Political Quotes

“12 years ago I came to this house in January 1993 and during that year this Congress debated whether or not to pass the North American Free Trade Agreement. The promises made during NAFTA in 1993 from its supporters were it would create jobs in the U.S., it would raise living standards in Mexico by raising wages, it would encourage and enable Mexicans to buy more American products. It would increase our balance of trade with Canada and Mexico, positively. Those were the promises made by NAFTA. We have heard those same promises when we passed the PNTR with China. We have heard those same promises on trade agreement after trade agreement. But look what has happened to our trade deficit in that period. Starting in 1992, the year I first ran for Congress our trade deficit was $38 billion. You can see it passes $100 billion in the early 1990s. Almost $200 billion in the mid 1990s. President Bush took office. Goes up to 400 billion, 450 billion, 500 billion. This year our trade deficit was $617 billion. That means that we are buying $617 billion more in products than we are selling. So, what is the President's response? The President's response is the Central American Free Trade Agreement. More of the same, followed he hopes by something called free trade area of the Americas. CAFTA and FTAA will double the population of NAFTA, Mexico, the U.S. and Canada and quadruple the number of low income workers.”