House GOP split jeopardizes trade deal

[cali]

Democrats in Congress are in open warfare with President Barack Obama over his pitch for fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals, but conservative dissenters are conducting their fight quietly behind closed doors — even though they may be the key to approving the deal.

So far, about 40 to 45 of the 245 House Republicans, most of them in the far-right wing, are hard “nos” on a bill their own party leaders support as fervently as Obama, according to the independent assessments of three House aides. If they are able to boost their numbers by even a handful of votes, it would imperil the legislation, which passed the Senate late Friday, because Democrats are expected to provide at most 25 “yeas” toward the 217 votes needed for passage.


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“Many House Republicans are growing increasingly concerned about the Senate bill,” a House Republican aide told POLITICO. “Now, not only do they need to decide whether this TPA is good, but if it’s also worth the price” of the retraining program.

Heritage President Jim DeMint had harsh words for Trade Adjustment Assistance in an op-ed in The Heritage Foundation’s news site, The Daily Signal.

“Free trade is certainly a good thing,” DeMint wrote. “But some liberals in Congress who are less than enthusiastic about free trade insisted that Trade Promotion Authority only be passed if it is accompanied by a reauthorization of the Trade Adjustment Assistance program.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/05/house-gop-split-jeopardizes-trade-deal-118270.html#ixzz3bFoszAnk

[pampango]

1. "Rick Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government and a staunch critic of Obama’s trade

agenda, also assessed the current votes against fast-track at about 45 to 50. He said he isn’t surprised that conservative opposition to the bill puts them in agreement with their Democratic colleagues on such things as currency manipulation, the transparency of the administration’s massive Asia-Pacific deal and the protection U.S. jobs from predatory foreign practices.

“Having a trade deal that’s unfair to America is not a partisan issue. It’s a universal concern,” Manning said. “[That] nobody can figure out what the heck’s in it is not a partisan concern.”

Which side the undecided Republicans take will soon become clearer, now that the Senate has spoken. But the product that left the upper chamber could pose problems for House conservatives. To appease Democrats, Senate leaders agreed to pair the fast-track bill with Trade Adjustment Assistance, a retraining program for workers displaced by trade deals that most Republican members dislike.

“Many House Republicans are growing increasingly concerned about the Senate bill,” a House Republican aide told POLITICO. “Now, not only do they need to decide whether this TPA is good, but if it’s also worth the price” of the retraining program.

Thanks for posting this article, cali. Lots of interesting news in it.

[cali]

2. strange bedfellows.

[MisterP]

3. so what'll the blastfax be on this one: "far left and far right come together against

REAL progressives--again" or "with 200 GOP votes and under 25 Democrats, it's clear that the Dems love this bill and Republicans hate it: just look at the numbers"?