Marcy Kaptur: “When is the group in charge of the U.S. economy here in Washington going to wake up and take notice our trade accounts…”

“When is the group in charge of the U.S. economy here in Washington going to wake up and take notice our trade accounts are as out of balance as our mortgage market? Congress can't keep tweaking consumer purchasing with stimulus checks and then crossing its fingers in hopes that by some miracle it will actually lift our economy. More borrowed money simply means more short-term palliatives. Hardworking families in our country do not need a consolation prize. They demand a real solution. What they need is a workable path by which they can become part of a growing economy. When recovery dollars are spent on goods largely imported from somewhere else, the promised bang to rescue our economy is received but as a mere whimper. Congress must address the greater trade and tax structure problems pulling on our purse strings. Take, for example, trade deficits growing between our Nation and industrialized economies from other parts of the world. Those are just getting worse. Like the outsourcing of U.S. jobs. What are we going to do about that? Like global closed markets. Who's going to open those up? And, like the value added tax, which creates such a damper on U.S. production. A trillion dollars more in spending by Congress will miss the real mark of healing our economy by adding the important legs of tax reform and trade reform. While trade laws and tax laws remain as critical components of real long-term recovery, we cannot subsidize or borrow our way to growth.”