[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10873-10874]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




  AMERICA NEEDS TO ADDRESS CAUSES, NOT EFFECTS, OF AMERICA'S ECONOMIC 
                              PREDICAMENT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, America's so-called ``spending problem'' 
directly relates to unemployment. Revenues just aren't growing fast 
enough because of unemployment. Yet Washington, D.C., is tied in knots 
over raising the debt limit and over how much more America has to 
borrow because our economy isn't growing fast enough to put millions of 
Americans back to work.
  But you can't balance a budget unless people are working, because 
unemployment equals a loss of revenues with rising deficits. People 
know this. When they're out of work, they have deficits in their own 
family budgets, and they have to cut back. Our local school systems 
have to cut back because we know revenues aren't there, and certainly 
our Nation has to cut back when the revenues aren't coming in. Yet many 
inside Washington, D.C., have their eyes on the effect, not on the 
cause, of our predicament.
  The principal cause of deficits is unemployment. Triggered by what? 
Triggered first by Wall Street corruption and greed. As well, deficits 
are triggered by growing trade deficits, which I will talk about in a 
second, due to the outsourcing of U.S. jobs, and rising deficits are 
due to endless wars.
  America needs to address these causes, but Washington is addressing 
only effects. Again today, we have news that one of the principal 
causes of chronic unemployment and deficits is headed in the wrong 
direction. The United States trade deficit, our balance of goods and 
services accounts with other countries, is seriously hemorrhaging. In 
May, the U.S. trade deficit grew again--more in the red--by over $50.2 
billion. More lost jobs. Yes, the imports of higher priced oil keep 
pushing all of America deeper into the red. People know it because 
they're paying over $4 a gallon when they fill up their cars with gas. 
I did that last night again.
  America has a jobs problem, and that triggers the red ink. America 
has a jobs problem. That triggers the red ink. Wake up, Washington. 
America has a jobs problem.
  In 1993, some Members here in Congress argued, Oh, pass NAFTA, over 
my strong objections, because it's going to create millions of jobs, 
and we will have this terrific trade balance with Mexico and Canada. 
Exactly the reverse happened. We have over $1 trillion of trade deficit 
post-NAFTA, and there hasn't been a single year in which it has been 
balanced. Millions of U.S. jobs have been lost. And each year more red 
ink due to NAFTA stacks up--over a trillion dollars and counting.
  Then in the late 1990s, the same Members said, Oh, let's sign the 
same kind of deal with China, and we did, over my strong objections 
again. Guess what happened? Millions more lost jobs in this country. In 
fact, the Manufacturing Policy Project estimates that there have been 
over 14 million jobs lost just in terms of NAFTA and PNTR.
  We can no longer afford to add hundreds of billions of dollars 
annually to our trade deficit, because it throttles economic growth. It 
literally crushes

[[Page 10874]]

it. It creates more unemployment in this country. Today, we are facing 
unsustainable levels of unemployment for the third year since the 
recklessness of Wall Street brought the economy crushing down after gas 
prices went up to over $4 a gallon in 2007. The official unemployment 
rates today are over 9 percent, and this causes red ink at every level; 
but rather than focusing on job creation, Washington wants to give us 
more of these trade agreements, this time they say with South Korea, 
Colombia and Panama, using the same failed trade model that has 
resulted in huge trade deficits and more lost jobs.
  Congress needs to address causes. We need to get our deficits under 
control by balancing our trade accounts and stopping job outsourcing. 
We need to get our deficits under control by putting people back to 
work. We need to get our deficits under control by ending endless wars, 
and we need to balance our accounts by making sure that Wall Street and 
the greedy who are getting a free ride pay their fair share.
  America needs a results-oriented trade policy that creates jobs here 
in our country, with more exports going out than imports coming in, and 
a trade policy that holds our trade partners accountable. We don't need 
more NAFTA trade model-type agreements, which is what they're going to 
try to push through again. Madam Speaker, America's deficit problem 
relates directly to a lack of jobs--to vast pools of unemployed people, 
to Americans who want to work but who are losing hope. Unemployment 
translates into red ink and a lack of revenue. Until this Congress 
addresses unemployment, it won't solve the deficit problem.
  America needs to address the causes, not the effects of America's 
economic predicament. When will this Congress address those causes?

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