Political Quotes

“I thank my colleague, and I understand his good intentions and desire to get to the same place, which is to get China to behave fairly. I certainly will look at his bill. I simply say this: Growing up in Brooklyn, we had to deal with a lot of bullies. The only time bullies give in is when you stand up to them. The proposal my colleague has made does not stand up to China. The nations of the world have made their opinions clear. Recently, Brazil did. China doesn't care. They will only care if there are sanctions, tough sanctions that give consequences to their unfair--and usually illegal by WTO standards--action. Now I want to talk about Speaker Boehner's remarks and Ben Bernanke's remarks. Last night was a milestone in the Senate. For years, the Government of China has been willfully breaking the rules of free trade without provoking a formal response from the U.S. Government--until yesterday. The full Senate for the first time went on record that it wanted to consider formal action to confront China's currency manipulation. It was a lopsided vote, a bipartisan majority of both parties, with 79 Senators in favor. We will spend the next few days debating the particulars, but make no mistake about it, when it comes to China's unfair trade practices, there is a consensus to act in the Senate. It can be hard at times here to get 79 votes to turn the lights on.…”