Political Quotes

“I am going to be brief because I know Chairman Hatch and I are going to be propounding some unanimous consent requests here in a moment. On this currency issue, I want it understood that this is a serious, serious issue, and it is absolutely essential that our trade laws include tough enforceable currency rules and that we put in place those rules without doing damage to American monetary policy or to our ability to tackle the big economic challenges in the days ahead. The Senate has a choice between the amendment offered by Senator Hatch and me and the amendment offered by Senator Portman and Senator Stabenow. My view is this. The Portman amendment could outsource the question of the Federal Reserve's intent and decisionmaking to the whims of an international tribunal. This could take tools out of the economic toolbox that we could need--need greatly--during a potential financial crisis. We hope it will never happen, but the bottom line is the Congress must not set up the possibility of collateral damage for the Fed and our dollar. The right solution, which Chairman Hatch and I have worked to offer as an alternative, will make sure that America gets the upside of cracking down on currency manipulators and avoids the downside of limiting the Federal Reserve's toolkit of monetary policy. Our view is that we strike the right balance. We make sure that we are going to have the widest array of effective tools available, including strong, enforceable rules.…”