Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, I call up my amendment No. 93, and I ask that it be reported by number.

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Mr. HAWLEY. Madam President, in the last 20 years in the State of Missouri, we have lost 60,000 jobs to the People's Republic of China. That number nationwide is almost 4 million. Our trade deficit with China, as we stand here tonight, is at near-record levels, and every dollar of that deficit represents blue-collar jobs destroyed, industry shuttered, manufacturing capacity withering away.

I would submit to you that it is the most important deficit that we face. We can talk about budget reforms, and we can talk about savings here and there, but until we do the work of bringing back productive capacity to this Nation and good-paying blue-collar jobs you can raise a family on, we will not put our economy on the basis that we need to address the economic challenges that we face.

So my amendment does something very simple. It imposes across-the- board tariffs on China for every year in which we have a trade deficit until that deficit is zero. Bring back jobs to this country.

I urge a ``yes'' vote.
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