Sam Gejdenson: “I would join my friend from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) in having universal health coverage, but that is not the debate today.…”

“I would join my friend from Vermont (Mr. Sanders) in having universal health coverage, but that is not the debate today. The debate today is whether this program helps or hurts Americans and American workers. I would argue that $52 billion in exports that OPIC facilitated helps American workers, that almost $3 billion in the U.S. the Treasury in fees from these corporations, not welfare, but charges to these corporations giving us profits in every year that OPIC has operated in, $20 million in 1970, in excess of $200 million in 1997, and even during the Asian financial crisis $138 million, and anticipated back over to $200 million next year. What this does is help American jobs, helps us export manufacturing, helps America's international national foreign policy get executed. It is cheaper than a Marshall Plan and it helps American jobs. The gentlemen who are opposing this amendment have good intentions, but they are dead wrong.”