Obama turns to his base for trade support

[BlueCaliDem]

44. "Fast Track" means that Congress has a full 90 days to review and either

vote down or up the final agreement (House gets 60 days, Senate gets another 30 days = 90 days in total). It does NOT mean that Congress gives the president a "blank-check" and that whatever he agrees on is set in stone. They can still vote it DOWN.

"Fast Track" or Trade Promotion Authority, simply gives the president the credibility and authority to negotiate with other countries in good faith, aiming for the best deal possible for the United States, and it keeps Congress from bogging the deal down with countless amendments and new rules.

Without fast track, Congress can kill (and with the current crop of majorities in Congress, they will kill any bill that seeks to change NAFTA) and will have the power to renegotiate any trade deals already negotiated by the president and accepted by our global partners and, as stated above, insert their own "demands".

For example, let's say that Congress decides not to vote on the Trade Promotion Authority (fast track) and decides to renegotiate in order to insert a global gag-rule on abortions?

Or what if Congress decides to force other countries to acknowledge the United States' right to buy drugs for our (barbaric) Death Penalty killings - something other countries abhor, by the way - and demand that they be supplied those drugs again?

Remember...international pharmaceutical companies have banned the sale of drugs used for lethal injection to the United States since those drugs were manufactured to heal not kill people.

With this crop of "majority" in both the Senate and House, the sky's the limit with what they can do with that power. The Republican-controlled Senate can't even vote for the president's new attorney general, yet we're supposed to believe they can renegotiate international trade agreements in good faith?