicki McConnell Stuart What then is Obama hiding from everyone?

  
  
• 
• Vicki McConnell Stuart You didn't address my real question of unanswered expanded power in the executive branch. The TPA is your answer to the actual agreement...what is in the actual agreement?

  
  
• 
• Rep. Bill Huizenga There isn't an agreement at this point and time. TPA gives Congress the opportunity to set the objectives for a future trade deal. TPA reins in the President, sets the guidelines for what can be in the agreement and at the end of the day, ensures Congress has a final up or down vote to agree to any trade deal.

  
  
• 
• Vicki McConnell Stuart Then what is Obama hiding that slipped out in Wikileaks?

  
  
• 
• Dennis B Murphy Oh quit with the paranoid anti Obama nutjob posts. Jeez give it a rest. This type of trade agreement would be managed the same way regardless of who was President

  
  
• 
• Busta-Randall Huffman so why is there bipartison opposition?
• 
• Vicki McConnell Stuart Then why is it not transparent for ALL to see? You keep on living in that rainbow bubble.
• 
• Vicki McConnell Stuart I find people who don't know what they're talking about, nor do they care to find out are the ones who name call. Amazing how the "tolerant" among us aren't so tolerant if you don't parrot their views. So Dennis B Murphy...enlighten me in the error of my ways...please...

  
  
• 
• David Ressler Just some RINO BS
• 
Why would President Obama promote a bill that "reins in the president'. We have seen nothing but him trying to expand executive power.
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In another post, Huizenga posted an article making the "conservative case" for Obamatrade... Here is some of the reaction:

• Derek Gray Handing over power to the president that is reserved in the Constitution for Congress. You sir are a liar and a joke. I'm still waiting for you to once vote against the Federal government taking yet another unconstitutional grab of power....I'll keep waiting.

  
  
• 
• Randy Buist Do you realize some of these nations actually still allow slavery to take place within their borders? They do. You know it. It matters not... keep it up Mr. Huizenga. Someday there will be justice... it rolls down like a mighty water. Holland Christian High teaches such...

  
  
• 
Vicki McConnell Stuart Have you been to the secret bunker to view this document yet...without your smart devices & with a monitor? Of course the Congress people receiving $$ from employers of high volume labor want this...for the cheap labor. Unfortunately you give the POTUS unchecked power to bind this country further...possibly infringing our Constitutional rights. And since you quote Paul Ryan...did you hear him say..."we have to pass it to see what's in it..." Are you really selling this? Are you now on the Pelosi propaganda train? After the debacle that is Obamacare?

 

Senator Rand Paul said in a Facebook statement that "I've got concerns about voting on any bill that's kept in secret and hidden from the American people."

His full quote:

"To me it's common sense: Members of Congress should actually read the bills before voting on them.
But in Washington, common sense is often flipped upside down on its head.
And the latest example is the 800-page Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) - President Barack Obama's secretive trade deal.
 
The deal's text is kept hidden in a secret room within the U.S. Capitol, unavailable to the American public.
I'm demanding Barack Obama release the final text of the trade deal IMMEDIATELY before final passage is voted on by Congress.
 
Currently, only members of Congress - and select staff - are allowed to read the deal's text. But we're not allowed to discuss or talk about the contents of the deal outside of the secret room.
And even though most of my colleagues in the Senate admitted they haven't read the text of the bill, many of them recently voted to fast-track it through the Senate. I've got concerns about voting on any bill that's kept in secret and hidden from the American people."

Troubling details about the bill have emerged thanks to WikiLeaks:

According to one article:

""This leak reveals that the Obama administration, acting at the behest of pharmaceutical companies, has subjected Medicare to a series of procedural rules, negotiated in secret, that would limit Congress’ ability to enact policy reforms that would reduce prescription drug costs for Americans – and might even open to challenge aspects of our health care system today,” according to Peter Maybarduk, director of Public Citizen’s Global Access to Medicines Program.

Public Citizen is a watchdog group that has been at the forefront of challenging the TPP in the US.
The annex, which is dated December 17, 2014, expressly names the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services as being covered by the trade agreement...

The Obama administration has been highly secretive, requiring senators and their staffers to have security clearances to read the drafted TPP.

Senator Barbara Boxer was confronted by a guard who told her she could not “take notes” on the trade agreement. The guard insisted the notes would be kept in a file, which made Boxer even more outraged."

>>>>>Full quote from Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama:

It appears there will be another attempt by Tuesday to force through new executive powers for President Obama. A vote for TAA next week is a vote to send fast-track to the President’s desk and to grant him these broad new executive authorities. If that happens, it will empower the President to form a Pacific Union encompassing 40 percent of the world’s economy and 12 nations—each with one equal vote. Once the union is formed, foreign bureaucrats will be required to meet regularly to write the Commission’s rules, regulations, and directives—impacting Americans’ jobs, wages, and sovereignty. The union is chartered with a “Living Agreement,” and there is no doubt it will seek to expand its membership and reach over time.
Fast-track will not only apply to the Pacific Union, but can expedite an unlimited number of yet-unseen international compacts for six years. There are already plans to advance through fast-track the Trade in Services Agreement, the goal of which includes labor mobility among more than 50 nations, further eroding the ability of the American people to control their own affairs.

Americans do not want this, did not ask for it, and are pleading from their hearts for their lawmakers to stop it.

The same people projecting the benefits of leaping into a colossal new economic union could not even accurately predict the impact of a standalone agreement with South Korea. The latter deal, which promised to boost our exports to them $10 billion, instead only budged them less than $1 billion, while South Korea’s imports to us increased more than $12 billion, nearly doubling our trading deficit. This new agreement will only further increase our trading deficit: opening our markets to foreign imports while allowing our trading partners to continue their non-tariff barriers that close their markets to ours.

 If we want a new trade deal with Japan, or with Vietnam, then they should be negotiated bilaterally and sent to Congress under regular order. Under no circumstances should the House authorize, through fast-track, the formation of a new international commission that will regulate not only trade, but immigration, labor, environmental, and all manner of commercial policy.

What American went to the polls in 2014 to vote for fast-track and a new global union? Can anyone honestly say that Congress is trying to ram this deal through because they think their constituents want it?

 While elites dream of a world without borders, voters dream of a world where the politicians they elect put this country’s own citizens first.

The movement among Americans toward a decent, honest populism—toward a refocusing on the needs of American citizens and American interests—grows stronger by the day. Every vote to come before Congress, beginning with the next fast-track push, will face this test: does your plan strengthen or weaken the social and economic position of the loyal, everyday working American?"

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Brandon Hall is a lifelong political nerd from Grand Haven, and is the Managing Editor of West Michigan Politics.
>>>Email him at WestMiPolitics@Gmail.com 

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Photo By Darlene Dowling Thompson