Reid puts the brakes on Obama trade policy

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Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid is jamming up President Obama's push for a new comprehensive trade deal, saying he'll try to block it until the Senate tackles other hot-button issues.

The threat comes just one week after visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe touted the proposed deal in an address to Congress. Both he and Obama are advocating for the 12-nation agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would open markets around the Pacific rim to U.S. exports.

Illustrating this challenge, Reid told The Huffington Post he now wants the Senate to put the trade bid on hold, until the chamber first deals with an infrastructure bill and proposed surveillance reforms.

"We have two very complicated issues that I think should have strong consideration before we even deal with trade," Reid said in the interview. He reportedly said he's spoken with Democratic colleagues about banding together to ensure those two bills are addressed before moving forward on trade.

"I'm not willing to lay over and play dead on trade until we have some commitment from them on surface transportation," he told The Huffington Post.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, responding to Reid on Tuesday, questioned the notion that the Senate could not tackle all those issues at once.

"We're setting the bar awfully low if we think the Senate can only do one thing over the next month," Earnest said, while citing the measure's "strong bipartisan support."

It was no secret that Reid is opposed to Obama's push for so-called "fast track" authority to get streamlined approval of the trade deal. Reid recently told reporters he's not just a "no" on that issue, but a "hell no."

But the Nevada senator's latest comments indicate he's willing to go a step further, and actively hold up the legislative push -- going head-to-head with a big Obama priority.

On Tuesday, though, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell pushed back, urging his colleagues to support the trade measures.

"Of course we've already heard of an attempt to stand in the way of the bipartisan effort to debate this legislation. We already heard of yet another effort to make a partisan stand against a bipartisan accomplishment that would help grow opportunities for our constituents," McConnell said. He said he still plans to turn to the trade issue shortly.

Last week, in a joint appearance alongside Japan's Abe, Obama touted the plan, saying it would "help level the playing field."

Obama said both he and Abe are "deeply committed to getting this done."

Abe also touted the TPP in his address to Congress last week, urging all sides to "take the lead" in building a better market, and finish the 12-nation deal.

"The goal is near. Let us bring the TPP to a successful conclusion through our joint leadership," he said

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A real agenda for the GOP Congress

A Real Agenda for the GOP Congress from Warning Signs by Alan Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

Read the Warning Signs from Caruba at Facts-not-Fantasy

Clearly President Obama did not get the message the voters sent in the November midterm elections, electing enough Republican Senators to shift power in the Senate and to increase it in the House. Many Presidents in their second term encounter this shift, particularly if they are seen by the voters to be incompetent in some respect.

Writing in the December 9 edition of National Review, Henry Olsen, reminded readers that ‘wave elections” do not guarantee victories to come. “In each previous case—1946, 1994, 2010—a Democrat held the White House and Republicans thought the wave presaged his subsequent defeat. Each time, however, the Democrat won reelection relatively easily.” The GOP can only give thanks Obama cannot run in 2016, but no one should count out Hillary Clinton at this point.

Shortly after the November 4 elections Obama told the nation he heard those who voted, but also those who did not. What Obama heard, however, was that he should rewrite immigration laws. Investigative reporter Jerome R. Corsi, writing in World Net Daily, says no executive order has been issued, but rather that the Department of Homeland Security has been told to issue work permits and avoid deportations of illegal aliens.

One might have thought that the GOP got the message in 2012 from those Republicans who stayed home and thereby let Obama remain in office. Apparently politicians only hear what they want to. The polls indicate that Americans do not like ObamaCare and want it repealed, and that they do not want Obama’s unconstitutional amnesty actions acted upon.

On Wednesday, December 3, House and Senate Republicans, supported by the Tea Party, joined with grassroots activists to denounce Obama’s unilateral amnesty efforts. Among those participating in the TheTeaParty.net event were Senator Ted Cruz, Representatives Steve King, Michele Bachman, Louis Gohmert, Tim Huelskamp, and Curt Clawson. Also participating was Niger Innis, Executive Director of TeaParty.net.

As reported by the Tea Party News Network, the problem is “many moderates appear to be going soft on the issue” of illegal immigration “as Speaker of the House John Boehner works to try and avoid a government showdown between Democrats and Republicans.”

The reported compromise is a budget bill that funds the government through to September 2015, but the Department of Homeland Security only through March to permit the new Congress to take some action on the amnesty issue.

Innis noted that the Tea Party has 2.5 million members and warned “If the Republican leadership tacitly colludes with the President, then they will have betrayed the voters who elected them and will pay the price at the ballot box. It’s shocking that Republicans would even contemplate preemptive surrender before the new Congress even convenes.”

Realistically, however, House Speaker Boehner cannot order Republican Representatives to vote as the Tea Party would prefer. Voters tend to assume that there is party unity among the House Republicans, but in reality they vote their own political interest and those range from liberal to conservative. It is, however, worth remembering that not one Republican in Congress voted for Obamacare.

On December 3, The Daily Caller’s White House correspondent, Neil Munro, reported that he had heard that “House Speaker John Boehner will ask Rep. Nancy Pelosi to help him overcome ‘snowballing’ GOP opposition to the GOP leadership’s draft 2015 government budget bill” which would fund the entire government for 2015” and “makes merely token efforts to stop President Obama’s agencies from implementing his unpopular amnesty, according to rank-and-file GOP legislators.”

On the day after the November 4 midterm elections, The Washington Post, reported that “This will be the most dominant Republican Congress since 1929, with an almost-certain 8 percent majority in the Senate and an 11.7 to 17.7 percent majority in the House. That trumps the party's 6.3/13.3 percent majorities in the 80th Congress that began in 1947.”

Dominant in numbers, but is the GOP leadership acting hesitantly regarding either amnesty issues or the repeal of ObamaCare? It’s more like that are acting pragmatically, realistically. They know that Obama would veto such legislation. Symbolic votes are not useful. Practical politics that accomplish real goals is.

I believe that Congressional Republicans have decided to let the courts deal with the issue of Obama’s unconstitutional over-reach. On December 3, CNS News reported that “A coalition of seventeen states have joined together to file a suit against the Obama administration.” The states are mostly southern and Midwestern. In addition, law suits opposing ObamaCare are also making their way through the courts.

One cannot blame the voters for being angry and impatient.

On November 25, Rasmussen Reports said of its latest survey regarding Congress, “Even though they just voted for a new Republican majority, voters still give Congress dismal marks and the majority believes members get re-elected because the system is rigged.” The survey found that “just eight percent (8%) of likely U.S. voters rate Congress’s performance as good or excellent. Sixty-four percent (64%) rate their performance as poor, also in line with earlier surveys.”

As the new GOP-controlled Congress takes over in January, Republicans should hope that it will begin to simplify the tax code, cut spending, reduce the huge national debt, aid the growth of the energy sector and crack down on rogue agencies.

That would be a good start toward electing a Republican President in 2016.

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