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| AP Photo/Carolyn Caster |
The “ObamaTrade”– Trade in International Services Agreement– bill being debated in the Senate currently includes a proposal to relax visa requirements for Pakistani nationals, in addition to a number of other provisions that have conservatives up in arms.
To be perfectly frank, the early skepticism about the Trade Promotion Authority fast-track bill, which has come to be known among many critics as “ObamaTrade” because of the authority it gives the President, seemed understandable but perhaps a touch overdone. Pro- and anti-free-trade sentiments mixed with partisan animosity on both sides to produce a blizzard of confusion, through which Republican leaders are evidently expected to march and whip President Obama’s Democrat caucus into line for him.
As resistance to the bill has mounted, its proponents have taken to making statements that indicate they either have not read it, do not understand it, or are not being honest about what it does. An unappealing hint of Failure Theater began rising from GOP leadership. And then Wikileaks dumped some documents we were not supposed to see on the Internet, and people began finding all sorts of little surprises tucked into the flabby folds of the legislation.
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