RINO Boehner Uses Every Game in the Book to Keep Obamatrade Alive [+video]

After suffering a defeat last week when Democrats voted down the trade subsidy component of the trade bill (TAA), Obama and Boehner realized they lacked the votes to pass TPA at this juncture. So, Plan B ensued. Just how far is Boehner willing to go to pass Obamatrade? Boehner had the House Rules Committee draft a resolution enabling leadership to bring up TPA at a moment’s notice on any day through July 31. Today, the House passed the rule 236-189.

Only six conservatives voted against this rule today. Aside from the complications of it being conflated with the intelligence bill, they were sternly warned not to vote against the rule. Last week, 34 Republicans voted against the rule to debate the TPA in the first place and almost defeated the bill – before Pelosi delivered eight Democrats to Boehner’s column and saved the process. Today we learned that three Republicans – Reps. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Trent Franks (R-AZ), and Steve Pearce (R-NM) were tossed off the whip team for voting down the rule.

Typically, rules for debate on a specific bill expire after a few days or a week and cannot be brought to the floor without crafting a new rule. Boehner took the unprecedented step of granting Obamatrade this privileged floor status for a full six weeks so that GOP Leadership and Obama can engage in horse-trading in an attempt to secure the necessary votes for passage.

Instead of awarding this status to something that actually addresses a current crisis, like say, an Iran sanctions bill, GOP leadership has proven the only fight they’re willing to engage in is passing Obama’s trade promotion at all costs.

What’s worse is that this rule to grant the trade bill such privileged status was not a standalone resolution. It was attached to a completely unrelated resolution governing the rule for the upcoming bill to reauthorize our intelligence programs. Hence, Boehner engaged in cowardice and deceit by forcing members to support this chicanery or be viewed as blowing up an intelligence authorization bill.

Ironically, the privileged status is not even for the underlying TPA, which already passed both houses of Congress. It is for the liberal Trade Adjustment Assistance program. Leadership needs that program to pass and get enmeshed into the underlying bill so that the final bill will contain the same language as the Senate legislation, thereby paving the road to the president’s desk.

Leadership pursued this strategy for two reasons. First, it gives them six weeks to bribe, threaten, cajole, and horse-trade in order to buy off enough votes to pass the final TPA. And once again, they are not negotiating with conservatives by promising them a strong push on important priorities, such as immigration, Iran, Obamacare, or protecting religious liberty. They are fully negotiating with the Democrats and will promise them almost anything in order to consummate their support for their own leader’s trade deal.

And secondly, passage of this duplicitous rule enables leadership to potentially slam the bill on the floor at any moment between now and the August recess. They have the ability to find a vulnerable time for members and pass the trade assistance (and thereby finalize the broader trade package) with a simple voice vote. Leadership has already employed this tactic before. Conservatives have stood guard on the floor to watch for any attempt to voice vote the TAA into law. Now they will have to post sentries on the floor for six more weeks.

Consequently, an entire group of conservatives will have to divert their time away from critical issues in order to guard against treachery from their own party.

What is GOP leadership doing to address the most pressing issues of our time?

Are they pulling out all the stops to prevent Obama from releasing six Al Qaeda terrorists from Guantanamo Bay, including three former bodyguards of Osama bin Laden? Are they using every must-pass bill to address the emergency created by Obama releasing tens of thousands of criminal aliens from prison, including murders and rapists? Are they planning a full-scale assault against Obama’s appeasement of Iran come June 30?

Not a chance. None of these issues are even on their radar.

Even those conservatives who support the underlying trade agreement must realize that the price of the process and politics being employed by leadership to pass this bill has become too steep. It’s time for all conservatives to unite and shut this down and force leadership to focus on some of the critical national security, economic, and social problems that plague this country.

Or put another way, it’s time for them to actually become the party they campaigned as during the November elections. (“Boehner Uses Every Game in the Book to Keep Obamatrade Alive”, originally posted HERE)

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