Pre-Debunking Media Distortion - Congress can not "block" the Iran peace agreement.

[Fred Sanders]

Last edited Tue Jul 14, 2015, 07:04 PM - Edit history (5)

"Towards the end of the 60-day review period, both the House and Senate will probably vote on a resolution of approval or disapproval. The exact mechanism is unclear, but this is likely to require a simple majority in both chambers to pass – ie 51 of the 100 senators and 218 of the 435 representatives. Since many Republicans are opposed to the deal and currently command a majority in both House and Senate, it is quite possible that a joint disapproval resolution would pass.

The catch is that the president can veto any attempt to make such a resolution enforceable – and on Tuesday in his statement on the deal he vowed to do so. To override a presidential veto requires a second vote to be passed with a two-thirds majority in both chambers: a high hurdle that would have to include at least 42 Democrats in the House and a dozen Democratic senators – probably more, if some Republicans chose to back the administration.

In other words, Obama can stick to his deal as long as he persuades at least one-third of one chamber of Congress to vote with him over the course of the four votes. Conversely, his opponents have to persuade a significant number of Democrats to stand up against their president on the most important foreign policy question of his administration – four times in a row."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/14/iran-nuclear-deal-what-will-the-us-do-now
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Obama pre-positioned the chess pieces two months ago when he quietly had Congress accept these conditions.

Not to mention Germany, China, France and Russia are not controlled by the American Congress and can lift the crippling sanctions that brought Iran to the negotiating table in the first place.

Last I looked those countries can supply everything America can to peaceful Iran.

The King had already castled.


"The deal, in the next week to 10 days, will be sent to the U.N. Security Council -- Iran's negotiating partners included all the permanent members of the Security Council and Germany. There, it will be codified by a new resolution once the IAEA certifies that Iran has stuck to its commitments regarding its enrichment capabilities.

This will lead to the Security Council dropping its wide-reaching sanctions on the Iranian regime, which have crippled the country's economy. If it violates any terms of the deal, sanctions could be snapped back on Tehran within 65 days."

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"Tough talk from Washington does not solve problems," Obama said. "Hard-nosed diplomacy, leadership that has united the world's major powers offers a more effective way to verify that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear weapon."

PDF of Full Text of Agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (159 pages)

https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2165399/full-text-of-the-iran-nuclear-deal.pdf

[Iliyah]

1. PEACE is a bad word to conservatives

[Fred Sanders]

2. Asshat WSJ even refuses to acknowledge the Republican war whores were snookered long ago.

"The nuclear deal will fan intense political debate in Washington, where Congress may vote within 60 days on the agreement. As a last resort, the Obama administration may have to rely on the support of Democrats to uphold a presidential veto if the Republican-led Congress votes to overturn the agreement."

Distortion. Obama holds all the cards. Congress can and probably will "disapprove" of the deal but they can not block enforcement...it is all pissing into the welcoming media wind for Republicans.

"Compassion" is what the Republicans have lost, abandoning peace is a consequence.

[karynnj]

3. Not to mention, the Congress can only impact US sanctions

Obama controls our UN vote and I don't recall anything saying that he has to vote against his own agreement. Though them overriding a veto would be intensely embarrassing, the truth is that it is the international sanctions, not the US ones that matter most. (This assumes that Iran keeps the deal - even if the US refuses to eliminate our sanctions.)

The Congress forgets it is an international deal -- and neither they or Netanyahu have a huge vote.

Still I would expect that the large number of serious Republican ex foreign policy people who praised the Lusanne framework, will be out helping them gain support. One I hope is in the mix is Lugar, who I think commands some respect still from the non tea party Republicans.

[still_one]

4. as long as their are enough Democrats to allow the veto to occur. It requires a 2/3 majority in

both the house and senate for that to occur, and though the odds are against preventing a veto override, it is still a remote possibility

[Ikonoklast]

5. Very few understand what was previously agreed to by the Republican leadership in Congress.

This is the most telling statement:

"Obama pre-positioned the chess pieces two months ago when he quietly had Congress accept these conditions."


Republican politicians got their piece of cake out of the negotiations with the White House, they get to demagogue against what they already know is essentially a done deal with Iran.

If they did not want this to be done, they would never had agreed to those conditions to begin with.


They may have agreed to go along with the deal in private, and this deal on the voting procedure then allows them to publicly vote against it to politically pander to their base.

They will all say, "I voted against the Iran nuclear deal!", "I voted to protect Israel!", "I voted because argle-bargle!", knowing full right well that in essence, it is going to pass.

The current political posturing over passing the Iran nuclear deal, the threats to filibuster, the rending of clothes and gnashing of teeth by Republicans is all just so much political theater.

[Fred Sanders]

6. Yes, and some of those very few seem to be almost all in the mass media.

[Ikonoklast]

7. That bastion of reasonable debate, critical thinking skills, understanding of how politics works?

Unbelievable, I know.


As an aside, I miss the likes of Bill Buckley.

Never agreed with much of what he espoused, but a brilliant political mind. If he were alive today, i'd love to hear him comment on the current state of his party and those running it.