Tim Ryan: “I hail from the Great State of Ohio, where we have lost 300,000 jobs since George Bush has been President, 2,000 a week…”

“I hail from the Great State of Ohio, where we have lost 300,000 jobs since George Bush has been President, 2,000 a week, 260 a day. In Youngstown, the biggest city in my district, we have an unemployment rate of 16 percent. In the city of Warren, the second largest city in my district, we have an unemployment rate of 14 percent. This President's economic policies are clearly not working in the industrial Midwest. Now, the gentleman from Texas who was up a few moments before me was talking about all of the benefits of free trade, and he said that it increased wages in this country, he said it increased the standard of living in this country, and he said that it lowered prices for consumers in this country. I do not think we can challenge the fact that free trade has clearly lowered prices or kept prices from getting out of control and from skyrocketing. I do not know if they clearly show the level of savings. I think the savings by offshore cheap labor has been a boom for the corporations but not necessarily a boom all the way across the board for consumers.”