Political Quotes

“I take the floor this afternoon to speak of an issue of grave importance to all of us as Americans. If you like the North American Free Trade Act [NAFTA] and you like the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trades [GATT] you are going to love the upcoming reforms to one of the most important tenets of American ingenuity, the protection of intellectual property, our ability as a nation to protect our ideas, our inventions. Ladies and gentlemen, this issue is of paramount importance. I rise to alert millions of my fellow Americans about the importance of this Nation's patent system. It was so important that our Founding Fathers saw fit to include the protections of intellectual property in the U.S. Constitution. The greatness of America has been defined largely by American ingenuity, by people like Henry Ford, Eli Whitney, the host of inventors who have made America number one in the world. Our dominance throughout the 20th century has largely been because American ideas have been protected from foreign intrusion. American inventors, who schemed at their kitchen tables or out back in their garage and came up with a new invention, those ideas were protected by patent law. Mr. Speaker, I rise this evening because we are about to give away American ingenuity. This administration, in its move to provide for a one-world global economy, is about to forsake the uniqueness that is American ideas.”