Political Quotes

“If this passes, there is enough blame to go along for both parties. I agree with the gentleman. We are being told there are three things ultimately that led Mexico to be in this position. No. 1 is the fact they have had the civil unrest in Chiapas. We have no guarantee that situation is going to change, in fact, the Mexican Government will not continue the military operation against the rebels in Chiapas and the rebels will not continue their action against the Government. Also, the assassination of then Presidential candidate Colosio; we have no information, again, the political situation in Mexico has been remedied. Indeed, the same party is in power now as has been in power for some 80 years. The whole question then is that we are also being told, well, there is an uncertainty having to do with NAFTA. At the risk of saying, ``We told you so,'' we told you so. And the fact of the matter is if you just took a look at the first 6 months under NAFTA, imports from Mexico to our country increased by an unprecedented 21 percent. In the same time period, we had a 32-percent decrease in the same period of time in our overall trade surplus with Mexico. Now, all of a sudden the peso is devalued. What does that do? American goods in Mexico become more expensive. The Mexicans cannot afford them. Their salary, because they are being paid in pesos, is now 40 percent less than it was. Their goods and services become cheaper to sell here. We are already paying the price.…”