Crosstalk: March 9, 2016

Rick Manning is president of Americans for Limited Government. Previously Rick was the public affairs chief of staff at the U.S. Department of Labor during the George W. Bush Administration. Under 'Fast Track', trade agreements like the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) are not treated as treaties under the Constitution. Instead, they are allowed to be passed by a simple majority vote but that majority has to come from both the House and the Senate. There is also a guaranteed set time frame in which Congress must deal with it after the president signs it. The TPP is essentially an agreement between 11 Pacific Rim nations (Vietnam, Brunei, Singapore, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Canada, Mexico, Peru) and the United States. It puts us into a compact whereby we have the same trading rules with these nations that will be enforced by an international tribunal. In essence we are 'off shoring' our capacity to make the rules regarding how we're going to proceed with trade deals and international relations. This is critical because according to Rick, in the last 10 years our economy hasn't grown above 3% GDP. In fact, for the last decade, it has been worse than any economy since the Great Depression. In spite of this we're looking at a trade deal that is essentially a non-borders partnership for the free exchange of labor and resources. In other words, it's guaranteed to ship jobs overseas and impact American workers even more severely. In the end, Rick doesn't see the TPP as a trade agreement. Instead, he views it as an '...economic regulatory scheme that is designed to internationalize our democratic system and put us at the mercy of countries that do not have democratic representative government.' So how does a 'lame duck' year affect the possibility of legislators voting for or against the TPP? How do the presidential candidates stand on this issue? Will any security concerns we have hold sway under this agreement? Does the TPP raise any Shariah law issues? Find out the answers to these questions when you review this vital Crosstalk broadcast.