Political Quotes

“I have just a couple comments with regard to those of the Senator from South Carolina. He was the ranking member on the Economic Policy Subcommittee on which also sat the Presiding Officer from Oregon in 2009 and 2010. We held a series of hearings on manufacturing policy, and there were some agreements between Senator DeMint and me on having a manufacturing strategy. We are the only major industrial country in the world without a real strategy on manufacturing. There are three ways to create wealth in this society: manufacturing, mining, and agriculture. Manufacturing has been a dominant force and a significant creator of the middle class, and I think we agree on that. We agree we want more of it in our country. Thirty years ago, more than 25 percent of our gross domestic product was manufacturing. Today that number is less than half that, and there are countries around the world--Germany, for instance, which has had a manufacturing strategy, and they have almost twice the GDP and twice the workforce. So while Senator DeMint and I disagree on this China trade bill, I agree with the other Republican Senator from his State, Mr. Graham, who has been a significant leader. He and Senator Schumer have worked on this for, I believe, more than half a decade on responding to the cheating the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic of China have done in the world trade structure. I don't believe, in any way, we are starting a trade war.…”