On Thursday’s broadcast of Laura Ingraham’s radio show, Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL), an outspoken opponent of the so-called fast-track Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) being currently being considered by the U.S. House of Representatives, took on his fellow Republican Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), who has been speaking out for the passage of the legislation.
Sessions responded to Ryan’s earlier claim that the TPA would limit President Barack Obama’s ability to negotiate trade agreements, to which Sessions said if that were indeed the case, Obama should considering a veto of the TPA. [8:30 in]
“Well, maybe the president ought to veto the fast track bill if he has more power, why does he even want the thing?” Sessions said. “That’s, of course, ridiculous. This enhances the ability of the President to negotiate, it enhances his ability to create a new trade and economic union, and political union, throughout the entire Pacific region, it is something that he wants for that reason. And, it says in its name, Trade Promotion Authority. It grants authority to the chief executive of the United States to do more than he would otherwise be able to do, so I disagree with that.”
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