Hidden Parts Of Obama Crap Trade Bill. Have Republicans Lost Their Minds?

FLASH: House GOP Leaders To Sneak Obamatrade Tax Increase Into Intel Bill Rule

• Intelligence Authorization Bill
 
• TAA
 
• TPA
 
• Trade Adjustment Assistance
 
• Trade Promotion Authority

CHQ Staff

In an indication of just how desperate the Republican establishment and their Big Business paymasters are to revive the package of fast track Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) and Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) bills that went down last week, the House Rules Committee slipped the rule for reconsideration of the failed TAA bill into the rule for H.R. 2596, the Fiscal Year 2016 Intelligence Authorization bill.
Along with the National Defense Authorization bill, the Intel Authorization bill is considered to be one of the “must pass” bills of each legislative year.
According to the existing Rules, the Motion to Reconsider the vote on the failed TAA bill should take place today, June 16. The new rule would let the Motion to Reconsider vote on TAA be postponed through legislative day of July 30, according to a Rules Committee release.
If the House adopts the new rule, that would give the White House until end of July to build Democratic support for trade legislation that was stymied in House last week, according to Bloomberg Government reporter Jaclyn Kochell.
House Democrats opposed the trade assistance component of the two bill package as way of killing entire trade package, including fast-track authority sought by President Obama.
“We remain committed to getting TPA done, and this will give the president more time to communicate the consequences of not moving forward with his party,” said Kevin Smith, a spokesperson for House Speaker John Boehner, reports Kochell.
While Speaker Boehner would like to keep the heat on the Democrats to come up with the votes to pass the trade package, and ultimately pass Obama’s secret Trans-Pacific Partnership treaty, this is as much about saving Boehner’s tenuous hold on his own restive House Republican Conference as it is about passing Obamatrade.
Populist conservative Republicans came within a couple of votes of defeating “fast track” and, allied with labor-oriented Democrats, did defeat the TAA bill, which included a sizable tax increase that would hit small businesses especially hard.
In an exclusive interview with Breitbart’s Matt Boyle, Sen. Rand Paul called on Republicans in the House—and the grassroots nationwide—to oppose efforts by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan to revive Obamatrade via the tax increase hidden inside the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) portion of the deal. Said Senator Paul:

You know typically to pass these kinds of things, the establishment will try to buy off Democrats by sprinkling money so they have some money in there. To get the money, under our budget rules, we have to pay for it—so they want to pay for it with a fine on small businesses. But I thought a point that was made in the article which was pretty good is this is similar to the fines they wanted to do in Obamacare with 1099s and there was such an outcry it’s the only part of Obamacare we ever repealed. So I think when people discover they’re sticking a tax increase in there I think people will be even more unhappy.

Senator Paul told Boyle that Leadership didn’t tell any of the members—including the 86 Republicans who voted for TAA last week—that they put the tax increase in the deal, so most of them who voted for it had no idea they were voting to violate a pledge they all made to Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform.
In Senator Paul’s view that’s largely because leadership was so dead-set on trying to convince rank-and-file Republicans to grant Obama fast-track authority under TPA—so that Obama can speed through at least three highly secretive trade deals, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP), and Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA)—because the donor class wants open borders trade so badly.
Senator Paul reiterated to Matt Boyle one of our principle objections to the Obamatrade package:

Most members who support TPA didn’t even read the TPP text because it’s kept in a secretive room in the Capitol basement and only members can go in to read it—and they’re only allowed to, in certain instances, bring staffers with high enough security clearances with them. TiSA and T-TIP text is not even available for members to read, so there’s actually no way any member of Congress who supported TPA can know what it was they were actually voting for.

That the establishment Republican leadership of the House slipped the Rule for the reconsideration of TAA into the Rule for the Intel Authorization bill is a sign of desperation, not strength or leadership ability.
House conservatives have vowed to vote down the Rule. According to reports from inside the Capitol, conservatives are maintaining a constant vigil on the Floor of the House to ensure that Speaker Boehner and Rules Committee Chairman Pete Sessions do not try to sneak the Rule through on a voice vote or by unanimous consent when no one is on the Floor to oppose it.
We urge CHQ readers to call their Representative to demand he or she vote “NO” on the Rule for H.R. 2596, the Fiscal Year 2016 Intelligence Authorization bill, if it includes the Motion to Reconsider the failed TAA bill. The Capitol Switchboard is 1-866-220-0044 and the vote will likely be today, call NOW!