Political Quotes

“When we heard all of these predictions about the 200,000 jobs that were going to be created almost immediately by this NAFTA agreement, there was an assumption by both the Bush and the Clinton Administrations. This had been started during the Bush administration and then was finished by the Clinton administration. Both administrations made their predictions based on the fact that they anticipated we would have a trade surplus with Mexico for at least 15 years. Immediately, the year after NAFTA passed, we went into a trade deficit with Mexico. The shift from a small surplus of $1.7 billion back in 1993 to a deficit of $16 billion in 1996 in trade with Mexico really has to be explained by the devaluation of the Mexican peso. And, as the gentleman said just moments ago, and I think he did a great job of explaining it, NAFTA was responsible for that devaluation. Then what occurred in this country, and I do have a copy of the study from Cornell University that the gentleman talked about, it is called a Final Report, the Effects of Plant Closing or Threat of Plant Closing on the Right of Workers to Organize. He is absolutely right, 62 percent of the employers in this country, 62 percent of them said ``We will close our plant rather than to negotiate a contract with you'' or ``If you want to form a union, we are closing our plant.”