TED CRUZ INTERVIEW, HIS POSITION ON TPP TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AND TPA TRADE PROMOTION AUTHORITY
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TED CRUZ INTERVIEW, HIS POSITION ON TPP TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP AND TPA TRADE PROMOTION AUTHORITY
Transcript
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and we are now joined by senator Ted Cruz Texas Republican
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and presidential candidate senator thank you so much for coming on the corner
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report
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I know you're very busy we really appreciate it
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good morning jeff it's great it's great to be with the it's always great to be
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with you
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I okay so senator let me just saw a cut to the chase
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trip I the house is about to vote in a on fast track authority
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they are a lot of conservatives out there are very angry they don't want to
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give this president
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TPA they feel that we sent you
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and fellow republicans up in the up to washington
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to block him to stop him to curb his imperial presidency
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and so my first question to you is this why would Ted Cruz
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a staunch Obama critic give Obama
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almost complete power to complete negotiations over the TPP
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and then reduce the threshold for a vote on the TPP
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from 67 votes to sixty votes
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250 votes plus one why would you trust this president
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honestly senator I wouldn't trust them to clean my point lift
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if it was clogged if you came in with a plunger why would you trust him
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with the national interest well jeff thank you for that question there's a
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lot of substance there so so let's let's take the different pieces one at a time
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but but let's start with with the first premise
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I that we should be fighting Obama
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and and I think it is fair to say there has been no body in the United States
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Congress
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the stood up and fought President Obama more that I had more consistently
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over and over again this is not a lawless president who was abused his
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power
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and at every turn whether it is leading the fight to stop Obamacare weather is
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leading the fight
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to stop the debt ceiling from being raised without meaningful reforms
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weather is leading the fight
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stop President Obama's amnesty when most to the republicans
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were not in the fight I had been reading the fight so you're preaching to the
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choir
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that we have to stop this president's abuse about
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thats number one now let's talk about
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PTA and PPP because unfortunately there so many acronyms
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that this gets confusing and and it's getting a lot of people because
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we naturally distrust this president a lot of people are very very concerned
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and don't understand
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the multiple pieces that are here GPA and DPP are two things that are very
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very different
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pp a is trade promotion authority
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it's also known as fast track
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fast track is the process by which trade agreements are approved by congress
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Italian trade agreements have been done for eighty years
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I through TPA what happens is that the
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fun and congress sets out specific negotiating parameters
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for the executive and free trade agreements
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and if the executive follows those objectives
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then when the trade agreement goes to congress
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it is subject to an up-or-down vote a straight up-or-down vote with no
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amendments
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now history is demonstrated the only way to get
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a trade agreement adopted is with fast-track
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since FDR consistently for 80 years
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presidents in both parties have had fast-tracked anytime fast-track has
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lapsed
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trade agreements don't get to go should and the reason for that
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is that foreign countries are unwilling to negotiate an agreement if on the back
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and in congress a whole buncha amendments could be stuck on on the end
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so what congress is building on right now is TPA is the process
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for negotiating free trade agreement now there is a second thing called PPP
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and a lot of the discussion has focused on PPP
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PPP is one specific trade agreement that's currently being negotiated
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PPP stand for the trans-pacific partnership
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I it's being negotiated with 11 other countries including
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Canada Japan Australia New Zealand I
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china is not one of those eleven countries I
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right now there is no final language on PPP because TPP
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is still being negotiated the different countries are gone back and forth the
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administration is going back and forth
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what the Senate has voted on St PA the process for free trade agreements not
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PPP the specific per sec Pacific
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trade agreement what i voted
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on is TPA the process
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that allows free trade agreement to be negotiated not
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this person
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agreement TPP I haven't decided I haven't taken a position
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one way or the other on PPP because
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for any trade agreement I wanna see what the final agreement is the
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ago she added to assess whether it's a good thing or bad thing so I have not
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taken a position
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publicly or privately on PPP and I don't intend to until there's an actual
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agreement
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to radio now the
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there were several things on your question that the need to address one
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other thing he said
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is why would you lower the threshold from 67 to 60
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250 and and that's based
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at Jeff on on a misunderstanding a lot of folks that are saying
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PPAs somehow giving up the Senate Report power
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now as you know I've spent my entire professional career
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for two decades defending the US Constitution under the Constitution
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there are two ways to make binding along number one you can pass a treaty
