mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from new york for his leadership in defense of our economy , workers ' rights , and our desire to build on an american economy that can provide opportunity for all .  mr. speaker , if the congress were to take up legislation for the purpose of removing barriers to the competitiveness of the u.s. economy , i do not believe , respectfully , it would read like h. res. 352 .  but , it might read something like this : whereas , u.s. trade with foreign countries is so imbalanced that the u.s. has a trade deficit with every continent in the world except australia and with nearly every country in the world ; whereas , before nafta , the u.s. exported about an equivalent amount to mexico as it imported to mexico .  but , after nafta , imports from mexico increased 195 percent , more than double the increase in exports .  nafta caused a balanced trade scenario with mexico to become unbalanced , to the disadvantage of the u.s. ; whereas , exports create jobs ; imports destroy jobs .  and when imports outpace exports , more jobs are destroyed than created .  so while increased exports after nafta may have created almost 800 , 000 jobs , according to the economic policy institute in 2003 , increased imports due to nafta destroyed almost 1.7 million jobs .  every state in the nation lost jobs due to nafta ; whereas , congress will soon be compounding the damage with consideration of cafta , which is modeled on nafta ; whereas , china 's seemingly endless supply of dollars to acquire ibm , maytag , and now unocal is supplied by america 's huge trade deficit with china .  in fact , since congress agreed to admit china to the wto , granting it permanent most favored nation status , the u.s. trade deficit with china grew by 50 percent in only 2 years .  now , if congress was to take up legislation for the purpose of removing barriers to the competitiveness of the u.s. economy , it might read like this : whereas , america needs a new trade policy based on the principle that what the u.s. buys from a country should roughly match what it sells to that country ; whereas , the cost of private , for-profit health care is a serious impediment to competitiveness ; whereas , the u.s. paid $ 5 , 270 per capita for health care in 2002 , and two countries with the closest level of spending were germany at $ 2 , 820 and canada $ 2 , 930 , both of which provided universal health care ; whereas , the ceos of ford motor company of canada , gm canada , daimlerchrysler canada wrote in a 2002 letter that `` publicly-funded health care thus accounts for a significant portion of canada 's overall labor cost advantage in auto assembly versus the u.s. which in turn has been a significant factor in maintaining and attracting new auto investment to canada. '' the resolution that we need to hear would say : whereas , h.r. 676 , the u.s. national health insurance act , which has 50 cosponsors , would provide less expensive , high-quality , single-payer health care systems like many u.s. competitors ; whereas , the current course of u.s. economic and health policy is unsustainable , and a day of reckoning could involve the bursting of the housing price bubble , rise of interest rates , budget austerity and the shredding of the social safety net , mass unemployment , and a loss of economic sovereignty .  therefore , be it resolved , congress has once again lost the opportunity to change the course , correct the trade imbalance , lift up living standards in the u.s. and the world , and set the country on a more sustainable economic course .  the coming readjustment will be painful indeed while this administration and congress drive the u.s. economy over a cliff .  vote `` no '' on h. res. 352 .  