Amelia
Rookie
- Banned
- #41
Ameilia, your argument merely inflames and is not accurate. The concept, downsizing and streamlining, makes conservative sense. The GOP will have to meet him somewhere along the plane. If such a bill passes this year, both parties can claim credit, and the GOP can honestly state it is not obstructionist.
Bipartisan response was swift in opposition to the plan. That says a whole lot about this proposal. If the president thinks it is a good idea to make an announcement like this without even making sure that members of his party think it is a good idea, then that is very troublesome.
The chairmen and senior opposition members of the House of Representatives and Senate committees which regulate trade all reacted sceptically to the proposal. A joint statement by Dave Camp, Republican chairman of the House ways and means committee, and Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate finance committee, said: “Taking USTR, one of the most efficient agencies that is a model of how government can and should work, and making it just another corner of a new bureaucratic behemoth would hurt American exports and hinder American job creation.”
USTR, which conducts trade negotiations and brings legal cases against other governments to the World Trade Organisation, is a relatively small agency located within the presidency rather than a separate government department. Administration officials have said that one aim of a reorganisation would be to bring the much bigger resources of the commerce department to bear on negotiation and litigation.
But the commerce department is in charge of “trade defence” – blocking imports deemed to be priced unfairly low or illicitly state-subsidised – and some experts and lawyers said that a merger will slow down the USTR and make it more vulnerable to lobbying by protectionist domestic industries.
Obama revamp aims to cut trade bureaucracy - FT.com
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