No Blank Check for Obama on Trade

Next week, an institution once revered as “the world’s greatest deliberative body” will be asked to foreclose its ability to have meaningful deliberations about what will, predictably, be a deeply flawed international trade treaty.

The accord in question is the as-yet-incomplete Trans-Pacific Partnership. And the United States Senate is being pressed by both its Republican and Democratic leadership to give Barack Obama what amounts to a blank check to agree to cut whatever trade deal he wants.

It is simply unbelievable that anybody – and most especially GOP lawmakers – would even contemplate giving this President so-called “Fast-Track Authority” on the TPP. His serial failures to negotiate fair prisoner swaps, sound arms control agreements or sensible diplomatic normalizations neither inspires confidence nor warrants Congress turning its check-and-balance role into a blank check.