Yep, that seems to make it sound pretty cherry... And I misspoke throwing aid relief in. Always happy to have my ignorance pointed out and corrected.
However, my answer still largely remains. Which is weird. Normally I'd be all for bills being passed without congress inserting their special little projects as riders.
Lately though, I've just plain had it with all things secretive. Tired of trade plans being sold as beneficial to the masses when they do little good for American workers and give all the gains to corporations and their top investors and executives.
:doh
A) Congress has no business negotiating with other countries - that is
explicitly an Executive function. It is
Constitutionally an Executive Function. It is, in fact,
one of the reasons we have the Constitution in the first place. Under the Articles of Confederation, other nations didn't know who to negotiate with (and differing portions of the government all attempted to claim a role), and it created havoc with American foreign policy.
B) Keeping negotiations to the negotiators during the negotiation itself is a fairly typical part of the process, not some sinister, secretive plot. It's a way to allow all partners to make offers and compromises without having interest groups destroy the process before a deal is made. A Constitutional example of this
would be the Constitutional Convention itself, which was conducted in extreme secrecy before being made public, being put up for public debate, and being sent to the States for an up-or-down vote...
which is pretty much the exact same process here. It's not secret before you vote, it's public before you vote. It's simply secret while going on.
Even Ted Cruz (who has taken a look at this thing) says he didn't see any problems. You're not likely to find someone who can be trusted more to oppose this administration and even his own party leadership than Cruz.
As a Side Note: Everyone here who is upset about giving the executive the ability to do it's job in negotiating with foreign countries without Congress attempting to take part in the negotiations who was
also upset or thought it was wrong when Congressional Republicans wrote a letter in the Wall Street Journal to the leadership of Iran, raise your hands. Care to explain your position to us?
