Political Quotes

“at some point soon, I presume, the Senate is going to adjourn for the Memorial Day week break, and I want to say a few words on some of the important issues we are now confronting. I suspect later today there will be a vote on the TPP. I suspect that those who are for the TPP have the 60 votes necessary to pass it. I know there are a number of amendments that will be offered, and I will support the strongest of those amendments. But the bottom line is, in my view, that the TPP is a continuation of failed trade policy which has resulted in the loss of millions of decent-paying jobs in this country, which has resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of manufacturing facilities as corporations have shut down in America and moved to China, Mexico, and to other low-wage countries. In my view, it is wrong to ask American workers to compete against people in Vietnam, where the minimum wage is 56 cents an hour, to compete against people in Malaysia where, in some cases, you literally have indentured servitude, people who have lost their ability to leave the country and are working for incredibly low wages in horrendous working conditions. That is not what a trade policy should be. I hope our colleagues in the House have more resolve than we have had in the Senate, and I hope they stand up and say enough is enough. Current trade policies have failed. We need trade policies that work for the average American and not just for the multinational corporations.…”