[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 2]
[House]
[Pages 2336-2337]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               BUDGET AND TRADE DEFICITS CONTINUE TO RISE

  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, last week the President sent his 2006 budget 
request to Congress. Just yesterday, he added to that request for 
supplemental funds for fiscal year 2005. His own estimate shows 
staggering budget deficits to be handed down to the next generation, 
and to many future generations. In fact, this administration is setting 
new world records all over the place. Not only record budget deficits 
but also, importantly, record trade deficits. In fact, they have now 
created a two-headed monster. This administration is exporting its 
bankrupt economic policies around the world through failed trade 
policies. Just look at the numbers. Never has America had trade 
deficits over one-half trillion dollars. Last year, $617 billion, every 
year going deeper and deeper, sinking deeper into trade deficit with 
our trade competitors around the world. This is not an issue for 
Republicans and Democrats. This is going to hit everybody's wallets, 
from Wall Street to Main Street.
  The trade deficit for calendar year 2004 smashed every record on the 
books. That is right. Over one-half trillion dollars. Now, who are 
these deficits with? Let us start with China. If you go out to San 
Diego and Los Angeles harbor, you can see ships coming in from Asia as 
far as the eye can see. Every single year of this Presidency, we have 
seen the red ink from China get deeper and deeper. In fact, last year 
we were in debt to them, just for last year, over $162 billion. That 
was up almost a third from the prior year. The manufacturing portion of 
our overall deficit worsened to $465.8 billion, 16 percent more than 
the record set the prior year. With every billion dollars, 20,000 more 
jobs in this country vanish. The deficit in advanced technology 
products, which was supposed to save us, worsened to $37 billion in 
2004, fully 38 percent worse than the record the year before. One can 
look in every sector with almost every major trading nation and America 
is deep in red ink.
  One other dubious record. People talk about NAFTA. Here are the 
figures for Canada for 2003, the highest level on record, over $67 
billion. And with Mexico under NAFTA, the budget last year was close to 
$50 billion, nearly a $110.8 billion deficit in trade with those two 
countries under NAFTA in 2004. The net result of all of this is the 
weakening of our dollar. Even Bloomberg says the steady decline in the 
dollar is likely to resume again. Secretary Snow says the 
administration believes in a strong dollar, but what is happening does 
not match his rhetoric. Meanwhile, prices go up for our consumers in 
everything, including petroleum, which is the basis for gasoline, and 
prices have been going up there.
  Make no mistake, America ends up owing somebody else. But, in fact, 
it is

[[Page 2337]]

our children and grandchildren that end up becoming less independent as 
a nation because of these deficits as we see one industry after another 
decline. The President's trade deficits and budget deficits are setting 
these all-time records.
  I ask myself, in the major sector of deficit, which is oil, when is 
America going to wake up? When are we going to have real leadership 
here in Washington for new sources of energy so that these numbers stop 
heading in a downward direction? Dependence is not what America's 
founders had in mind. They did not envision an America in hock to the 
world. We want an America that is strong and independent, not saddled 
with debt and beholden to foreign banks.
  It is time to tell our President to stop; stop letting our trade 
partners walk all over us; stop negotiating trade deals like CAFTA that 
hurt our workers and give workers in other places no chance to improve 
their lot when there are no labor standards and environmental standards 
that are enforceable; stop trading away America's economic future. 
America needs a positive economic future that will help create good 
jobs, new wealth and new opportunity, not the Bush administration's 
bankrupt trade and fiscal policies that send our jobs overseas, our 
wealth to banks in Beijing and Saudi Arabia, to whom we now owe 
interest, and the bill for all this nonsense to our children and 
grandchildren.

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