United States-Korea Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act

Floor Speech

Ms. KAPTUR. I thank my dear colleague Mr. Michaud, who has fought equally hard.

I'm proud to stand here on behalf of the communities and workers and businesses of our country that want to compete on a level playing field. The problem with our trade policies is they export more U.S. jobs than products.

The gentleman talks about possibility. I don't want possibility. I want results. When you look at what's happened over the last quarter century, we don't have any balanced trade accounts. They're all in the red. And these trade deficits snuff out economic growth. Didn't anybody here take math? Look at the balance sheet. It's all negative.

This is Korea today. All negative. Our trade accounts with them have been negative. They're already negative. What difference does this deal make? It only says ``maybe.'' Maybe Korea will allow us to sell more than 7,450 cars in their market when they're selling half a million here already. Shouldn't reciprocity be at the heart of our trade deals?

We've got a half a trillion dollar trade deficit. How many times do you have to be hit over the head before you say, You know what? This isn't working.

Soybean exports aren't enough. Cranberries aren't enough. Look at the job outsourcing of America from coast to coast. Our people's wages are going down. Their standard of living is going down. Their jobs have been outsourced. They're losing their homes. Unemployment is stuck. GDP isn't rising. Is anybody here listening? Is anybody paying attention?

This is just another example of powerful Washington elites being totally out of step with Main Street and the American people.

I'm proud of the Tea Partiers who are out there organizing and I'm proud of the Occupy Wall Street rallies because they're saying, You folks, you are out of step up here in Washington. Pay attention to what is happening on Main Street.

I oppose this agreement with Korea as well as Colombia and Panama and ask this Congress to have some real common sense and move to trade balance rather than trade deficit. Create jobs in America by balancing our trade accounts.

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