mr. speaker , i thank the gentlewoman from california for yielding me this time . 
mr. speaker , i have no illusions that the resolution that we bring up tomorrow is going to win . 
five years ago , when the gentleman from texas ( mr. paul ) xz4003110 brought it up , i think we received 56 votes . 
i think we will probably do better tomorrow , but i do not think we are going to win . 
but i do think that this resolution that is coming up tomorrow , which i strongly support , is enormously important , because it is high time for the united states congress to take a tough look at our trade policies , our membership in the wto . 
i believe that any objective assessment will tell every member of this body and the american people that our trade policies have failed the american worker , the american middle class in a disastrous way , and that it is high time to rethink our trade policies so that they begin to work for the middle class of this country and not just the ceos of our major corporations . 
mr. speaker , the middle class of the united states of america is collapsing . 
poverty is increasing . 
our trade deficit is soaring . 
i find it amazing to hear the gentleman from california ( mr. dreier ) xz4001150 give his portrayal of what is going on in america and the world . 
he is very much at odds with what the american people perceive . 
the average american worker is asking why , with an explosion of technology , with a huge increase in worker productivity , why is the average american worker working longer hours for lower wages ? 
why is it that real wages in the united states today are 7 percent lower than they were in 1973 for the bottom 90 percent of american workers ? 
why is it that with all of this globalization and all of this free trade there are few middle-class families in america where women no longer have the option of staying home with their kids , but they have got to go into the workforce , where people in america are working two jobs , and three jobs just to pay the bills . 
the reality of what is going on in america today is that globalization is not working for ordinary people . 
in the last 4 years alone in the united states , we have lost 2.8 million good-paying manufacturing jobs . 
just yesterday , we learned that general motors is now going to cut back on another 25 , 000 good-paying jobs for american workers . 
study after study shows that the new jobs that are being created are paying low wages , with minimal benefits , and the jobs that we are losing were good-paying jobs that had good benefits . 
now , the bottom line of this discussion is that , yes , international trade is a good thing . 
but it is a good thing when it benefits ordinary americans . 
it is not a good thing when it simply makes the ceos of large corporations even wealthier so that they can earn as much as 500 times what the average american worker in their company makes . 
that is not a good thing . 
when we talk about unfettered free trade , let us remember that every single year our trade deficit is going up and up and up . 
and the singular question that we have got to address is , does our trade policy work when american workers are being forced to compete against desperate people in countries like china who earn 30 cents an hour ? 
my friends , that is what this debate is about . 
large corporations like general electric , general motors , all of those companies who are throwing american workers out on the street , they think this agreement is greet , because they are moving to china lock , stock and barrel , hiring desperate people for pennies an hour , people who go to jail when they stand up for their political rights when they try to form a union . 
and the result of that is an extremely unfair competitive situation against the needs of the american worker . 
my friend , the gentleman from california ( mr. dreier ) xz4001150 , talked about the need to pass the central american free trade agreement , cafta . 
well , i think he is going to be disappointed , because i think that the results are so clear in terms of what nafta has done for american workers , what permanent normal trade relations with china have done for american workers , that not only are the american people catching on that cafta will be a continuation of a failed policy , i think the american people are demanding that it is time for congress to represent workers and not just the big money interests . 
i am not going to suggest that trade alone is the only reason for the decline of the middle class . 
but i will suggest that it is a very significant reason . 
the middle class in america will not survive unless we create good-paying jobs here . 
and what study after study suggests is that the new jobs that are going to be available to our kids are not going to be the high-tech information technology jobs , because they are off to india , they are off to china . 
the new jobs are going to be in wal-mart industry , in the service industry , where people are earning low wages with low benefits . 
mr. speaker , let me simply conclude by saying this : all of the objective evidence in terms of job loss , in terms of the loss of good-paying jobs , in terms of the growing gap between the rich and the poor in america which is now wider than in any other industrialized country on earth , wider in the united states than it has been the 1920s , all of that suggests that the economy is not working for the middle class . 
my republican friends talk about a robust economy . 
president george bush has not created one new job in the private sector since he has been in office ; he has lost jobs . 
all of the new jobs have been created in the government . 
and it is obligatory upon us to analyze why our economy is failing the middle class , why poverty is increasing , why the gap between the rich and the poor is growing wider , why the new jobs that are being created are primarily low wage with poor benefits . 
trade is not the only cause of this problem , but it is a significant cause . 
we need a trade policy that reflects the interests of the middle class and working people of this country and not the ceos who are busy sending our jobs to china . 
let me quote the ceo of general electric , jeffrey immelt , several years ago . 
he said , that when i look to the future of general electric , i see china , china , china . 
well , i think maybe mr. immelt should look to the united states for the future of ge , and gm and other corporations should do the same . 
we can not continue to hemorrhage decent-paying jobs going to countries that do not have democracy , where people are forced to work for pennies an hour . 
we and the other industrialized world must do everything we can to uplift the poor of the world . 
but we do not have to sacrifice the middle class of this country as part of that process . 
