Who In Congress Has Read the TPP? You'll Never Know

6/14/2014

With so much controversy about the TPP and reasonable concern, I can only continue to admit that I have no firm opinion because unlike Nancy Pelosi, I cant decide to give something a pass or fail until I know what it is made up of. There seems to be a spectrum of opinions and some people are finding several of them surprising. I can't help but wonder how so many explanations of what it is and whether we should support it, fear it or just wait and see can be formulated when a very few people have read all of it if any. Those people are limited to members of Congress who aren't allowed to tell us what is in it so around we go back to an agreement of unknown contents! But someone else has to know what is in it. Those pages didn't magically appear out of thin air.

My understanding of the situation is that members of congress have been to the secret room, or maybe I should say the room of secrets, but that the list of who has been there is not available. Yet I continue to see false reports that not even Congress can see what is in it and I see a lot of concern expressed about this even though it isn't true. Just tonight I read a fresh Breitbart article saying no one can read it. So why is a site like Breitbart telling us that? Aren't they supposed to be our champions for truth?

At any rate I am laying back in wait before I make a final opinion of what I think about the entire thing until I know what it is. I do NOT think it should be so secretive but it is open to Congress to examine and my call to action is to contact my own representatives, (cough) and ask if they have read it in whole or in part and what their opinion of it is. I would also like to know if they support it being kept in such secrecy.

When I think of the secretiveness, I think of some of my own deals that I have made with companies or clients and how I would not have wanted the details to be known for good reason. Is this any different in terms of the capacity to jeopardize the terms to the point that if it were open to the public the whole deal might as well not even be negotiated? I can't decide how to view that part of it. I'm sure thousands upon thousands of deals leading to bills have been made out of view so it is also hard for me to compartmentalize this one in a "different" category. I know this isn't the popular view but it is the only one I have.

According to the article below the secrecy may be the very cause of the collapse of the TPP. So be it, and then that means in the end the secrecy was a good thing right? Who knows? I bet Nancy Pelosi doesn't know, after all they haven't passed it yet.