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Video Transcript
I'm Congressman Alan Grayson I want to explain why the current debate about foreign trade is the key to a better future for you and everyone you care about trade is a simple concept You sell me yours and I'll sell you mine at least that's the way it used to be I can remember when our food our clothing our cars our TVs our appliances and the homes we live in all were made in America proudly made in America in the old days The production worker who made American refrigerator took his paycheck and pay the rent His landlord went to a restaurant ordered a good meal and left a nice tip The waiter who served the meal saved up and he bought that refrigerator That's how our economy works and that's how it thrived ordinary working people made enough money to afford a House a car They are in paid sick, leave health coverage and a pension and they could pay for their children's College education and they didn't have to worry That they could lose all of that overnight but that's not the way things are today The day that American production worker that landlord and that waiter are all out of work We've lost five million American manufacturing jobs and maybe 15 million other jobs during the past 20 years What happened 20 years ago to change that to ruin the Middle class life that so many Americans enjoy the North American Free Trade Agreement is what happened Happened since Nafta took over our lives day after day month after month and year after year Americans have bought trillions of dollars of goods and services produced by foreigners but those farmers have not bought an equal amount of goods and services produced by Americans not even close In fact, these days it's often hard just to find products that say made in America the difference between what we buy from them and what we sell to them The trade deficit has exploded and that explosion has blasted the American Middle class Here are the numbers and the numbers don't lie for the past 14 years Our average annual trade deficit has been over half a trillion dollars That's a deficit of more than $1500 each and every year for every man woman and child in this country This is not free trade This is fake trade I invite you to look back across the history all the way back to I invite you to look all across planet Earth that beautiful blue marble all 193 Nations all seven continents You will find that the 14 largest trade deficits in the history of mankind All of them are the US trade deficits for the last 14 years here on the left was our trade balance between 1960 - two in 1990, - two before so-called free trade agreements and Balance since then what same person could look at these two charts and conclude that what America needs is more free trade today we're creating millions no tens of millions of jobs in other countries with our purchasing power while we're losing millions of jobs here in America because people in other countries are buying their own goods and services rather than ours they're not creating jobs But they're buying our assets Our stocks are bonds our mortgages our homes our farms Our Coast lands are big businesses and our small businesses Our debt to foreigners right now already totals more than 30 - $5000 for every man, woman and child in America already one seventh of all of the assets of our great nation The result of two centuries of back breaking labor and sacrifice Assets in our nation are now owned already owned by foreigners and ultimately if we keep going the way we're going they all will be because of fake trade The rich get richer and the poor get poorer and the end game The end game is the end of America We are in a deep deep hole thanks to fake trade a British Minister once popularized what he referred to as the first law of holes When you're in a hole stop digging stop digging we have to stop digging The price tag already has reached 11 trillion dollars and it's rising by more than a billion dollars every single day The only ones who have benefited from this treachery are multinational And Middle-class America has paid the price it has to end and it has to end now but right now the US Trade Representative is seeking Fast-track authority for trade agreements That authority could prohibit congressional subcommittee hearings subcommittee amendments Committee hearings Committee amendments and amendments on the floor of the House It could limit debate to 88 seconds for each member of the House but that's not the deepest problem The deepest problem That would put America deeper into that already very deep hole It's the fast track to help That's why you have to direct your congressman and your senators to vote against him The US trade representative also wants Congress to ratify giant new trade agreements one with East Asia and one with Europe This trade Treasury would put our $30 an hour workers directly in Head-to-head competition against workers in Vietnam and Brunei who are lucky to make 30 Free trade countries like that are free of health and safety rules and environmental protection free of social security pensions and health care free of child labor laws free of the right to organize and even free of the rules against slave labor This trade Treasury also gives special privileges to foreign corporations that neither American corporations nor any living breathing human beings enjoy it would set up Tribunals before the World Bank and the United Nations populated by corporate lobbyists pretending to be judges which could then award enforceable judgments against our federal state and local governments merely for enforcing our health safety and environmental laws It would give away the sovereignty that our founding fathers fought and died for in Exchange for nothing but there is hope Warren Buffett the greatest Of our lifetime has offered a plan for liberating us from the trade deficit He would require importers to obtain certificates for the goods and services they sell us The charges for those certificates could be used to increase social security and Medicare benefits rebuild our roads and schools and cut our taxes I support that plan and I will be offering legislation to implement it It is the light at the end of the tunnel for our economy but for now it's urgent that we prevent things from getting even worse Write this number down 2022243121 call that number and you can reach your congressman and your senators To send an Email to them Go to WWW dot House dot Gov slash Representatives slash Find and put in your zip code Tell them no to fast track no to new trade agreements and yes to the buffet plan to reduce the trade deficit one more important thing Sign up at Treasury dot com so that we can keep you posted and we'll let you know what else you can do to help It's time to stop digging that hole any deeper Let's fight back against the scheme that has robbed the American Middle class now for decades Let's fight it and let's defeat it right now while we still can let's put our workers back to work earning a decent day's pay for a decent day's work Let's heal our economy And heal our nation Let's show our courage Let's show our unity Let's climb up out of that hole and let's raise ourselves up and let's rebuild the American Middle class I'm Congressman Alan Grayson If we work together we can make America a paradise
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