America Needs to Address Causes, Not Effects, of America's Economic Predicament

Floor Speech

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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 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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