Steve Lynch: “it has been about a year since this Congress voted to give the President fast track authority, and now we are seeing the…”

“it has been about a year since this Congress voted to give the President fast track authority, and now we are seeing the first fruits of that effort, and I must say that for the democratic process and for our constitutional government and for the American workers, this is bitter fruit indeed. It is sadly ironic that a half a world away we have about a quarter of a million American sons and daughters who are fighting and dying every day to remove a hostile regime both in Iraq and in Afghanistan with the hope and the purpose of bringing democratic rights, individual rights, human rights to the people in those countries. Yet here we are today with an agreement in which the U.S. Trade Representative has the ability to serve the same purpose with the stroke of a pen, and yet the U.S. Trade Representative has chosen not to do that. We have fumbled an opportunity to strike a blow for democracy in these agreements. We should remember that our trade policy is an essential tool of democracy, and arguably the United States Trade Representative could have accomplished much on our behalf in these agreements, and I think Congress needs to get back into the process.”