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Ryan Joins Manufacturing Advocates to Push Obama
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan and other proponents of American manufacturing say they hope to hear more from President Obama tonight about efforts to shore up that segment of the U.S. economy in his State of the Union Address.
Ryan, D-13 Howland, joined U.S. Sen Chris Coons, D-Del., at a media briefing Monday in Washington, D.C., with Scott Paul, president of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, to discuss jobs and manufacturing issues in advance of the president’s speech tonight.
Manufacturing represents about $120 trillion of the U.S. economy, compared with $20 trillion represented by the Internet, Ryan said. “To focus on manufacturing is to focus on the majority of our economy,” Ryan said. “You can’t talk about having an innovative economy without talking about manufacturing.”
Ryan showed off an example of the manufacturing innovation taking in Youngstown -- a 3-D chess piece printed here “that could not be made by any other manufacturing type.”
During the event, which was made available to offsite journalists via a conference call, findings of a new poll were released that show how much Americans value manufacturing. In addition to the economic case to be made, there is broad public support across party lines for taking action to support domestic manufacturing, “something that is very rare to see in the country today,” Paul said.
“It may surprise you that the loss of manufacturing jobs and outsourcing is an even larger concern to most Americans than the federal budget deficit,” he remarked. According to the poll, which will be released later this week, the loss of manufacturing jobs ranks above taxes, diminishing quality of life, growing income inequality and other economic concerns.
Additionally, nearly half of those polled -- 45% -- blame U.S. trade policies that they believe encourage outsourcing or lack of a national manufacturing strategy for weak job growth.
Paul noted the president has given a “starring role” to manufacturing in the last couple of years. About two weeks ago Obama established a manufacturing hub focusing on power electronics in North Carolina modeled on the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Center in Youngstown, which Obama mentioned in his State of the Union Address last year.
More than 80% of those surveyed said they backed establishing a national manufacturing strategy, such as Coons calls for in his proposed American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act. Ryan is a leading advocate for manufacturing as co-chairman of the House Manufacturing Caucus and also on the issue of currency reform, “which is important for leveling the playing field” for American manufacturers and workers, Paul said.
“The idea of Made in America is very popular but it’s also a very popular concept to have Washington do something about this,” he remarked.
Manufacturing jobs are good jobs, with better pay and better benefits than jobs in other sectors and having a better secondary impact on the local economy, Coons said. He expressed confidence that the United States can regain its leadership in manufacturing. Since 2009, manufacturing has regained more than 560,000 jobs, he noted.
“We have one of the most productive manufacturing workforces in the world -- in fact in world history -- and there are things we can and should do on a bipartisan basis to make a difference,” said the Alliance for American Manufacturing's Paul. The percentage of manufacturing’s share of Germany’s economy is double that of the United States, because government at all levels, from local education to investment in research and development and infrastructure at the regional and national level is tightly integrated with the manufacturing sector.
“They have a national strategy,” Paul continued. In addition to his bill, he pointed to legislation co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, to promote coordination of public and resources with the private sector to leverage competitive advantages in particular areas, and he pointed to the model provided by the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute. There is a “whole fleet” of policy ideas for Congress to act on, he said.
“There will be transformational things happening out of Youngstown that will transform the national economy, but when you put these centers in areas that have suffered for the last couple of decades economically, there’s an opportunity to rebuild the local economy as well,” Ryan said. “For the president to focus on it is right but it’s time to move past the rhetoric into action.”
The president is doing what he can without legislation but Congress needs to act, he said.
Copyright 2014 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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