Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. I appreciate the time. Mr. Speaker, hardworking families across the heartland know firsthand what the negative impacts of trade can look like. They have lived through it in places like Galesburg, Illinois, when the Maytag plant padlocked its gates and sent every last one of those jobs to Mexico. They lived through it in Freeport, Illinois, when venture capitalists bought out the Sensata factory and sent every last one of those jobs over to China. And today, at the end of planting season, corn growers and soybean farmers and pork producers all across the heartland are getting hit in their wallet by the Trump trade war. Mr. Speaker, 2 weeks ago I rode in a John Deere tractor with a young soybean farmer named Jared Kunkle while he was planting his soybeans. You see, right now as planting season is wrapping up, our farmers are making a lot of tough decisions. That is because in Illinois and many of our neighboring States, our soybean farmers sell about a quarter of their crops to China. In fact, in Illinois, if our State was its own country, we would be the fourth largest producer of soybeans in the world. So when President Trump's thumbs got the better of him and started tweeting us into a trade war with China, there were very real consequences for the families that I serve. To be clear, those consequences and the harm and uncertainty that they are generating is being felt right now.…”