Political Quotes

“A member of congress from one of these Central American countries who will be meeting with a group of Congressmen soon so I do not want to release his name just yet, told me that when a bill that would help facilitate CAFTA came before the House in his country, that it was brought in at about 3 in the morning, that members did not have a chance to read it, that they did not know that it would facilitate the privatization of public services, for example, and that they were basically encouraged to vote for it sight unseen. These are the kind of fundamental violations of democratic principles and democratic rights which we see people in Central America already suffering even before this agreement is passed. What happens is these corporations have so much power in these other countries that legislatures are steamrolled. Here in the Congress of the United States, people not only in Central America but in this country are depending on Members to stand up, depending on us to stand up for the basic rights of workers but also depending on us to stand up to stop the continued erosion of manufacturing jobs in this country. As my colleague points out in his chart there on the trade deficit, it is obvious that NAFTA has not resulted in creating jobs in this country. It has resulted in taking good-paying manufacturing jobs out of this country. Those are jobs that supported middle- class existence for many families. Those are jobs that helped sustain communities.…”