My dear American voters,
If you value our sovereighty, our Constitution, our Bill of Rights, our laws and our freedoms, please bombard our senators and all news sources with a loud and clear message that we want no part of the bill promoting trade authority for the President that has made its way back to the Senate after being passed by a thin margin in the House last Wednesday.
It failed by a great margin the first time around after passing in the Senate. Our Republican senators have consistently voted for it but the Democrats did not and put up a strong fight. The bill likely will be the first to be considered when the Senate returns on Monday.
If you were one of the fortunate ones who witnessed Senator Jeff Sessions, (R) from Alabama, give us a detailed rundown on all of the hidden extensions, interpretations, and applications of the legal requirements embedded in documents governing international trade that would be applicable to the United States in this revised bill being strong-armed and pushed by the President and the Republicans and a few Democrats, once again after failing miserably in the House a week ago, you should be as red-faced with anger as Senator Sessions was during his delivery. Senator Barbara Boxer, (D) from California, enlightened us about the secrecy being applied to Congressional representatives in a locked room of the Capitol where they were allowed to learn about some of the information two weeks ago and that they were not allowed to take their phones or cameras in the room with them or to leave with any notes they may have written down when they left. She reported those happenings on the Senate floor immediately when she returned.
I have watched all of the hearings on this bill in the House and the Senate as they occurred on C-Span during the past two weeks and have read all news accounts of the happenings, but no source has published what I learned from Senator Sessions. It should be published verbatim in the Congressional Record for last Thursday.
I am beyond angry that the President and Republicans have bonded together to shove this farce down our throats with a smile, a pat on the head, and assurance that this authority is critical for the President to negotiate trade agreements around the world quickly and create more jobs, and what an embarrassment it would be for the United States with its great manufacturing base to be a "slap in the face" of the world by failing to provide this fast-track authority and allow China to overtake us in providing our products to foreign markets. What a blatant lie.
The real truth came out in the House when one Republication representative shouted out that he had three Fortune 500 companies in his state that sold their products around the world and this authority and subsequent trade agreements with other countries is critical to their business.
Wake up voters. We may have a task before us that this country has not faced in its history. It has to do with international councils, committees, the World Trade Organization, other countries regardless of how small having the power to supersede our sovereignty and the power of this country historically documented in our Constitution and our Bill of Rights by suing this country if they do not like anything we do . . . even social, environmental, legal, in addition to claims about the quality of our products. Like Senator Sessions, I will fight that to the bitter end. He made it clear that he will not be voting for the bill regardless of the pressure exerted by the President or others in the Senate.
Charlotte Parton
Chattanooga