[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 27 (Tuesday, February 13, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H1479]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    AMERICA'S GROWING TRADE DEFICIT

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, our Nation needs a course correction in our 
foreign policy, and we are being given the chance by the Democratic 
leadership this week to debate it fully, as we should have when that 
resolution was first debated in this House.
  Our country needs many course corrections, including on the economy. 
President Bush's trade policy has clearly failed, as his foreign policy 
has, as American workers and American businesses find we are losing 
more jobs to imports again. The confirmed numbers for 2006 released 
today show that the annual trade deficit in 2006 doubled since this 
President took office.
  In fact, for 2006 the trade deficit equaled $763.6 billion and broke 
the prior year's trade deficit by adding another 6 percent more deficit 
from 2005's level of $716 billion.
  Five straight years of record deficits have left millions more 
Americans with displaced jobs, outsourced jobs, unemployment across 
regions of this country, and putting our financial future in the hands 
of foreign creditors such as China and Saudi Arabia.
  Mr. Speaker, to grant renewed fast track authority to this President 
would be a serious mistake and irresponsible. This administration needs 
a course correction by this Congress, both in foreign policy and in 
domestic economic policy.

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