[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 148 (Thursday, September 21, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H9407]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          TRADE DEFICIT WATCH

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Ohio [Ms. Kaptur] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, in Washington, we hear a lot of talk about 
legislative train wrecks these days. But has anyone noticed that 
America is hitched to a runaway locomotive racing us toward a record 
trade deficit this year?
  Today the Jobs and Fair Trade Caucus begins a monthly report to the 
American people called the Trade Deficit Watch. Our focus will be on 
how our Nation's trade deficit acts as an undertow in our economy, 
destroying good jobs, pulling wages down and displacing investments and 
industry here at home. The latest trade deficit figures released 
yesterday show that this year America will record an overall trade 
deficit of $164 billion, and just looking at the merchandise portion of 
that, we are talking about over $200 billion more of goods coming in 
here from abroad than we are able to sell in other markets. Folks, that 
is a bigger deficit than the budget deficit we are trying so hard to 
reduce.
  How will a $164 billion trade deficit this year affect the American 
people? Let us take a look at the historic debate that is about to 
occur here in Congress on Medicare. How does our historic trade deficit 
play a role in this debate? The administration often uses the ratio of 
20,000 jobs equaling every 1 billion dollars' worth of trade. 
Therefore, a $164 billion deficit will put 3 million more good American 
jobs at risk, added to the 2 million well-paying manufacturing jobs 
that were destroyed since the 1980's.
  Unfair competition with low-wage, undemocratic countries puts 
continuing pressure, downward pressure, on wages in this country, and 
it is no surprise. Real wages and purchasing power in America have 
declined steadily over the past 20 years. Talk to your relatives, talk 
to people who work every day. They know what is happening with the 
buying power of their check.
  Think about this: With 5 million lost jobs, that is 5 million 
paychecks, fewer paychecks, from which FICA, the portion of your 
paycheck that pays for Medicare and Social Security, is not being 
collected.
  Think about this, too: Trade deficits have bled our manufacturing 
base almost dry. America is becoming a nation of temporary workers, the 
fastest growing segment job market in this country.
  Before, a worker earning a decent wage at General Motors contributed 
33 cents an hour to Medicare and Social Security through their FICA 
deduction. But a temporary worker at Manpower who typically earns only 
$5 an hour contributes one-fourth as much, about 8 cents an hour, one-
fourth as much as a worker who worked in one of those good jobs that we 
have continually destroyed over the last 15 years in this country. No 
wonder the Medicare trust fund and Social Security are in trouble.
  We have to keep finding new answers to try to refinance them. The 
high-skilled, high-wage jobs needed to fill the coffers of these 
programs are disappearing right before our eyes, and Washington has 
been asleep for 15 years at the wheel.
  But corporations and their profits have continued to soar. In fact, 
Wall Street is slaphappy at this point because with low-paid workers, 
corporations are required to pay only one-fourth of what they had been 
paying before into trust funds like Medicare.
  So, what is the Clinton administration and the Republican leadership 
doing about these trade deficits? Today the Committee on Ways and Means 
decided to adopt legislation which will allow more trade agreements to 
come down the pike without the American people having a say in the 
matter. This is called fast-track, and it is a bill that will force 
Congress to again consider trade agreements with no debate and without 
the ability to make amendments. In other words, it is a done deal when 
it comes to the floor.
  We are again ceding our constitutional responsibilities to the trade 
ambassadors.
  What, may I ask, are we on a fast track to? Are we going to continue 
putting every high-skilled, high-wage job with benefits in America on 
fast track right out of this country? It is happening in every single 
trade sector of this economy.
  We have got to stop cashing out American industries and American jobs 
for the sake of a few trade deals that make a few traders and their 
shareholders rich but bankrupt the rest of America.
  Look around the towns that you live in. How does the Clinton 
administration or Speaker Gingrich expect to balance the Federal budget 
or solve the Medicare problem if real wages for working Americans are 
locked in a race to the bottom because of trade policies that destroy 
good jobs and good wages here at home?

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