GOP leaders’ plan to save Obamatrade revealed

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and President Barack Obama

WASHINGTON – Republican leaders in the U.S. House have come up with a strategy to revive a bill giving President Obama far-reaching powers to negotiate massive trade deals after Congress halted the legislation but didn’t kill it.

Sources tell WND the plan essentially is to tell Democrats leaders it’s their problem and, if that doesn’t work, try to hammer out a compromise.

Indeed, the White House confirmed that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, would be calling President Obama on Monday to discuss how to pass the Trade Promotion Authority, or TPA, bill.

Both the Senate and the House have passed TPA but not the same version, so it can’t go to the president for his signature without changes.

TPA would give the president the power to negotiate massive trade deals with other countries, cut Congress out of the negotiations and limit lawmakers’ participation to a simple yes or no vote when such treaties are concluded.

Using information from a number of well-placed sources on Capitol Hill, WND has learned the GOP leaders’ strategy to revive TPA:

• Put the onus on Democratic leaders to round up the needed votes to pass a controversial provision related to the bill.
• If that doesn’t work, change the provision.
• If that don’t work, drop the provision.
• If none of that works, start over.

The controversial provision is Trade Adjustment Assistance, or TAA, which would provide money to workers who lose their jobs as a result of foreign trade.

The provision was in the Senate version of the TPA bill, passed three weeks ago. It was not in the House version of the TPA that passed Friday, because of overwhelming opposition by both Democrats and Republicans, but for opposite reasons.

Democrats wanted the assistance extended to public-sector workers, while conservatives wanted the provision eliminated entirely.

The House leaders separated the votes on TAA and TPA. While the House passed TPA by a narrow margin of 219 to 211, TAA lost by an overwhelming tally of 302 to 126.

An aide to a GOP House member who supports TPA told WND the ball is now in the court of Democratic leaders.

“They are the ones who need to come up with the votes to support their own worker program, not Republicans,” said the source. “TPA passed. So, if they want their worker program to be part of it, they need to come up with the votes.”

Another reason many Democrats opposed TAA is that it would be financed with Medicare cuts, So, GOP leaders are negotiating with Democratic leaders to replace the Medicare cuts with financing from increased fines on businesses for tax-filing errors.

That might make TAA more palatable to Democrats, but it could make TAA even more distasteful to Republicans, who may look at it as a virtual tax hike.

A Capitol Hill source insisted to WND that the provision would not break Grover Norquist’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge” against supporting any tax increases, signed by many Republican lawmakers, because it is not a tax increase.

“The fines are for non-payment of tax. These are taxes folks still owe; this just enforces that. It simply makes it harder to break the law,” said the congressional aide.

Another Capitol Hill source told WND that if TAA still does not pass in the House in a vote expected Tuesday, the next strategy would be to go back to the Senate and drop the provision from its version of the TPA bill.

A congressional aide told WND that if merely dropping TAA doesn’t work, House and Senate representatives would have to go into conference to come up with a compromise version of TPA that could pass in both chambers.

However, it now appears that to garner Democratic support, there will need to be more changes than either dropping or fixing TAA.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

That’s because, while House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi voted against TAA, she made it clear her vote was meant to stop TPA.

“So while I am a big supporter of TAA, if TAA slows down the fast-track, I am prepared to vote against the TAA because then its defeat, sad to say, is the only way that we will be able to slow down the fast-track,” said Pelosi in a reference to TPA, just before Friday’s vote.

That means the GOP leadership’s attempt to fix TAA may be for naught.

It is elements of TPA itself that Pelosi and, presumably, other key Democrats still oppose.

A number of GOP lawmakers oppose TPA, as well.

Indeed, TPA seems to have something to dislike for people across the political spectrum.

• Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., was concerned it would turn over important congressional powers to a new international body, create an economic union akin to a “nascent European Union” and prevent lawmakers from removing any objectionable provisions. He was also alarmed that the deal could be used to accelerate the immigration of foreign workers at a time when Americans are hurting for jobs.

• Unions such as the powerful AFL-CIO were also concerned it would hurt the American job market and depress wages.

• Environmentalists feared the deal would lead to lax protections.

• Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., said the deal would benefit large corporations and banks at the expense of the middle class.

• Warren and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., also criticized the secrecy of the details in the deal.

• That put the ultra-liberals on the same side as die-hard conservative Rush Limbaugh, who said having Congress vote on a bill the American people can’t even read should be enough to oppose it.

• And presidential candidate Mike Huckabee told WND, “President Obama can’t be trusted to negotiate a deal on a secondhand Subaru, let alone a trillion-dollar trade deal like TPP.”

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