[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 107 (Wednesday, June 28, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H6402]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 THINK ABOUT THE BAD SITUATION OF THE JAPANESE ECONOMY BEFORE DRIVING 
                          THEM OVER THE CLIFF

  (Mr. KOLBE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. KOLBE. Mr. Speaker, it is come to this. We are down to the last 
few hours of what is a dangerous game of chicken with Japan. Tonight we 
will know whether we are going over the cliff or if one or both sides 
are going to blink in this dispute.
  Well, everyone knows that Japan-bashing is popular. After all, the 
proposed sanctions are only going to hurt a few rich people who drive a 
car like Lexus, or did they ever think about Sam, who I met this last 
Friday at the Lexus dealership, who takes great pride in servicing 
those Lexuses and is very much a middle-class American?
  It seems to me there is no game plan here; there is no end game. If 
we go all the way through with this, the economic and political 
ramifications for our relationship with Japan are going to be enormous. 
What happens if the other side retaliates? What will happen to Boeing 
and General Electric who are doing business in Japan today? Did the 
administration consider how little room the Japanese have to negotiate, 
given the bad situation of their economy today?
  Mr. Speaker, all we can do by driving them over the cliff is to 
harden their resolve and allow them to blame the United States for the 
problem. Mr. Speaker, the time has come for some responsible action in 
this area, to get Japan to do fundamental deregulation, not to get 
voluntary import quotas accepted by Japan. We need a different 
strategy.

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