THE HIGH COST OF FAST TRACK

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THE HIGH COST OF FAST TRACK

Obama received a thundering rejection to his attempt to make the November Congressional election a referendum on his policies. And the biggest Republican majority elected in more than 60 years promised to bring new life to Congress.

But instead of offering a conservative agenda to the people who elected them, Congress is dallying with a plan to give even more power to Obama. It’s called “fast track” and it’s a scheme to authorize the President to negotiate with officials of foreign governments in secret, and then bring their agreement to Congress for an up-or-down vote within a limited time period, practically without debate or chance for a filibuster.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) let the cat out of the bag when she admitted in a speech this year, “They have to be secret, because if the American people knew what was actually in them, they would be opposed.” So Obama and Congress are expected to cave in to heavy lobbying by Wall Street, multinationals and outsourcers, all of whom have a financial stake in a free-trade deal.

It makes no sense for the Republican Congress to turn unrestricted negotiating power over to a President who has already demonstrated that he has no regard for the rule of law, constitutional restraints, or the separation of powers. The last fast track deal, which gave us the Free Trade Agreement with South Korea, has been a total failure. We were told it would “support 70,000 jobs from increased exports alone,” but U.S. exports to South Korea have actually declined, while imports have risen.

Read more here: http://www.eagleforum.org/publications/column/the-high-cost-of-fast-track.html

 

About Phyllis Schlafly:

Phyllis Schlafly has been a national leader of the conservative movement since the publication of her best-selling 1964 book, A Choice Not An Echo. She has been a leader of the pro-family movement since 1972, when she started her national volunteer organization now called Eagle Forum. In a ten-year battle, Mrs. Schlafly led the pro-family movement to victory over the principal legislative goal of the radical feminists, called the Equal Rights Amendment. An articulate and successful opponent of the radical feminist movement, she appears in debate on college campuses more frequently than any other conservative. She was named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the Ladies’ Home Journal.

Mrs. Schlafly’s monthly newsletter called The Phyllis Schlafly Report is now in its 41st year. Her syndicated column appears in 100 newspapers, her radio commentaries are heard daily on 460 stations, and her radio talk show on education called “Eagle Forum Live” is heard weekly on 45 stations. Both can be heard on the Internet.

Mrs. Schlafly is the author or editor of 20 books on subjects as varied as family and feminism (The Power of the Positive Woman and Feminist Fantasies), nuclear strategy (Strike From Space and Kissinger on the Couch), education (Child Abuse in the Classroom), child care (Who Will Rock the Cradle?), and phonics (First Reader and Turbo Reader). Her most recent book: The Supremacists: The Tyranny of Judges and How to Stop It.

Mrs. Schlafly is a lawyer and served as a member of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution, 1985-1991, appointed by President Reagan. She has testified before more than 50 Congressional and State Legislative committees on constitutional, national defense, and family issues.