Political Quotes

“today more than 400 union workers and Members of Congress gathered in front of the United States Capitol delivering a united message: vote ``no'' on the Central American Free Trade Agreement. This week, the presidents of Central America and the Dominican Republic are touring the Nation on a United States Chamber of Commerce- funded junket, pushing the Central American Free Trade Agreement. They are traveling to Miami and Los Angeles. They are going to Albuquerque and to my State, Cincinnati, Ohio, attempting to convince the American people and the American press that CAFTA is good for their countries and for their people. Unfortunately, these leaders are not telling the whole story. Like our own President, they try to convince us that CAFTA will lift up low- income workers in Central America and that CAFTA will create jobs here in the United States. What they have not said is that CAFTA does nothing to ensure enforcement of labor provisions in their own countries. What they have not said is that the combined purchasing power of the CAFTA nations, the combined purchasing power of the CAFTA nations, is equal to that of Columbus, Ohio; or Memphis, Tennessee; or Orlando, Florida. In other words, people in Guatemala and Honduras and Nicaragua and El Salvador and Costa Rica cannot afford to buy the steel produced in Pennsylvania. They cannot afford to buy cars made in Ohio.…”