John Kerry: “let me answer my friend from Texas. There is no stronger debater, there is nobody obviously we know who is more capable…”

“let me answer my friend from Texas. There is no stronger debater, there is nobody obviously we know who is more capable of making an argument, but this is an argument in which the Senator is flat, dead wrong. Only five cases are pending today that were brought against the United States in which we are a defendant under chapter 11. No case has yet been decided. When he says we have never lost a case, no case has been decided in which the United States is a defendant. We are currently a defendant in five cases, and there were only six cases until 1998. Since then, there have been another five cases. What the attorneys general of our States and the conference of mayors of our States and those responsible for the taxpayer--I mean, the businesses are sitting there, many of them with offshore interests, many of them not paying any taxes. It is not going to come out of their pocket, but the average American taxpayer is going to feel the bite if we have an expropriation case decided against an American company that comes against, say, the State of California or another State, and that is going to come out of the pockets of our citizens. Secondly, the Senator from Texas is absolutely incorrect when he suggests this is going to leave our companies defenseless abroad. Let me be very specific. If a foreign government overreaches, the same investor-state mechanism will exist. We do not take away the investor- state relationship. We honor it.”