Political Quotes

“international trade has always been controversial. That has been true since the days of the Smoot-Hawley effort--Hawley, by the way, was an Oregon Congressman--and it continues to be true today. It is important to our country and important to my home State that I made a special priority, when I was given the honor of serving on the Senate Finance Committee, to queue up to be able to chair the Subcommittee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness, because I think it important that we continue our work here in the Senate to keep pushing to keep our trade policy on the right track. I wish to describe today three aspects of this debate that are indisputable. In other words, we have lots of differences of opinion with respect to past agreements--did they create jobs, did they not create jobs, and how did they affect various parts of the country--and suffice it to say reasonable people can differ with respect to these analyses. But I have been able, as the chair of this subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee--the Subcommittee on International Trade and Global Competitiveness--to dig deeply into this issue. I believe there are three indisputable positions with respect to the agreements we will be voting on tonight that the Senate ought to take into consideration that are at the core of why I will be voting later this evening in favor of the agreements.…”