Posted under Conservatism & Economics & Free Trade & Globalism & Korea Trade Deal
I am working on a series of articles on the KORUS agreement, but I thought I would post this to give CHT’s readers a taste of what is to come. Your feedback would be welcome.
Conservatives relentlessly complain, appropriately so, that the Fed Gov does too much. With the recent reemergence of Constitutionalism, this is even more the case. This Constitutionalism is characterized by the belief that the Feds can only do that which they are specifically authorized to do, primarily in Article 1 Section 8, and nothing more. This can be called the enumerated powers doctrine.
This renewed focus on enumerated powers and constitutional limits is welcomed, but it should not be forgotten that it can also be a problem when Congress fails to do those things it is specifically authorized to do. Congress is specifically authorized to regulate foreign commerce and set tariffs. But actually making laws is hard and dirty work, and trade laws are particularly fraught with political difficulties. That is why we end up with these “free trade” agreements which are negotiated by unelected trade representative that then must be “fast tracked” so as to limit debate. This represents a failure of will on the part of Congress. While this unsavory end around the normal legislative process may not be unconstitutional per se, what Congress can’t do constitutionally is fob off to supranational entities powers that are specifically vested in Congress.
Here we have an inherent problem with KORUS as with NAFTA before it. The agreement cedes authority over our domestic trade matters to the United Nations and the World Bank. Foreign corporations can challenge federal and even state laws by dragging the US before foreign tribunals. This is an intolerable outrage and no patriotic American should stand for it.
Sovereignty is an issue that unites left and right, but my main audience here is conservatives. No conservative, whether a free-trader or a fair trader, should be willing to stand by while Congress effectively punts its responsibilities to globalist bureaucrats. Let your Representative know how you feel. Tell them to vote no on the sovereignty trashing managed trade KORUS boondoggle.
Weaver on 19 Feb 2011 at 12:13 am #
It sounds good. It’s outrageous that the UN and World Bank rule on American laws, however I wouldn’t mind seeing Bush and Clinton brought before the UN for war mongering.
Nate on 19 Feb 2011 at 7:35 am #
How can real moral conservative patriotic Americans like Buzz Brockway even stand to live in the same state as conspiritorial anti-American communist trash like Red Phillips?
Why Conservatives Should Oppose KORUS | Stop U.S.-Korea NAFTA on 20 Feb 2011 at 8:20 pm #
[...] [Continue Reading] var host = (("https:" == document.location.protocol) ? "https://secure." : "http://"
;document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + host + "wufoo.com/scripts/embed/form.js' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E")); var q7x3s5 = new WufooForm(); q7x3s5.initialize({ 'userName':'koreanafta', 'formHash':'q7x3s5', 'autoResize':true, 'height':'320'}); q7x3s5.display(); About the Korea NAFTA Barack Obama is pushing a NAFTA-Style Korea Free Trade agreement that would undermine America's sovereignty, laws and economy. No true conservative or Constitutionalist should support this agreement because it sells out U.S. Sovereignty. [...]
Eunomia » The Consequences of the Lousy Trade Agreements on 09 Jun 2011 at 5:04 pm #
[...] Dan Phillips at Conservative Heritage Times, who is also a regular commenter here, has been making the conservative case against KORUS for quite a [...]