Political Quotes

“Thank you, Representative Tonko, for your leadership. I really enjoyed working with you over the last several years. We are actually getting to the point that it looks like this may be coming to a vote in Congress. This is perfect timing, with another round of negotiations upon us. I am so glad we are on the floor tonight talking about this and trying to channel the energy from the gentlewoman from Connecticut. I love her passion. This is an issue that goes far back for me. When I was 23, I started a small business in Madison, Wisconsin, a specialty printing business. One of the things we did is source American-made and union-made products. We screen-printed T-shirts and did promotional items like pens and lapel pins we wear as Members of Congress, all things that were done in the United States. Over the last almost 28 years, trade deal after trade deal, I have watched the number of products made in the United States diminish. T- shirts, it is almost impossible to find a mill that still makes T- shirts and apparel in the United States. Almost everything is done in other countries or overseas, things like pens and our emblem pins. It is almost impossible to find American-made pens. In my area, just 45 minutes south from Madison, is the city of Janesville, where Representative Paul Ryan is from and represents. That town used to have a thousand good, family-supporting wages at a company called Parker Pen which made quality, American-made pens.…”