Cruz reverses support for TPA trade bill, blasts GOP leaders

Ted Cruz is reversing his position on a major trade bill, calling it a “corrupt” backdoor deal between Republican leaders and the White House.

The Texas firebrand and Republican 2016 presidential hopeful had been a vocal supporter of trade legislation, even co-authoring a Wall Street Journal op-ed in April saying that the fast-track bill, known as Trade Promotion Authority, is a “fair deal” for the American worker. In May, he voted to advance the TPA bill, which also included a worker aid package favored by Democrats.


But just hours before a decisive Tuesday vote, Cruz is changing his tune. He says he will vote to block the TPA bill, citing a series of deals between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Democrats — namely over an unrelated issue dealing with the Export-Import Bank. He also contends that a separate trade deal being worked out by Obama could change immigration laws and not give Congress a say.

In a fiery op-ed on the conservative Breitbart website, Cruz lashes Obama and GOP leaders, saying the American people “do not trust” them.

“Enough is enough,” Cruz said. “I cannot vote for TPA unless McConnell and Boehner both commit publicly to allow the Ex-Im Bank to expire—and stay expired.”

The announcement is significant because free-trade proponents have no margin for error. They cannot lose more than three Senate votes from last May on the procedural motion to end debate on the TPA bill. If they do, the fast-track bill could die — and with it, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the most sweeping trade bill in history.

“Why does Republican Leadership always give in to the Democrats? Why does Leadership always disregard the promises made to the conservative grassroots?” he wrote.

Cruz, who has long aligned himself with the tea party wing of the party, has taken some flak from the right for backing the trade bill initially — so voting “no” now could insulate himself from some of that criticism. Yet it could further alienate himself from big business and deep-pocketed donors who are staunch proponents of expanded markets.

Cruz cites a deal cut on the Senate floor last month between McConnell and Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) that would give Congress a vote to extend the charter of the expiring Ex-Im Bank, an entity that Cruz says is riddled with “corporate welfare.”

Cruz suggests that McConnell misled him last month on the day of the trade vote.

“At lunch that day, I asked Majority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell what precise deal had been cut to pass TPA,” Cruz wrote. “Visibly irritated, he told me and all my Republican colleagues that there was no deal whatsoever; rather, he simply told them they could use the ordinary rules to offer whatever amendments they wanted on future legislation. “

He added: “Taking McConnell at his word that there was no deal on Ex-Im, I voted yes on TPA because I believe the U.S. generally benefits from free trade, and without TPA historically there have been no free-trade agreements.”

The U.S. Trade Representative’s office, meanwhile, disputes Cruz’s assertions in his Breitbart op-ed that the TPA could change federal immigration law.

“We have been abundantly clear that we are not proposing and will not agree to anything that changes U.S. immigration law, procedure, or practice,” said U.S. Trade Representative spokesman Matt McAlvanah.