The Congressional Board of Exchange

We are living in a political world of the UniParty; it's sort of like the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, a historic commodity and – in these modern times – financial derivative exchange based in Chicago.

Naturally, the UniParty isn't quite as obvious as the Chicago floor traders standing in a trading pit, calling out orders, prices, and quantities of particular commodities while dressed in color-coded jackets indicating their function on the trading floor; nor are those in the Senate usually observed gesticulating with complex hand signals to communicate the buying and selling process. Yet the techniques are not fundamentally all that dissimilar; while the CME conducts business out on the trading floor, the Senate conducts its' "business" behind closed doors, in secret. Either way, the quid pro quo (“something for something”) dealing takes place within both of these trading organizations.

Senate is engaged in crony capitalism

The Chicago Merc is engaged in capitalism, while the Senate is engaged in crony capitalism. The difference is monumental: CME is licensed to conduct business. Congress is not granted free market power under the Constitution. 

The States

The House and Senate were designed by the Framers to represent the best interests of We, the People, through a federal system of State sovereignty where the purpose of federal government was to defend the new nation (the “Several States”) and settle disputes (as historically occurred) between them: the significant facets of federal power were directed in service to the States.

In other words, the Framers designed the Constitution so federal government would work for the States, not the other way around as we have today.

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The States are We, the People. The Framers understood history; thus, they understood power, and why citizen influence takes place most effectively at the local and State level: one reason our government is federal, not national. With the manner in which Congress ignobly comports itself, perhaps a name change is in order: the Congressional Board of Exchange.

The Congressional Board of Exchange

How is it only five Republican Senators voted against the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) "fast track" measure on May 23rd of last Friday night? Along with Republican Senators Susan Collins (Maine), Mike Lee (Utah), Rand Paul (Kentucky), Jeff Sessions (Alabama), and Richard Shelby (Alabama), thirty-three Democrat Senators voted against the TPA. Is this not further evidence the Progressive RINO Establishment is on a suicide mission to destroy the Party of Lincoln, Coolidge, and Reagan? But the UniParty doesn't really care. Not as long as they have seats at the table of power, and the perks, pleasure, profits, privilege, and praise that go with it. Thirty-three Democrats were smart (and five Republicans), while a craftily whipped coalition of forty-eight Senate Republicans and fourteen Democrats sold to the highest bidder. That's a game Republican Majority Senate Leader Mitch McConnell plays time after time; it is a game for the "Insiders." House Majority Speaker John Boehner plays the same game; both careerists represent strategic interests of the Progressive RINO Establishment and, most importantly, of themselves. The cards are marked, and they can read them.

Trade Promotion Authority Scam

The Trade Promotion Authority measure is yet another UniParty scam. It is complex, secret, and needs a politically medicinal disinfectant of sunshine. The last thing it needs is a pretentious and self-important status of “hot rush.” King Barry's unconstitutional, extra-legal citations inevitably involve speed; enough with the “fast-track-hurry-my-hair's-on-fire” faux crisis routine.

Notoriously unreliable Senator Orrin Hatch, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee and primary author of the bill, described it with a strange flair: 

“This is an important bill, likely the most important bill we will pass this year. It’s important to President Obama.” 

What has King Barry ever done that yielded a favorable result for America?Why would any Republican cede more power to King Barry? If the TPA is so great, why is it guarded under lock and key? Why is there no provision in the treaty for currency manipulations? King Barry is a Progressive Marxist; it is not in his strategic interest to tell the truth: a detail made clear by his record. Do a bit of research on the TPA “fast track” measure and it becomes obvious the crony corporatist heavy-hitters and their media pals are pushing hard to get it passed. Mitch McConnell's Senate did their bidding; Johnny Boehner's House will likely follow suit as well: he's got acolyte Paul Ryan on the case. Crony capitalist and corporatist heavy-hitters don't care if Americans lose jobs – outsourced to sweatshop labor or sub-minimum wage factory “cities” where employees live on the premises and suicides are a recurring problem – or they wouldn't spend heavily and work so hard for Amnesty in our country: a transparent effort to import cheap third world labor into the United States.

Senator Sessions On Point

Senator Jeff Sessions summed it all up rather accurately. After reading the following publicity release from his Facebook page, perhaps gentle readers will make time to call their representatives and tactfully share their thoughts on TPA and the Trans-Pacific Partnership. It's worth the effort, is it not? “Under fast-track, Congress transfers its most basic legislative powers to the Executive for six years. Any yet-unseen global pacts, no matter how sweeping, are guaranteed a “fast-track” to congressional adoption. No amendments. No ability to strike any offending provision. And no chance to apply either the 60- or 67-vote thresholds used for important legislation and treaties. I asked the President how his fast-tracked proposals would impact jobs, wages, and trade deficits. He would not answer. The bill’s promoters also refused to answer when asked whether their proposal would reduce net manufacturing jobs in the United States. That is because they know it will. Like the South Korean trade deal—which doubled our trade deficit after promises of a trade renaissance—this proposal will widen further our trade deficits and eliminate jobs. The Trans-Pacific Partnership opens our markets to foreign imports, but allows foreign countries to continue closing their market to ours. Our country has not been engaged in reciprocal free trade but, as the Chairman Emeritus of Nucor Steel explained, “the enablement of foreign mercantilism” and “unilateral trade disarmament.” We have allowed state-dominated and mercantilist trading partners to maintain their varied and elaborate non-tariff barriers, exporting their unemployment to our shores. Stubbornly, our political elites have treated trade as a matter of religion. To them, there is no such thing as a bad deal. They know American workers lose jobs when we allow trading partners to cheat. But they insist it is all for the greater good. This is why the American worker keeps ending up on the losing end. Fast-track will also lock into passage a new global governance authority known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership Commission. Chartered with a “Living Agreement,” this new transnational commission will be able to amend the agreement after its adoption. Among other things, this could empower the President to expand the admission of foreign workers without congressional approval. We are creating another unelectable, unaccountable, unanswerable bureaucracy that can tie down and frustrate American sovereignty. Congress is forgetting its duty: to improve jobs and wages for Americans.” 
© Sandy Stringfellow/2015