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ratified by two-thirds of the Senate
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or number two you can pass the legislation passed by majority in both
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houses of Congress and signed by the president those are the only two ways
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to make binding on america BPA uses the second constitutional path which is
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a majority in both houses signed by the president which have laws made
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an American part of the reason is it's been long recognized
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that the Constitution's origination costs
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applies to trade bills which means the House of Representatives has to be
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involved
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there's a reason why trade bills have historically not been down a street is
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because the constitution says
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that anything concerning the raising a revenues and trade bills concerned
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parents which is raising a revenues
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hand to originate in the house representatives so
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the problem that's approving a trade agreement through both houses of
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Congress
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has been the way it has been done for roughly a century
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and it is not giving the president more authority had people are saying over and
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over again
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why would you give President Obama
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more power this is not getting President Obama more power and and I understand
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that concern I don't
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I do not trust this president any more than you do
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and and I think the scars that I bear from standing and fighting against him
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over and over again
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demonstrate that I don't trust this president but at the same time
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my top priority in the senate has been jobs and economic growth and when I ran
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for the senate in Texas
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Iran supporting free trade just like ronald reagan did
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I believe free trade benefits America American farmers and ranchers
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and and manufacturers that opening up foreign markets
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helps create jobs here at home in and that's why I supported pp I haven't
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taken a position
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on TBP cuz we need to see what senator first okay arm
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the senator just there's no question about it and I think this
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you have led the fight on many issues that goes without saying
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and I think this is why I've been a big supporter of yours
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me my listeners have been a big supporter of yours and
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honestly senator during no one doubts that I have to ask you know a couple
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mother followed her shitter
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have you read the trans-pacific partnership have you read the text from
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beginning to end
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the reason why I ask is as you know a good colleague Irv years a good friend
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and ally on many issues
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Senator Jeff Sessions a known as a straight shooter
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he's read the treaty per forgive me the taxed
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he says this is not a trade pact this is not your simple trade deal
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we're not talking now after we're not talking the US Korean trade deal
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were talking about something that is in many ways
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a political economic Union it leads to a Pacific Union
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it has a special TPP Commission
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embedded with certain powers that would eventually Trump
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american sovereignty on immigration on labor
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on the environment on commercial policy and even on food
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and so the question is this senator if you haven't read the tree from beginning
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to end
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and and people who have read the treaty and I read the wiki leaks which revealed
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some in the secret immigration chapters
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that are embedded within Obama trade it clearly creates an international
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commission
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why then would you vote for TPA
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and lower the trash all 250 votes plus one
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when you know then the president can bribe enough people
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to get fifty plus one because this is now no longer a trade deal
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you're creating now in many ways a supranational
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entity closer to the European Union why would Ted Cruz do that
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and trust this president when we know for the last six years
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he has been negotiating this completely in secret
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and he never has america's self-interest and heart
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well again there's a lot a lot a substance and that question so let's try
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to address it
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one at a time first of all yes I have read PPP I have gone to the classified
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setting in the capital and and read it
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I'm and wanna the sources are
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much over the concern is the fact that the text if PPP is classified
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I think that is idiotic I have publicly called repeatedly
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for the text pppp to be made public I i understand why people are naturally
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deeply suspicious cuz at the Texas secret
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this president has proven so lawless and so on trustworthy
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that every possible parade of horribles you can come up with people naturally
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assume
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it's gotta be in there because at the Texas secret they don't trust this
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president
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I get that I don't trust this president either but I've read this trade
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agreement
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you read it senator you read it word for word every science sat down and read and
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read the trade agreement
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is is Senator Sessions lying I what he is saying is not accurate
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that is not accurate on this trade agreement
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now at least the current trend with this is being negotiated to the stress change
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with the current draft that is in congress that I have read
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does not impact change alter or affect US immigration law
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there he is a brief section in
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and the PPP that kind
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earns issues and immigration but explicitly the United States doesn't
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join that section
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so it's it is a provisional a trade agreement between
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other countries that the United States the way trainees work sometimes
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countries join part of a treaty but not another party the tree
