[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 47 (Wednesday, March 24, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H1684-H1685]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             TRADE DEFICIT

  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, our scientists have just discovered a new 
fault line that exists underneath downtown Los Angeles. This fault 
line, called Puente Hills, is 25 miles long and 10 miles wide and it 
was invisible until recently. The 1987 Whittier Narrows quake, which 
caused eight deaths and $358 million worth of damage, was the result of 
a rupture of just 10 percent of the Puente Hills fault line. Obviously, 
this fault line has the potential to do a great deal of harm to the 
good people in Los Angeles and we would be foolish to ignore it.
  But, Mr. Speaker, there is another fault line in America that is 
invisible to our eyes, the American economy. And the American workers 
are sitting on a fault line that is shifting below us; and, like many 
in Los Angeles, we are ignoring it, hoping it will go away. The fault 
line is our trade deficit. And as it grows, America is at greater risk 
of our very economic foundation being rocked.
  We recently learned that the trade deficit grew to its highest level 
in the last decade, projected again this year at over $250 billion. 
According to the Commerce Department just this past month, $93.76 
billion worth more of imports landed on our shores while our exports 
again fell. These are not just numbers. They are part of the shifting 
ground underneath America's economic feet. And for some, they could not 
escape the cracks in the ground.
  I am talking about workers like the 6,000 at the Levi's plants, most 
of them women, that recently packed up and closed to ship manufacturing 
to undemocratic nations overseas. I am talking about the workers at 
Huffy Bicycle in Ohio who lost their jobs to Mexico's exploited 
workforce, or the thousands of workers at Anchor Glass or General 
Electric or Henry I. Siegel or VF Knitwear or Zenith Television or Dole 
Food, and the list goes on. They have seen the ground shift and they 
felt the earthquake. They have just seen some of the consequences of a 
growing trade deficit.

[[Page H1685]]

  According to the Economic Policy Institute, between 1979 and 1994 
nearly 2.5 million jobs in our country were lost to America's backward 
trade policy, which says to America's workers the solution for them is 
to work for shrinking wages and benefits and net worth in order to buy 
more imported products from places where workers have absolutely no 
rights.
  The second consequence of the trade deficit is its crippling effect 
on wages here at home. Workers who lose their manufacturing jobs still 
have to find some way to feed, clothe, and educate their families; and 
usually that is in the form of a service job with a substantial pay and 
benefit cut.
  The Economic Policy Institute points out that increasing imports from 
low-wage, undemocratic countries are contributing to decreasing wages 
of our workers. Our U.S. firms and workers are forced to cut their 
standards of living to compete. They cut wages or cut hours or cut 
benefits to reduce costs. And as a result, our workers are finding that 
their real buying power of their wages has been declining for almost 15 
years. In fact, the growing gigantic trade deficit literally lops off a 
whopping 25 percent of the economic bang that would occur inside this 
economy if in fact our trade ledger was balanced.
  Probably the biggest consequence of this deficit is what it does to 
our long-term competitiveness, as America writes off one industry after 
another: televisions, electronics, clothing, recently steel. We have 
seen how many parts of this economy have been savagely hit.
  Mr. Speaker, this fault line in America cannot be ignored. We can see 
the consequences getting worse every year. But the people being hurt 
cannot afford high-powered lobbyists in this city. If we want American 
workers to be able to increase their net worth, save for their futures, 
invest in the stock market, start their own small businesses, we need 
to make sure our economic foundation is rock solid.
  Mr. Speaker, we ignore this trade deficit, this fault line, at our 
own peril.

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