Marcy Kaptur: “America's economic strength can be measured by her trade accounts, whether we are exporting more goods and services than…”

“America's economic strength can be measured by her trade accounts, whether we are exporting more goods and services than we are importing; and if we do export more than we import, America's economic strength grows. But when America imports more than she exports, her economic muscle weakens. This chart that I brought to the floor this evening shows that since the mid-1970s, when America began signing very unbalanced trade agreements with other countries, every single year America began to import more than she exports. This last year of 2005, we had a historic trade deficit with the world totaling over $750 billion, three quarters of $1 trillion. Indeed, it was $725 billion more in imports coming into our country than exports going out. This is not an insignificant amount. This has never happened to the United States of America before. In January, America imported this year $68.5 billion more in goods and services than we exported. This was an all-time high just for 1 month, an increase of over 5 percent from last December. This year in agriculture alone for the first time in American history since the Pilgrims settled, the United States will import more food than we export. Think about that. Think about what that means for America's independence, our birthright of independence. According to Alan Tonelson at the U.S. Business and Industry Council, America's condition cannot be explained by high oil prices. That makes these numbers worse, but Mr.…”