As Congress debates passing the trade deal which would give President Barack Obama fast-track authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement, a veteran political analyst warns against letting him have that kind of power.
"I'm strongly opposed to this, and I'm appalled at the spectacle that the Republican leadership is trying desperately to give Obama vast new powers," Dick Morris told John Bachman on "Newsmax Now" on
Newsmax TV Wednesday.
"What Obama's planning to do is to take this agreement and put all kinds of stuff into it that's not in there now," he said.
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"They're going to put provisions allowing free flow of labor from Mexico to the U.S. superseding our immigration authority. He's going to put environmental stuff in there so that he can do cap and trade and climate change," Morris told Newsmax.
"The whole goal of this is to create a mechanism that supersedes the sovereignty of the United States government," he contends. "This is not about trade."
The Senate passed the fast-track trade deal on Friday by a vote of 62-37. The measure has more support from Republicans than Democrats, and many said they wouldn't support it without a provision that would rein in currency manipulation. They also are concerned that it will hurt American jobs. Trade groups have lobbied against it for the same reason.
When it passed on Friday, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch called the deal "an historic piece of legislation ... likely the most important bill we'll pass this year."
According to Morris, "it's dressed up as a trade agreement to cash in on the Republicans' support for free trade."
He said the trade deal "is a method of the international globalist bureaucrats regulating the United States and the states' legislatures."
For example, Morris said, "if some state says you can't sell genetically modified food without labeling it as such, some international company can sue and get that overturned as a trade barrier, and that's the whole name of this game — disempower Congress, disempower the states, and disempower the American government."
"Now, it's clear why Obama supports this because he's anti-American, but what are the Republicans doing supporting this? They're obviously bought and paid for by a lot of these multinational companies, but it makes no political sense to me," Morris said.
While the veteran political analyst says he wouldn't be so concerned about this type of deal under a different president, he doesn't trust Obama.
"I have no problem with giving any of the predecessors to Obama this kind of fast-track authority because they've never abused their authority, but to give this president more power is like letting a lion out of his cage," Morris said.
"The next president isn't going to go around assuming these powers. No other president's done this," he explained.
"This president is unique in overriding, overruling, and overcoming the checks and balances built into our Constitution," he said.
"Just take the simple fact that the Constitution says treaties have to be ratified by two-thirds of the majority. This changes it to a majority. You don't need two-thirds anymore," Morris added.
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