Congress is to vote this week on a critical economic matter with almost no debate. Members haven't even seen what they are approving. Their vote will vest nearly 100 percent confidence in President Obama to do the right thing.
Do they really trust him that much?
The bill at hand would give Obama "fast track" authority to negotiate the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement with several other nations.
What nations are those? Obama gets to decide.
Which American industries will the TPP affect? Obama decides that, too.
Will the TPP override existing federal, state and local laws? You guessed it — Obama makes the call.
The weird part of this is that Republicans are leading the charge to write Obama this blank check.
The very same Republicans who won't trust Obama to negotiate with Iran and who are suing him for immigration executive orders are falling all over themselves to let him restructure the entire global economy and admit millions more "temporary" immigrants.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., are the GOP ringleaders. Both are reliably conservative in many respects. Yet now they suddenly have 100 percent confidence in Obama. Why?
Do you remember the fight over Obamacare? Back then, Hatch and Ryan trusted Obama about as far as they could throw him. Would they have voted to let Obama design whatever healthcare system he thought was best?
Of course not. The idea is absurd.
Economically, the TPP is even more important than Obamacare is. It is a rerun of NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. That agreement shipped millions of American jobs overseas and drew millions of Mexicans across the Rio Grande. Most are still here, too.
Do we really want to do that again? TPP reportedly allows Obama to grant "temporary entry" visas to workers from other member nations. You can bet he'll do it, too, and they won't be "temporary."
Advocates say the TPP is about free trade. That is not correct.
If free trade were the goal, we would not need a huge document and secret negotiations. All it would take is a few sentences: "Countries A, B and C agree not to impose tariffs on trade between themselves."
Like NAFTA, the TPP is SELECTIVE free trade at best. Obama wants a free hand so he can reward some parties and punish others.
Again, get this crystal clear in your head. Under Fast Track, Obama will decide who TPP will reward and punish.
Whether TPP is a good agreement isn't the question. No one knows if it is good or not because we haven't seen the full text. Even Hatch and Ryan haven't seen it. Yet they have total confidence that whatever Obama decides will be great for America.
Do you have that much confidence in Obama? I don't.
Hatch and Ryan didn't, either, until very recently. Someone should ask them what changed.