[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12043]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




            RECORD TRADE DEFICITS UNDER BUSH ADMINISTRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Oregon (Mr. DeFazio) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DeFAZIO. Mr. Speaker, today the Bush administration set yet 
another record. Congratulations. They announced a new record trade 
deficit for April, which puts the United States on track for yet a new 
annual record in trade.
  Now, what does that mean to average Americans? Well, first off, it 
means that we are outsourcing jobs overseas, outsourcing capital 
overseas, losing jobs and productivity here; and we are going in debt 
to China and Japan and other nations. China has $122 billion of U.S. 
Treasury bonds; Japan owns $440 billion. They are getting to a point 
where they will be able to influence our economy and our interest rates 
in the United States and our currency. This is worrisome.
  The loss equals about $1.5 billion a day in U.S. wealth; $1 million a 
minute being hemorrhaged overseas.
  Now, when one is confronted with a policy that is failing, one 
usually would begin to rethink that policy. But no, not the Bush 
administration. As we know, they are very stubborn; and they are never 
wrong. In the case of trade, they think that there are tremendous 
benefits to the United States by outsourcing, exporting jobs, putting 
people here out of work. In fact, the President's own economic adviser 
in the annual report of the President of the United States said as 
much. He said that this was a good thing that jobs were being 
outsourced. It was a new manifestation of the radical free trade 
policies that they believe in down there at the White House.
  Now, the problem, of course, goes beyond just the outsourcing of jobs 
and loss of capital. It is ultimately undermining the national and 
economic security of the United States of America. As we lose our 
productive capacity in critical areas, we are going to have a hard time 
replacing those in a future time of crisis, whether it is with China or 
somebody else who will have captured much of that productive capacity, 
those critical skills that go with those capacities.
  I sat next to a gentleman on the plane last week going back to Oregon 
who works in the titanium industry; and he is very concerned about the 
loss of U.S. capabilities in critical metals, and very concerned that 
China is now leaping ahead in many areas, and if we should ever get 
into a conflict or an adversarial situation with China in the future, 
we would be at a disadvantage.
  But this administration thinks, in fact, that this is all really 
great, because a few people are getting really rich. The CEOs are doing 
great. So what if salaries are down, wages are down, jobs are lost here 
in the United States of America. The CEOs or the contributor class. The 
Bush Pioneers and Rangers, those who can gather up $250,000 or $1 
million for the President's reelection, are telling him, this is great, 
their bonuses are up, they are doing well, their friends at the country 
club are doing well; and we can just maybe change the subject when it 
comes to average Americans. Maybe we can distract them with something 
else so they will not realize how screwed they are. I hope not. I hope 
that Americans next fall express their opinion of these radical free 
trade policies, the huge trade deficits, the outsourcing of jobs, the 
CEO class who earn 600 and 700 times what their workers earn.
  Mr. Speaker, this is a scandal, what we are doing; and it is 
undermining our country. And the President, if reelected, says one of 
the first things he is going to do is expand NAFTA, the job-losing 
NAFTA agreements, to all of Latin and South America. Just think of the 
opportunity. They pretend it means we will export things there, but 
they know it does not. It means the same thing as all of the other 
trade agreements. It means U.S. companies can locate there to exploit 
cheaper labor and lay off people here at home. But ultimately, who is 
going to be able to consume things here in the United States of America 
when the middle class is not working anymore? Ultimately, they are 
going to undo the entire system of the United States of America, but 
they do not really seem to care much about that.
  They announced a big victory just yesterday, that is, that Mexican 
trucks, unsafe Mexican trucks that weigh two times as much as U.S. 
trucks, that are bigger, that are driven by people who do not take drug 
tests, do not have U.S. commercial drivers licenses, do not have the 
same rest time requirements, do not have in many cases front brakes, 
will be rumbling down the U.S. highways soon. They announced a great 
victory when the Supreme Court threw out a case that would restrict 
Mexican trucks from coming into the United States. Again, something 
else very shortsighted and very much against the interests of average 
Americans and working Americans.

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