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the immigration Party United States has explicitly not joined
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beyond that I introduced legislation
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when TPA was being considered I introduced an amendment to make explicit
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that no trade agreement with impact immigration
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unfortunately two senators
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I Rand Paul
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and Lindsey Graham objected to allowing that amendment come up to about so it
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didn't get voted on in the Senate
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however the house representatives publicly agreed to include that
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amendment that I worked on with jeff Sessions
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the house to represent as it publicly agreed to include that amendment in the
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final text that they vote
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be on at that notion I love
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giving up sovereignty and an international body that can alter US law
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yes I have spent 20 years
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fighting to defend United States sovereignty there's no one in the senate
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who has been a stronger opponent and international bodies taking away our
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authority
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as you recall you and i talked about the case may be in versus Texas
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when I was the solicitor general a Texas the chief lawyer for the state of Texas
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I stood up and fought the world court and the United Nations
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which it issued an order but to the United States to reopen the convictions
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a 51 murders I went before the US Supreme Court
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on the other side was the world court was the United Nations
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or 90 foreign nations and was the present at the United States who I would
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note
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unfortunately was a Republican George W Bush and I stood up to my own party
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and to the world court in the land
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sending US sovereignty and we won 6-3
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and the supreme court rightly concluded
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that the world court in the united nations have no authority to bind the
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United States
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and the president of the united states has no authority to give up our
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sovereignty
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so when it comes to defending sovereignty there is no one
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who has fought the fight longer are harder then I have or more successfully
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and it is simply Paul that
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the TPP trade agreement
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gives up our sovereignty there there is nothing in PPAR TPP that can give a
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foreign body
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the ability to make binding law
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in the United States of America and under our constitution we talk about a
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minute ago
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there are two ways to make law it's not have a senate treaty
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ratified by two-thirds of the Senate where you can have a law adopted
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by both houses and signed into law by the president there is not
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a third option and so I
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fully understand the fears because we do not trust this president
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and because periodically the Texas secret people are naturally believing it
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does all these terrible things
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much the TPP does not do that and it
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tried to use this president tried to slip something in
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it would have to be approved by congress and by the way under the terms of the
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fast-track TPA
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any trade agreement including the PPP
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must be public at least sixty days attacks to that
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before it is voted on so i'd call repeatedly they should make detective it
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public today
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but even if the administration doesn't follow what I'm calling for
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the TPP cannot be voted on
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until the text has been public for at least
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sixty days which means you can read it word-for-word everyone else can we can
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have a
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all and robust debate about what senator senator I have to ask you just a couple
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more follow-up question sir
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when we did our town hall together I remember explicitly I ask you point
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blank about the TPA in the TPP
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it and you said to me and we have the Cape
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the UID not read the entire text the UN red
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parts of the tax not all the tax and that
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you said but not to worry cuz this was just according to you
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a standard trade pact listen to senator jeff Sessions
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I just because I'm either someone's lot someone's getting the information wrong
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so it's either you or Senator Sessions here is what senator session said
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on-the-record quote
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he's talking now about arm
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about the TPA and he says in particular
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he said that vs is not
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a trade deal it is much more
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%uh the treaty as he puts it close to having been to the closed room to review
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the secret acts
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on the TPP it is clear it more closely resembles a treaty then a trade deal
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he goes on to say quote the implications of this new Pacific Union
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are extraordinary and ought to be discussed
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in fall in public before congress
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even contemplates fast tracking its creation
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and preset pre surrendering its power to apply the constitutional two-thirds
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treaty vote
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he then goes on to say reviewing the secret taxed
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plus the secret guidance document that accompanies it
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reveals that this new transnational commissioned the PPP Commission
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chartered with a living agreement clause
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would have the authority to amend the agreement
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after its adoption to add new members
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and two issue regulations impacting labor
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immigration environmental and commercial policy
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senator is Senator Sessions making all this up
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number one number two the week just
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I'm free trade in general we're not talking about something
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hypothetically we've had free trade deals now for the last
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twenty-five years we've amassed eleven-point two trillion dollars
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in trade deficits now I know texas has benefited
