It’s time for the degraded Senate to try to heal itself
Shortly before the Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, contemplated the president’s misbehavior, it demonstrated its own flair for disregarding rules and violating norms. Done with bipartisan bonhomie, the episode illuminates the decay of government.
Bill Clinton’s finest achievement as president, the North American Free Trade Agreement, passed in 1993 with more Senate and House support from Republicans (34 and 132) than from Democrats (27 and 102). Many Democrats predicted devastation of U.S. manufacturing. Today manufacturing capacity is 66% larger than in 1994. Undeterred by evidence, Trump termed NAFTA “the worst trade deal ever.”
As president he is replacing it with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, which is remarkably similar to NAFTA, with two significant exceptions: It is
FROM THE RIGHT
the first U.S. trade agreement designed to decrease trade, and it is larded with Democratic policy objectives.
As Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., notes, under NAFTA there were zero tariffs on 100% of manufactured goods and 97.5% of agricultural products that crossed the three nations’ borders. U.S. exports to Mexico increased 500%. The USMCA’s constructive modernizations of NAFTA are, Toomey says, “mostly taken from the Trans-Pacific Partnership,” which was negotiated by the Obama administration, and for that reason was anathema to Trump. His scrapping of the TPP was a gift to China.
The USMCA ends free trade in automobiles and auto parts with Mexico: By imposing impossible minimum-wage requirements on Mexican factories, the USMCA guarantees that cars and parts will be subject to tariffs — taxes paid by U.S. consumers.
The USMCA’s substance is regrettable. The process that produced it was more so because it was lawless.
Agreements that fully comply with the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) cannot be amended and can be passed by a simple majority. But the USMCA did not comply: The implementing legislation was not submitted to Congress 30 days before a committee or floor vote on it, a requirement necessary if Congress is to perform its constitutional duty to establish trade policy.
The Senate and its once-formidable Finance Committee are, Toomey believes, being “marginalized” and made “irrelevant” as the executive wields authority delegated to it by Congress — but without Congress insisting on compliance with the terms of the delegation. The question, Toomey says, is: “Are we willing to enforce our own law that governs this body?”
Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., felt similarly in December when Congress “passed a $1.4 trillion spending extravaganza, complete with half a trillion dollars in tax cuts and a bevy of favors for special interests — all without debate and without committee consideration.” The $300 billion “Cadillac tax,” a restraint on lavish employer-provided health plans, was repealed. This demonstrated Congress cannot repeal Obamacare but will not pay for it. Amendments were not allowed, and the Senate voted on the bill less than three days after it was unveiled.
In the 116th Congress, now in its second year, there have been, Toomey notes, votes on just 20 amendments. The president’s institutional vandalism is partially explained, although not excused, by the breadth and depth of his ignorance concerning the manners and mores of a republic. The Senate’s self-degradation is even more depressing.