Thom & Renee: the hit of The Ripon Society’s party
For those of you who may not be familiar with this Ripon crowd, they were founded to counter the rise of the Goldwater / Reagan people in the GOP and to return the party to the grand old days of Nelson Rockefeller and Teddy Roosevelt. Basically, they are into a slight variation of the statism favored by the Democrats.
Well, in May, the Second District’s Big Government Barbie and our rookie US senator were the star attractions at the Riponites’ meeting:
Senator Thom Tillis (NC) spoke to a breakfast meeting of The Ripon Society yesterday morning, delivering a speech in which he discussed his first few months in office and a number of critical issues affecting his home state, including Trade Promotion Authority.
“If we don’t take the opportunity to get TPA now, we won’t have it if we have a Republican President in 2017,” he stated. “It will be structurally impossible to get it done as this is a six-year agreement. We ultimately have to get trade agreements done if we are to be a serious global player in trade. So hopefully we will be able to get folks to come together.”
Before you go on, here is some key info on TPA, TAA, and TPP. MORE:
[…]Senator Tillis also described what he sees his role is within the Senate Republican conference as a freshman and why he’s aiming for legislative “singles and doubles.”
“My goal is to be defined as one of the most effective and intensely boring Members of the U.S. Senate. While everyone else is chasing the shiny objects that will always be questionable as to whether or not you can get it done, I want the singles and doubles. I want the things that you can put into regulatory reform measures that can make an impact. They’re not necessarily going to get you on TV, but they will get you to a point that over time will have an enormously positive impact on the business climate.
“I saw it in North Carolina – four straight years of regulatory reform. That’s why we are now third in CEO Magazine for being the most business-friendly climate. We weren’t even in the top-10 a few years ago. We went from 44th to 16th in tax reform because we systematically reduced the tax burden. On unemployment, we went from fourth to now under the national average. Very few of those were done with home runs, but with a series of bills that in the aggregate had an enormously positive impact on North Carolina. That’s the sort of thing that I want to work on right now as a freshman – support all of the big bills from the senior Members and I will try to go in and make them better through suggestions on amendments or through measures that are simply focused on singles and doubles.”
Senator Tillis was introduced by Congresswoman Renee Ellmers (NC-2). In her remarks, she praised his considerable background in business and pointed to a specific joint-issue that they are currently teaming up to address.
Gosh. Teaming up with Nee-Nee. *WHAT could go WRONG?*
“Thom is an American success story,” Ellmers proclaimed. “He is someone who brought himself up through the channels on his own and made it to the top by becoming part of an incredible leadership team at PricewaterhouseCoopers and a real leader there. Then he moved on to the House of Representatives in North Carolina where he came to the forefront and helped change the majority from Democr
at to Republican. We’ve seen a real transformative time in North Carolina and Thom was part of that as Speaker of the House. He really led his fellow Members. He was a voice of leadership and a voice of strength.
“We’re working on some efforts together right now representing Fort Bragg – which is a huge responsibility for me. We have some issues with the dismantling of the 440thAirlift Wing that we feel very strongly is a shortsighted initiative by the Air Force. We’ve been working very closely on that, and he’s been so sensible and pragmatic. I think he is going to be a huge leader in the Senate moving forward, and I know we will continue to work together on so many different issues.”
[…]In response to a question on trade, Senator Tillis also warned of the consequences that would occur if fast-track authority is not approved for robust trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
“If we have an isolationist mentality with regard to building relationships with our trading partners, the vacuum will be filled by China in a heartbeat,” he said. “We’re playing checkers with the TPA discussion and maybe TPP while they’re playing chess throughout the globe. This is the best opportunity to really stem that tide.
“I tell everyone, look: ‘NAFTA absolutely decimated certain areas of North Carolina – particularly in textiles and furniture. Now, we’ve recovered and a part of that happened because we didn’t really have that diversified of an economy back then.’ That trade agreement happened to impact us in a very negative way and there are some deep scars and wounds in North Carolina over that.
“There are a few friends of mine who are concerned over TPA, and people who share concerns with Senator Portman and me over currency manipulation. But I think we can take steps to get there outside of TPA and we just have to go and have those honest discussions. I believe that if we do it, then over a reasonably short period of time we will see the benefits of it because it happens to be one of the few issues that the President and the new majorities in Congress are on the same page with. If we miss this opportunity, there will be no TPA for the next President and we will fall very far behind in terms of trade over the next six years.”
Tillis is clueless–he thinks we have recovered from the disastrous Bush II 2008 crash? Tell that to the thousands of unemployed NC textile and furniture workers.
Sorry, but “TPA” and “an isolationist mentality” are not opposite things.
I’m all for free trade… but TPA is not that, and it’s not required to engage in free trade with other countries. All it does is limit Congress’s authority, and gives politicians the ability to push through trade deals with less accountability.
Ugh, these Dem-lite guys.
Traitors
Jesse Helms or John East or Lauch Faircloth would not have even accepted an invitation from a liberal bunch like the Ripon Society. The Ripon Society is the ultimate clique of Obama Republicans, and anyone who chums with them needs to be replaced in a primary.
To be against TPA is not being against Free Trade. Giving Obama 18 months of unchecked power is a bad precedent and that is why TPA is a bad idea.
Under the TPA ,Congress is required to vote on every single trade agreement, without modification (Up/down). No cloture votes, no committee scrutiny.
If your Representative is in the Ripon Society (especially on the board) or if your representative is a member of the “Tuesday Morning Group,” they are not conservative.
I have grown weary of the idiotic straw man attack on “isolationists.” I don’t know of anyone who wants to close our borders to trade. What we want is congress to come down from their power high and do what they are supposed to do – act as the representatives of the people, the states, and be the executive. We don’t need party loyalty and the tyranny of a single man having so much authority. How can congress give away the authority of debate and amendment to a single man. Are they so deluded to believe that straight up and down votes constitute the proper role of Congress? Nee-nee and Toll Road Thom are two of the biggest sellouts we have after Burr. Wonder how both their net worths are doing? My guess is growing by leaps and bounds…
Is this the modern day Republican Party? If not somebody better do something quick.
Nothing will change unless true conservatives will run for office. True conservatives with a succinct but dynamic message (and NOT someone who lectures the public on the Constitution–which died yesterday w the SCOTUS Obamacare decision). Where ARE they??? Jim Duncan is great vs Barbie but where are the conservatives running against POS McCrory, Burr, NC House Rhinos?? Our cowardice/apathy is part of the reason why we are in this dismal state.
Good question. As I pointed out in another post, there were people ready to challenge McCrory four years ago when he looked (and was) inevitable. Six years ago, Richard Burr had at least two Primary challenges. They may have been no-names but even then, I had Burr’s number and voted for anybody but Burr. Hope they reappear in the next six months because the Party rank-and-file deserve a choice.
It takes a lot of money.
Heck, the Democrats cannot even come up with a candidate to face Burr.
A self funder would help on that score. Maybe Art Pope for US Senate?
Recall Thom! It worked in Colorado. It can work here!
Rene Ellmers: she won in NC by getting the librats to vote in the primary and after that, all she had to do is beat the hollywood and militant gay financed Clay Aikin(D). She would have lost in the primary’s had it not been for underhanded trick of making sure her REAL CONSTITUENTS (libmarxist & RINO’s), changed the intended process of fair representation. The demonrats have NO moral compass other than the end justifies the means. That pain conservatives feel in their back?… it’s Rene’s knife.
Ellmers is despised by the majority of conservatives in NC….Justifiably so