Political Quotes

“I thank my able colleague from Florida, Congressman Hastings, for yielding and rise in support of Congressman Critz's effort here to focus attention on this whole issue of Chinese currency manipulation. When Congress passed permanent most-favored-nation status with China over my objection, we were told by supporters of the agreement that trade with China would create jobs, more economic opportunity and trade surpluses for our country. Well, if you look at the numbers, you'll see since that was passed what's happened is we've got more and more and more and more trade deficits every year, totaling in 2010 over $273 billion. With Chinese currency manipulation, that's almost an inflated number because it would be cut in half, it would be cut substantially if goods were marked to their true value, not their inflated value. China has never opened up its market. That's why we get these huge trade deficits. And they aggressively use government intervention through currency manipulation to rig the markets. We know they're the largest intellectual property thief, they counterfeit their goods, and they use industrial policy to promote and protect Chinese industries at the expense of American jobs and factories. Some call these tactics market Leninism because we see state-managed capitalism in China locking down on industry after industry.…”