Political Quotes

“I spoke a little bit this morning about this whole issue--and a very serious issue it is--of currency manipulation. In effect, we are going to have two choices with respect to this issue, one offered by the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Hatch, and myself, and one offered by Senator Portman and others. Amendment No. 1299 I wish to take a few minutes to raise what are my biggest concerns with respect to the amendment offered by the Senator from Ohio, Mr. Portman, and try to put this issue in context. What is particularly troubling to me is it seems to me that the Portman amendment would outsource the question of the Federal Reserve's intent in decisionmaking to the whims of an international tribunal, and I think that is very troubling. That is why Chairman Hatch and I have thought to take a more flexible approach. I am going to outline how I have reached that judgment so that colleagues, as we turn to this question of currency, have a bit more awareness of what is at stake. As I indicated already this morning, we will be discussing this particularly in the conference committee that is going to take place next month when the House and the Senate get together to talk about currency and other critically important enforcement issues. I fully agree with my colleagues who have been saying this is a very important issue and our government must do more to target countries that harm our economy by artificially deflating their currency.…”