THE SEAN HANNITY SHOW

Trade Deal Debacle The United States is considering a number of international trade deals. What exactly is in these trade deals? We don't know, because for the most part they are secret. But Republicans are about to give Obama fast-track authority to approve them. What is going on here? There are currently three big international trade deals in the works. They are the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), the Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA), and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP). So what is happening now is that Congress is currently considering a vote on Trade Promotion Authority (TPA). The vote is scheduled in the House for this Friday. TPA essentially gives Obama the authority to negotiate international trade deals without being subjected to Congressional changes or amendments. While these agreements would be subject to Congressional approval, the negotiations of the specifics of these deals is left up to the Executive (Obama). What exactly is in these trade deals? Your guess is as good as mine. The problem is that these trade deals are being negotiated in secret. Not even members of Congress know the contents of two of the deals. They have access to the text of one – TPP – but they have to go to a secret room in the Capitol to read it. Amazingly enough, some Republicans are supportive of giving Obama the authority to negotiate these trade deals that we the people, and even the Congress, hasn't read! Paul Ryan had a Nancy Pelosi-esque moment this week when he told the Rules Committee, “It’s declassified and made public once it’s agreed to.” So we have to pass the bill to find out what's in it? America has fallen for that one before. These trade deals may be good. Who knows? But that's the problem. If they are so good, then why the secrecy? Perhaps they are secret because things like this: Word has it that these trade deals include all sorts of changes to U.S. laws on immigration and climate change. At least Paul Ryan is trying to do something to prevent this from happening. He has included language in a separate customs bill that would “ensure that trade agreements do not require changes to U.S. law or obligate the United States with respect to global warming or climate change.” As this Bloomberg article points out, this issue has made for some very strange political alliances. Nonetheless, the Obama administration has given us no reason to trust them in negotiating secret deals that could potentially change U.S. law. U.S. Officially Largest Oil and Natural Gas Producer The United States is officially the biggest oil and natural-gas producer in the world, overtaking Russia as the top producer. Much of this growth is thanks to shale production on private or state-owned land in America, and no thanks to the federal government. According to the Heritage Foundation's analysis of a Congressional Research Service report, “Since 2007, federal production of natural gas both on and offshore fell 33 percent. On state and private lands, it grew 40 percent over the same time frame. Crude oil production on federal lands in 2012 was below 2007 levels but grew 35 percent on non-federal lands since then.” Source: Fox News & the Heritage Foundation