Bloomberg: Why Obama Is Wrong And Elizabeth Warren Is Right On Trade Bill Dispute
http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-05-15/warren-claim-that-trade-bill-could-undermine-dodd-frank-is-right
In her quarrel with President Barack Obama over trade legislation, Elizabeth Warren has got the law on her side. The Massachusetts senator has warned fellow Democrats that a fast-track trade bill now in Congress could undo U.S. laws such as the Dodd-Frank banking regulations later. A number of constitutional scholars and other legal experts say she’s right.
The reason: An arcane trade-bill provision that would make it easier for a future president and Congress to undercut existing statutes, even ones with little to do with trade.
The risk to Dodd-Frank is “real and meaningful and worth worrying about,” said Michael Barr, Obama’s former assistant Treasury secretary for financial institutions and an architect of the financial law. Barr said a hostile president might weaken the law through other means, such as a legislative assault or regulatory maneuvers.
The fight pits two of the most popular Democrats in the country against one another.
Obama’s support of fast-track trade authority and regional free-trade deals under negotiation with Pacific Rim and European nations places him sharply at odds with most of his party.
Simple Majority
Warren says she’s concerned that Republicans could include provisions in a future trade deal undercutting Dodd-Frank. They could then pass it with a simple majority in the U.S. Senate because the fast-track bill would prevent Democrats from blocking the legislation through a filibuster. Normally, it takes 60 votes to break a filibuster.
“In the next few weeks, Congress will decide whether to give the president fast-track authority,” she said in a May 5 speech to the Institute for New Economic Thinking in Washington. “If fast-track passes, a Republican president could easily use a future trade deal to override our domestic financial rules.”
Obama called Warren’s contention “absolutely wrong” in an interview with Yahoo News, and said he’d “have to be pretty stupid” to agree to a trade deal that would undermine the Dodd-Frank law he signed himself....
NO COMMENT