Louie Gohmert: “We had an interesting vote today on the trade agreement, and I know my friends at Club for Growth have scored that. They…”

“We had an interesting vote today on the trade agreement, and I know my friends at Club for Growth have scored that. They wanted people to vote ``yes'' because they believed, as some have said, it is about free trade; but it is a bit ironic for those who follow politics because, on the one hand, Republicans were being told this will allow us to force the President to keep us apprised, to give us notice of what is going on so that we can reign anything in that is not helpful to the country. I didn't have that impression of the bill, not when reading the TPA, not going to the classified setting. I mean, I did that; I read the TPP, most of it. Having been a lawyer and a judge, prosecutor, done defense, a chief justice, I have litigated a lot of loopholes. There are a lot of loopholes in that TPP. There were loopholes in the TPA. {time} 1430 One of my Democratic friends was telling me, Mr. Speaker, that he was being told that the whole reason the President came up here is that, by passing this trade agreement, it is going to allow the President to get his agenda done in the next 18 months without Congress being able to stop him. Some of my Democratic friends prefer that Congress have more say than that, and some were not happy with the proposal at all. They also were smart enough to know there are a lot of American jobs that will be lost because of that bill. I am not an isolationist. I believe in free trade, but I don't believe in free rein for a President.…”