Walker: Wrong on TPA

Washington DC  is in heavy flux right now over a fast-track international trade bill, otherwise known as  Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which President Obama and even leading Republicans, both conservative and liberal, have promoted.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has added his support for trade promotion authority, which would permit the President to negotiate trade deals with other countries, then present the final contract before the Senate based on an up-or-down vote.

 

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (TheConservativeTreehouse.com)

 

There are two major problems with this proposal, enough that interests throughout the country, left and right, big and small, business and labor, oppose this deal.

Transparency is gone. We the People have no knowledge of the deal’s intricacies. Congressman Paul  Ryan (R-WI) began parroting House minority leader Nancy Pelosi: “We have to pass it so that you can see what’s in it.”

That legislative rationale is immoral, offensive, and wrong. No one signs a contract before reading the fine print. Federal representatives should abide by the same standard. No President should have neither initial nor final authority on the specific terms or the general elements of any treaty.

The greater shame, however, rests in Congressional leaders’ insouciance about surrendering more of its power to executive action. George Washington had to wait for days before the US Senate ratified a treaty with an allied foreign power. This fast-track agreement could open up commercial and military entanglements with suspect or even rogue states.

Governor Walker is wrong about TPA. As a potential presidential contender, he should respect Congressional legislative supremacy.