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it's true three million jobs the border states have done well
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but if you go to Ohio if you go to Wisconsin if you go to illinois
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if you go to Michigan if you go to pennsylvania
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fifty-five thousand factories have been closed
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526 million jobs manufacturing jobs
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have been lost our manufacturing base has been gutted
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senator we've tried free trade and it's an
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absolute disaster why would we sign on
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to another mega-deal when we've had such a disaster
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for the last 25 years and for god sakes
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if there is this international commission by now voting for TPA
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you can't amend it you can strike it down
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it's now up to one up-or-down vote you put yourselves in a straitjacket
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why would you do that them well yet again there's there's a lot of substance
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there so let me try to go
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one at a time through the different things he said first of all
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up with regard to jeff Sessions just as a good a good friend of mine he and I
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have
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thought side by side on a great many issues
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I'm and I like and respect
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jeff Sessions very much I'm what he
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is describing their about what this will do is simply not accurate
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I respect is he is but it's not accurate I had read
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this agreement now what I told you in the town hall is this is a sec seven
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hundred-page agreement
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I'm a careful enough lawyers I'm not gonna represent the years I have studied
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yet the way one word for weeks and weeks on and two the way one word during the
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sixty days when it is public
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I'm in a sec 700-page agreement can there be
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is things buried in a footnote in a the that one doesn't see sure
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II Weatherly concede that by
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it is not accurate to say this is
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undermining our sovereignty and any agreement did undermine our sovereignty
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I would fight against tooth-and-nail it is
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simply false to say this would create some transnational body
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that could change US laws now
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you mentioned we've had free trade agreements in the past away free trade
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agreements
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have worked in the past is there had been tribunal so the two countries agree
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we're gonna lower tariffs were gonna lower tariffs on a week
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will lower tariffs on we coming and our country lower tariffs on we coming into
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your country
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our farmers gunship week back and forth to each other pass trade agreements and
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the TPP is like this
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include a tribunal that if one other countries
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jacked up tariffs on we didn't violate
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the agreement the other country can go to enter
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an international arbiter and J they're violating their agreement to lower
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tariffs on wheat
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and the consequences at the International every tribunal says you're
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right
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they're not following the agreement the consequences
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under the agreement the other country can jack up its tariffs as well
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without violating the agreement now regardless of what the tribunal says
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that the tribunal says
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you can or can't jack up your terrace
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each country always rain retains the sovereignty to decide its own laws
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the Tribunal has no authority to change
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anything to change one word are
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any law in America under our Constitution is
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only the US government they can do so now you made a day a second point
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about free trade and and yeah beyond you I perhaps made may disagree on on the
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benefits of free trade I am very much
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a ronald reagan free-trader that I believe american farmers and ranchers
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and manufactures when we open up for markets
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we compete and do better but let me point out you're absolutely right when
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you say
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they're working men and women have been a hammock across this country
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but it hasn't been because a free-trade one of the worst things that happened
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is use see democrats you see union bosses blame the job losses were saying
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on free trade
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you wanna know why we got a job losses we got a job losses
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because Obamacare we've got job losses because a crippling
22:07
regulations we got job losses because sell it in the Obama EPA they're
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destroying small businesses are hammering jobs
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and what I'm trying to do he's bringing back the sort of environment
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let's take for example energy we are experiencing an incredible energy
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Renaissance
22:26
in america a shale revolution and yet the Obama administration's doing
22:30
everything they can
22:32
to feel that energy red revolution now I am fighting
22:36
for unleashing the energy resources we have in america
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and what that will do which re-creating millions of high-paying jobs if we get
22:45
the federal government had a way to stop being an
22:48
enemy American energy independence
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that will bring back millions of high-paying manufacturing jobs
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blue-collar jobs factory jobs
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steel industry will let us compete with nations like China
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not based on low-cost labor but are abundant
23:07
low-cost energy that we have here and and
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lessen the Obama administration would love to
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her sorry to cut you off but we all know about 50 seconds left so please just
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finish go ahead please finish up our
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what I was saying the Obama administration would love for all of us
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to blame the crippling job losses under under its administration on free trade
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that is not because it is the abuse of power the taxes the regulations
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Obamacare
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and we need a fight to stop it senator
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I'm sorry and I we are all on more times than US sovereignty in the constitution
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our senator here stand up guy thank you very much for coming on the corner
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report we really appreciated
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arm hopefully we will have you back on again if we have any more questions
23:51
but thank you so much senator thank you Jeff got my god bless you take care
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