Political Quotes

“Mr. President, as I said, yesterday I spoke about the legislation Senator Menendez and I had offered. That is a stand-alone bill; this is now an amendment to this pending trade bill. I do believe it is appropriate for us to consider this matter in the context of this trade bill because, of course, we all recognize and common sense would tell us that selling to foreign customers the things that we grow here in America or that we manufacture in America sustains jobs right here at home. Indeed, we have circulated among various offices what the impact on jobs would be all across the country when it comes to the sale and manufacture of these F-16s. A lot of jobs would be created in America at a time when unemployment is intractably and unacceptably high. But that is not the main reason I believe this amendment is so important. Let me back up to say that yesterday the President did announce that he approved military exports to Taiwan, but I wish to address first the insufficiency of the response. Yesterday, Congress was officially notified by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency that the administration had approved a retrofit for 145 F-16A/B aircraft--aircraft Taiwan already owns. So this is not unprecedented. We have already sold Taiwan A/B versions of the F-16. But, as the administration acknowledges by saying these need to be updated and retrofitted, these are older aircraft and need to be modernized in order to be effective.…”