The Senate voted to give Obama “fast track” powers to passing the “Trans Pacific Partnership Bill” on Friday with a vote of 62 to 37.
On a day we celebrate those who have fallen to protect our individual liberties, I find it extremely concerning that our Senate would pass a bill-now headed to the House that completely shuts out WE THE PEOPLE!
What is the TPP? In short it is a bill that gives Obama accelerated authority to enter into a trade agreement with Pacific Rim countries -known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Sounds harmless right? I mean why am I flipping out over this?
Well, for starters WE THE PEOPLE are not allowed to know anything about it-that’s right ……did I time warp to the USSR!???
“For any senator who wants to study the draft TPP language, it has been made available in the basement of the Capitol, inside a secure, soundproof room. There, lawmakers surrender their cellphones and other mobile devices. Any notes taken inside the room must be left in the room.” NPR.org. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat??? So wait a minute a Senator, who is to represent WE THE PEOPLE, can’t tell WE THE PEOPLE what’s in the Bill that they have now decided to pass???
This bill also includes TPA: Trade Promotion Authority which says Obama can submit a trade deal to Congress for an up or down vote with limited debate AND Congress can’t amend it, taking power away from Congress is taking power away from YOU and ME!
The Obama administration is keeping the information of the Bill in total secret, and prohibiting ANY discussion of the bill. Obama then is asking those that are critics of the Bill (Democrat Elizabeth Warren-who proposed a bill to disclose the info in the TPP to the public so that WE THE PEOPLE can know what’s in it, fyi: which was rejected) to name specifics of why they are critics of it………….ummmm hello, they can’t name specifics because they are being prohibited to speak specifically about it! Honestly!!! Have I entered Communist China??? Have I…..is this all a horrible dream??
Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio said: “There is more access in most cases to CIA and Defense Department and Iran sanctions documents — better access to congressional staff and others — than for this trade agreement.”
This isn’t a partisan issue….this isn’t Republicans vs Democrats issue here….this is a violation of the Americans Rights to transparency!
Please…..for the love, don’t tell me that you trust our government to make the right call here!
I don’t care if this bill is about picking apples off an apple tree-WE THE PEOPLE should KNOW WHAT’S IN IT!!!!
For your info, these are the guys in the Senate that voted to give Obama MORE power and voted FOR the Trade Bill…..huh….I wonder what the House will do??
Conservative Momma 
This was passed primarily by the GOP majority as being “pro-business” legislation, so I’m guessing the House will vote in a similar fashion.
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It’s sad that there are “buzz” words like “pro-business” “big corp” “anti-union” that cause our elected officials to vote a particular way. This is about transparency and the total disregard for the American people.
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Looking at the list above (thank you for providing that) I see the Democratic senator from my state voted against and the Republican voted for it. I never thought I would see the day that I agreed with our longtime left wing senator. The fact that this administration won’t disclose the contents of the agreement seems proof enough to me that there are problems with it and it WON’T benefit the people of the United States.
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“Gotta pass it to see what’s in it”-ughhh the lack of transparency is baffling! We the people have a right to know! Thank you for reading! 🙂
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