On the recordMarch 13, 2014
I want to thank Congressman Pocan for just a phenomenal presentation this evening and for lifting up those across our country who worked hard for a living and have fallen on hard times. Trying to hold their families together, they go try to get a job, and 1,000 people show up for one job. What are they supposed to do? They have lost footing. They haven't been able to make their mortgage payments. They can't send their kids to college. Many of them get sick. They lose their health benefits. It is not so easy getting a job in today's America. You have been such a leader not just on unemployment benefit extensions, but also on job creation. Since we are commemorating the second anniversary of the passage of the U.S.-Korean so-called ``free- trade agreement,'' I thought I would bring a startling chart to the floor to show why we have unemployment in this country. One of the aspects of the U.S.-Korean so-called ``free-trade agreement,'' passed 2 years ago without my support, was that we were supposed to increase exports and decrease imports. It was supposed to actually be good for America. We were supposed to create more jobs here at home when, in fact, we have actually lost 40,000 jobs when they told us we were going to gain 70,000 jobs as a result of that agreement. Those people who were supposed to have those jobs fell on unemployment benefits, large numbers of them. Here is a chart that shows what has happened. This gives you a sense of how big the difference is. All right.…
