[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 16263]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 PASSING CAFTA IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO

  (Mr. DREIER asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. DREIER. Madam Speaker, this morning I heard on National Public 
Radio a report of a survey, a bipartisan survey, that was conducted in 
which people were saying that while they feel good about their own 
economic situation, they are less optimistic about the overall economy.
  I think it is very important for us to note that the underlying 
figures that we have, as well as empirical evidence, show that we have 
a very strong, bold, and dynamic economy that has been brought about, 
in large part, due to the tax cuts proposed by President Bush and that 
we in this Republican Congress have implemented.
  We now have an unemployment rate of 5 percent, which is lower than 
the average for the 1970s, the 1980s, and the 1990s; a 3.8 percent 
gross domestic product growth, and 146,000 jobs created in the last 
month. That is a number that has been continuing to grow, and we need 
to recognize that it has been our policies that have created that.
  We have on the horizon a very important issue in the coming days that 
we are going to be voting on, and that is a market-opening opportunity 
for us with passage of the Central American Free Trade Agreement.
  The world has access to the U.S. consumer market, Madam Speaker, and 
unfortunately, because of the tariff structure, and a tariff is a tax, 
we are unable to sell into other parts of the world. Ninety-four 
percent of the world's consumers are outside of our border.
  We need to do everything we can to pass the CAFTA so that we, 
immediately upon implementation of it, will see 80 percent of our 
products get into these Central American countries tariff-free. It is 
the right thing for the American consumer, and it is the right thing 
for political stability in this hemisphere.

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