On the recordSeptember 22, 2010
I wish to talk about something that is more bipartisan, in a sense, and is every bit more disturbing; that is, 10 years ago this month, the Senate sold out American manufacturing. Ten years ago this month, by a vote of 83 to 15, the Senate passed a bill establishing permanent normal trade relations with the People's Republic of China. I remember. I was in the House of Representatives, and I opposed this measure. We were joined by most of the Democrats and a number of Republicans, but we were unable to defeat it. It was a fairly close vote. The proponents of China PNTR came to our office, the people who wanted to give these extra benefits to China. It was initially called most-favored-nation status for China. The supporters thought that did not sound very good, even though we had used that term for years, and called it permanent normal trade relations with China. They put another name on it; they put lipstick on that pig. What the supporters said to us--the CEOs who came to Congress and one at a time talked to us--was that they could not wait to pass PNTR because they would then have access to 1 billion Chinese consumers, so those consumers could purchase American-made products.
