Sam Gibbons: “as we all know, the President and his entourage just recently returned from a 9-day, taxpayer-paid, $50 million trip to…”

“as we all know, the President and his entourage just recently returned from a 9-day, taxpayer-paid, $50 million trip to China. It appears that America's tough-talking trade representative, Charlene Barshefsky, has shunned and even ignored American trade law. My word, Mr. Speaker, we now have the Barshefsky Beanie Baby Capergate. Apparently, the President's trade rep, who is supposed to know, who is supposed to understand, who is supposed to follow trade laws, was caught red-handed in China's unregulated back-alley Beanie-Baby black market. Barshefsky illegally acquired a boatload of Beanie Babies while in Beijing and tried to bring them back to the United States. ``Whoa, not so fast,'' said the U.S. Customs, since it is illegal to purchase these toys in China. Well, what is next? I hope the Clinton Administration does not think that this is an even trade for the top-secret missile technology they just gave them. With a $50 billion U.S. trade deficit, maybe the Chinese were secretly paying off the Clinton Administration with Barshefsky Beanie Babies. I yield back to the American people any legal Beanie Babies not hiding in the White House.”