"Fast Track" to Delegate Enormous Power to Obama;
Second Amendment Could be Impacted
Not a GOA member yet? Make sure to join Gun Owners of America!
Congress got back to work last week. And within the next month, the congressional GOP leadership is expected to move a "bait and switch" scheme that could seriously impact the Second Amendment.
The scheme is called "fast track."
In "fast track," Congress passes a bill which delegates to Barack Obama the legislative authority to do anything he wants -- ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING -- so long as he includes it in a "trade agreement."
In this case, the trade agreement is the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP or TPA) -- currently being negotiated with thirteen Pacific Rim nations.
The problem is that Congress would delegate this authority to Obama without knowing what was in the top secret agreement -- and possibly before it is even completely written.
Gun import bans? Does anyone want to bet that Barack Obama would resist the temptation to sneak these into the TPA? And, if he does, the agreement must be voted on "up-or-down," with no amendments and no possibility of a Senate filibuster. And every word of the agreement would have the force of law.
It would be one thing for a future pro-gun President to engage in these negotiations. Under such circumstances, GOA would not consider gun owners to have a dog in this fight.
But this President has used his Executive "pen," time and time again, to circumvent the Congress and the Constitution. Giving him this "fast track" authority is extremely dangerous. And things will only get more difficult when every Establishment interest in Washington starts pushing Congress to immediately approve this "up-or-down" deal.
We saw, with the anti-gun Cromnibus last month, how difficult it is to stop legislation under these circumstances.
So this is another one of those cases where Congress is being told to pass something "so we can find out what's in it."
We do know that Obama's Hollywood friends will be the big beneficiaries of the TPA. We also know that there will be a lot of knee-jerk opposition from liberals, who don't understand that Obama could stick a few feel-good sentences about the environment or collective bargaining -- and spin millions of pages of liberal regulations out of them.
So the bottom line is this: A dozen Senate Republicans opposed to delegating unbridled legislative authority to Obama could squash this deal. But it is important to act now.
ACTION: Contact your Senators and Representative. Ask them to oppose giving unbridled "fast track" authority to Barack Obama.
Second Amendment Could be Impacted
Not a GOA member yet? Make sure to join Gun Owners of America!
Congress got back to work last week. And within the next month, the congressional GOP leadership is expected to move a "bait and switch" scheme that could seriously impact the Second Amendment.
The scheme is called "fast track."
In "fast track," Congress passes a bill which delegates to Barack Obama the legislative authority to do anything he wants -- ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING -- so long as he includes it in a "trade agreement."
In this case, the trade agreement is the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP or TPA) -- currently being negotiated with thirteen Pacific Rim nations.
The problem is that Congress would delegate this authority to Obama without knowing what was in the top secret agreement -- and possibly before it is even completely written.
Gun import bans? Does anyone want to bet that Barack Obama would resist the temptation to sneak these into the TPA? And, if he does, the agreement must be voted on "up-or-down," with no amendments and no possibility of a Senate filibuster. And every word of the agreement would have the force of law.
It would be one thing for a future pro-gun President to engage in these negotiations. Under such circumstances, GOA would not consider gun owners to have a dog in this fight.
But this President has used his Executive "pen," time and time again, to circumvent the Congress and the Constitution. Giving him this "fast track" authority is extremely dangerous. And things will only get more difficult when every Establishment interest in Washington starts pushing Congress to immediately approve this "up-or-down" deal.
We saw, with the anti-gun Cromnibus last month, how difficult it is to stop legislation under these circumstances.
So this is another one of those cases where Congress is being told to pass something "so we can find out what's in it."
We do know that Obama's Hollywood friends will be the big beneficiaries of the TPA. We also know that there will be a lot of knee-jerk opposition from liberals, who don't understand that Obama could stick a few feel-good sentences about the environment or collective bargaining -- and spin millions of pages of liberal regulations out of them.
So the bottom line is this: A dozen Senate Republicans opposed to delegating unbridled legislative authority to Obama could squash this deal. But it is important to act now.
ACTION: Contact your Senators and Representative. Ask them to oppose giving unbridled "fast track" authority to Barack Obama.
