July 2, 2015

TPP = Mass Immigration
By DICK MORRIS

Published on TheHill.com on April 21, 2015

Under the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a proposed free-trade agreement, Congress could lose the power to control immigration policy. We could find ourselves back in the era before there were restrictions on immigration and anyone from anywhere could come to our shores. And Republicans, from leaders Mitch McConnell and John Boehner on down, are unwittingly helping President Obama achieve this goal.

The TPP, generally supported by pro-free-trade Republicans but opposed by labor-union Democrats, reportedly contains a barely noticed provision that allows for the free migration of labor among the signatory nations. Patterned after similar provisions in the treaties establishing the European Union, it would override national immigration restrictions in the name of facilitating the free flow of labor.

The draft treaty, now under discussion among 12 Pacific Rim nations, including the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Vietnam and Japan, makes provision for needed labor to move across national boundaries without restraint. While much of the commentary on the deal has been focused on high-skill, white-collar migration, it could easily be interpreted as allowing farm workers and others to flow back and forth without legal regulation.

In seeking approval of the TPP, the Obama administration has proposed giving it fast-track authority to conclude trade deals — a power that would restrict Congress’s ability to amend the deal, allowing only an up-or-down vote. Led by Republicans, the Senate is moving toward passage of the fast-track authority as a precursor to ratification of the TPP treaty, immigration provisions and all. (more…)

Published on The Weekly Standard (www.weeklystandard.com)

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Don’t Give Him What He Wants

Beware Obama’s trade deals.

Irwin M. Stelzer

Irwin M. Stelzer is a contributing editor to The Weekly Standard, director of -economic policy studies at the Hudson Institute, and a columnist for the Sunday Times (London).

January 27, 2014, Vol. 19, No. 19

Republicans are being urged to support President Obama’s request for TPA so that he can complete negotiations on TPP and TTIP while pursuing other deals at the WTO. For those who do not often feast on this alphabet soup: Obama wants what we used to call fast-track authority to make a trade deal.

In today’s lingo, the president seeks Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) so that he can put any deal he negotiates before Congress on a take-it-or-leave-it basis, no amendments allowed. The two deals he wants to consummate are a 12-country Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with Canada, Mexico, Chile, Brunei, and several other parties, and a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) with the 28-nation European Union. The administration also hopes to work out a freer trade agreement with the 159-member World Trade Organization (WTO), but the chances of doing that are somewhere between remote and nil, which is one reason the administration is pressing for regional trade deals.

The president has a problem. The same group of Democrats that shot down Larry Summers, his first choice to replace Ben Bernanke at the Federal Reserve, are threatening to deny him TPA authority: His overseas negotiating partners are reluctant to offer any quid pro quo in return for some U.S. concession if Congress can later vote to pocket the other parties’ concessions while canceling the president’s. Gary Hufbauer, senior trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, reckons that at least half of congressional Democrats will vote against giving the president the authority he seeks, some because history teaches he won’t bother consulting with them, some because they fear he will make concessions that damage their constituents. Hufbauer concludes that Obama needs “three-quarters of the Republicans” to get a trade deal passed.

Republicans’ business backers are engaged in an all-out effort to round up those votes. Former U.S. trade representative and head of the World Bank Robert Zoellick, a victor in trade wars past, has returned to the fray to urge Republicans to “lead in opening markets .  .  . and make 2014 the year the U.S. reclaimed global leadership on trade.” With all due respect to the estimable Mr. Zoellick, and to House speaker John Boehner, a reflexive free-trader, congressional Republicans should just say no (more…)

If you are looking for a good, easy to read book on why the U.S. recovery has been so painfully slow, Frank Roche’s new book, ‘The Five Structural Barriers to American Strength and Prosperity’ will lay out  the 5 main reasons that are holding our country back. 

  The policies that our government have been following since the 1960’s and 70’s just might have something to do with it.  Frank Roche discusses  our immigration policy, fiscal policy, U.S. international trade policy, regulatory policy and the U.S. education policy.     Nancy

THE FIVE STRUCTURAL BARRIERS TO AMERICAN STRENGTH AND PROSPERITY

  BY FRANK ROCHE,  Market Economist,  Adjunct Professor of Economics and capital markets expert

Publication Date: May 28, 2013

The weak cyclical recoveries from America’s first two recessions in the 21st Century are exposing a long camouflaged and ignored truth. That is, bad public policy as practiced by elected and appointed officials at the state and federal level since the 1960’s has engendered serious structural problems for the U.S. economy reducing potential real GDP, with cascading effects on employment, income distribution, and national savings while inducing higher levels of dependency on government for basic needs like food, clothing, and shelter. The structural damage done by too much immigration, too much debt, too many imports, too many laws, rules & regulations, and not enough quality education over the past 35-40 years has finally been revealed in the below potential performance of the U.S. economy. The empirical evidence is clear; the underlying U.S. economy is getting weaker not stronger.

Economic Freedom on the Wane