Unbeknownst to many Americans, the House and Senate are on the verge of handing President Barack Obama the power to unilaterally negotiate the terms for the TransPacific Partnership, a trade agreement involving 12 nations, including the United States.
Even worse, the ruling would make it so that Congress cannot amend or even vet the agreement. All Congress would be able to do is either blindly approve it or kill it.
This greatly concerns the Gun Owners of America, a gun rights organization that boasts over 300,000 members.
In a post published on its website, the group warned that Obama could use this power to impose anti-Second Amendment measures like gun or ammunition import bans. Even scarier is that Obama could try tucking such measures deep inside the final agreement, where they might be overlooked.
The group’s members pointed to the passage of the anti-gun Cromnibus bill in December 2014. Congress blindly passed it without closely analyzing it.
What was lurking inside that horrific bill was “the largest funding increase in history for the federal gun database,” as well as regulations empowering “states to impose gun bans based on doctor’s orders.”
“Republicans whine about Obama usurping legislative authority, so why in heaven’s name are they thinking of giving him unlimited legislative authority to do anything he can put into a trade agreement?” Michael Hammond, legislative counsel with Gun Owners of America, asked WND rhetorically.
Yet Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan and Sen. Orrin Hatch support this approach regardless. They argue that it permits “Congress to set goals for an agreement that Obama administration will negotiate.”
But Hammond pointed out the Obama administration has already been negotiating the TransPacific Partnership for six years without any congressional input. So what in the world makes them think that he cares even an iota about their “goals”?
Hammond added, “I don’t think it’s wise to allow Obama to promulgate any law he wants as long as he succeeds in sticking it in this agreement and then gets Congress’ assent on an up or down vote without any possibility for amendment.”
In fact, according to him, it’s like “playing Russian Roulette with a gun with six bullets in the chamber.”
Yet the so-called conservatives we elected into office want to go ahead with this approach.
It makes no sense, though it does make it clear that we need to replace an awful lot of politicians in 2016.
Socialism is not the Answer 