...they also kneecap their own who oppose them just to give Obama more power now (don't get distracted or ahead of ourselves by the 'next occupant' talk either)...TheHill: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday that he and Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) have consulted with President Obama on passing fast-track trade authority after it suffered a big setback last week.
McConnell believes the trade package passed by the Senate in May can still make it to Obama’s desk despite getting blown up in the House last week.
“The speaker and I have spoken with the president about the way forward on trade,” McConnell told reporters. “It’s still my hope that we can achieve what we’ve set out to achieve together, which is to get a six-year trade promotion authority bill in place that will advantage the next occupant of the White House as well as this one.”
The House on Friday narrowly passed fast-track authority but it defeated accompanying legislation to extend Trade Adjustment Assistance, a program aiding workers displaced by foreign competition. Both measures needed to be approved for the package to be sent to Obama.
The Senate passed fast-track and TAA in a single passage and it’s unclear whether the Senate would accept sending only trade promotion authority to the White House. The administration has also insisted the two issues should be paired.
“Obviously there was a malfunction over in the House on Friday that we all watched with great interest and we’re not giving up. We still think there may be a path forward to get an achievement here that we’d like to get,” McConnell said.
The House on Tuesday passed an extension giving them until the end of July to figure out how to finish work on Obama’s trade agenda.
We know they're not conservatives, but honestly, tell me how they can even be called Republicans anymore when they're working this hard for a Democratic, statist, imperial president, but hardly working for their own constituency? #progressiveRINOsBreitbart: After a group of Republicans nearly scuttled the Obama trade effort last week by voting against a procedural rule dictating the debate terms for the trade bill, House leadership is pushing back.
National Journal reports that House leadership has removed three of the dissenting members from the GOP whip team.
Reps. Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Rep. Steve Pearce (R-NM), and Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) have been removed from the whip team after they sided with GOP rebels to vote against a rule governing debate on a trade bill, according to sources close to the team.
The repercussions come as House Republicans prepare for another procedural vote to bring back Trade Adjustment Assistance — a key portion of the Obama trade effort to pass Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), which would grant the president fast-track authority to negotiate trade deals — as late as July 30.
The report noted that House Majority Whip Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) had indicated in the past that he would not condone members opposing the rule and that Lummis was aware of those boundaries.
“Cynthia knew going into the rule vote last week that being a member of the Whip Team has certain parameters,” Lummis spokesman, Joe Spiering, told National Journal. “She understands his decision and departs the Whip organization with nothing but the utmost respect for Mr. Scalise and his entire organization.”
Tuesday morning, House Speaker Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) voiced his disapproval about members who buck the party’s procedural rules.
“I’m not very happy about it,” Boehner told reporters following a closed door caucus meeting. And I made it pretty clear to the members today I was not very happy. We’re a team and we’ve worked hard to get the majority, we’ve worked hard to stay in the majority and I expect our team to act like a team. And I, frankly, made it pretty clear I wasn’t very happy.”
National Journal notes that there remain rule dissenters that hold positions of leadership who could be affected as well including Reps. Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-OK), Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), and Rep. John Fleming (R-LA).
Related links: Fast-track to surrender and globalization for America
Obama and the GOP Leadership Are Selling Out America
