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Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to stand as tall and as boldly as I can for the American worker. Almost 10 million Americans are unemployed; middle class income wages have been stagnant for decades; almost every low-wage job that could have moved overseas has moved overseas. We have to do something different--something smart, honest, brave, bold, and based on the almost unanimous consensus of American economists.
We need to tear down the trade barriers of other countries so that they will buy our goods and services. We need to establish much stronger labor and environmental laws overseas. We need to bring the rule of law to those countries so that investors will build new plants and equipment, and we need much stronger intellectual property protections around the world. We have to take globalization head on. We cannot isolate ourselves. No economy can grow from within. We tried protectionism, and we got the Great Recession.
Mr. Speaker, I stand for the American worker, and I support the Obama administration's commitment to free trade and to lifting the American middle class.
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