Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from Florida for yielding. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question so that we can address this important issue of currency manipulation and trade. Manufacturers in my home State of Rhode Island and those across the Nation are working hard and playing by the rules, and they are suffering disproportionately because their Chinese counterparts refuse to play by the same set of rules in the global economy. One way Chinese businesses cheat is by keeping their currency artificially low so that their imports are cheaper than U.S. goods. That is simply not fair, and this practice must end. Artificially low Chinese currency contributes greatly to the global trade imbalance, which puts U.S. businesses and workers at a significant disadvantage. China's unfair currency manipulation has destroyed millions of good- paying American jobs and jeopardizes the future of the American middle class. Employment in manufacturing shrank from 20 million jobs in 1979 to fewer than 12 million jobs today. In Rhode Island, we experienced the loss of more than 30,000 manufacturing jobs in the last decade alone. Despite these sobering statistics, the American manufacturing sector is in the midst of a resurgence. If this vital economic engine is to be sustained, Congress must continue its investments in programs that help manufacturers compete in the global economy, ending currency manipulation.…”