Bush calling for renewed trade powers

[OhioChick]

Washington, Jan 30: US President George W Bush will urge lawmakers to give him sweeping trade negotiation powers as he delivers a brace of economic policy speeches this week, the White House has said.

"What he wants to do is to continue to have trade promotion authority, every other president has had it," spokesman Tony Snow said one day before bush was to make the first of two speeches detailing his economic priorities.

That power, once known as "fast-track," binds the US Congress to yes-or-no votes on any trade deals the president negotiates. It is set to expire on July 1 and appears unlikely to win renewal by the new democratic majority.

"It is the ability to negotiate a good faith trade agreement without their later being changed by congress, which means you have to go back to the table and kind of renegotiate," snow told reporters yesterday.

The Bush administration hopes to forge free trade deals with South Korea and Malaysia by early April in order to submit them to the US Congress, which Democrats control for the first time in a dozen years.
http://www.zeenews.com/articles.asp?aid=350883&ssid=51&sid=BUS

[ShortnFiery]

1. No! Abso-f**king-lutely NO renewed trading power for King George. n/t

[OhioChick]

2. Why can't we

just trade him, instead? :)

[wakeme2008]

3. Oh Lame Duck... dream on

:rofl:

[Leilani]

4. If they give him "fast track"

they shoulsd be impeached, right along with him.

[rodeodance]

5. the Dems have such a slim majority, I wonder what will happen---then

again there are dems who like the fast track

[Kagemusha]

6. One wonders who constitutes 'every president'

At any rate, the word I was hearing was that Bush's authority expiring is being treated like an international deadline to actually get something done.

[section321]

7. Every other president has NOT had TPA.

What a bald face lie. Here's the history of TPA:

First Created in Trade Act of 1974, it was in place until it expired in 1994. It was renewed again in the Trade of 2002.

Therefore:

No president had it before Nixon and CLINTON NEVER HAD IT. The repuke controlled congress never gave it to him.

[depakid]

8. The Dems would have to be out of their minds

to grant him this power and let him further wreck the economy.