Marcy Kaptur: “Congressman Garamendi, as you were talking, I was thinking about that chart that shows the flatness of income growth in…”

“Congressman Garamendi, as you were talking, I was thinking about that chart that shows the flatness of income growth in the middle class, and I was thinking about the last several years and about our U.S. trade deficits. Most Americans probably don't realize it, but annually, we rack up about $500 billion more in imports coming into our country than exports going out, and it hits the working class--the middle class of people-- very, very hard because it substitutes for the income that they would normally earn if they were manufacturing in this country as many cars as they used to. What we see happening is a tipping toward the top, but really all sectors are affected by the fact that our trade deficit lops off most of the gross domestic product growth every year. A half-trillion dollars bleeding out of our economy for purchases of everything from electronics to energy to automobiles, which are things that should be made inside this country, is a huge downdraft on every income quartile in our country. Thus, your efforts to promote American-made goods are right on target.”