Bush speech on manufacturing (article)

foxnews.com

RICHFIELD, Ohio — President Bush pledged Monday to help the manufacturing sector, which has been suffering especially badly from recent economic woes.

During a rainy Labor Day visit to a factory training center, Bush said he had directed Commerce Secretary Don Evans (search) to establish an assistant position to focus "on the needs of manufacturers." Keeping factory jobs is critical to a broader economic recovery, the president said, his outdoor venue ringed by cranes, backhoes and bulldozers.

Bush said the nation has lost "thousands of jobs in manufacturing." In fact, the losses have soared into the millions: Of the 2.7 million jobs the U.S. economy has lost since the recession began in early 2001, 2.4 million were in manufacturing. The downturn has eliminated more than one in 10 of the nation's factory jobs.

The president attributed the erosion to productivity gains and to jobs flowing to cheaper labor markets overseas. He suggested that jobs moving to foreign shores was his primary reason for creating the new manufacturing czar.

"One way to make sure that the manufacturing sector does well is to send a message overseas, (to) say, look, we expect there to be a fair playing field when it comes to trade," Bush said.

"See, we in America believe we can compete with anybody, just so long as the rules are fair, and we intend to keep the rules fair," Bush said, his audience of workers and supporters cheering.

Bush administration officials believe one way to spark the economy and deal with the bloated trade deficit is for other countries to remove trade barriers. That would allow U.S. companies to more freely do business in overseas markets, boosting America's global competitiveness. The nation's trade deficit ran at an annual rate of $488.5 billion for the first six months of this year, heading for another record.

Congress approved trade pacts with Singapore and Chile earlier this year, and Bush plans to sign both on Wednesday. The administration says it now is striving for an agreement for all of Central America.

Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Dick Gephardt of Missouri said "bad trade deals" such as NAFTA were driving American jobs abroad.

He promised a "trade and manufacturing policy that will put an end to the hemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs and keep good paying jobs in this country for our workers."

Bush did not name the new manufacturing official, and gave no timetable for offering a nomination to the Senate. Nor did he specify what duties the new post would include. Commerce Department officials said they are still ironing out the new hierarchy; Assistant secretaries are generally the fourth echelon of Cabinet-level departments, beneath secretary, deputy secretary and undersecretary.

Bush spent most of his speech expressing empathy for anxious workers, and wiping rain from his head, which became thoroughly drenched despite his union hat.

"I want you to understand that I understand that Ohio manufacturers are hurting, that there's a problem with the manufacturing sector," Bush said. "I understand that for a full recovery, to make sure people can find work, that manufacturing must do better," Bush said.

Ohio lost 185,000 jobs during the recession from 2001 through last March, nearly two-thirds in manufacturing, according to a study released Sunday by a private economic think tank.

Politics loomed large in Bush's 11th trip to Ohio -- a state he carried in 2000, and one where he also spent the July Fourth holiday.

Monday, Bush brought along his chief political adviser, Karl Rove (search), for the half-day trip to address the International Union of Operating Engineers (search), which represents 400,000 construction and maintenance workers in the United States and Canada.

Bush has tried to woo some trade and industrial unions, which tend to be more conservative than public and service sector unions. The Operating Engineers union is among the largest labor donors to Republicans, contributing 16 percent of its $1.3 million to the GOP in 2002, and its president, Frank Hanley, has appeared at several previous events with Bush.

The White House chose politically friendly territory for the event. Although surrounding communities tilt Democrat, Richfield leans Republican. Bush's motorcade route took him along stately homes in an affluent neighborhood, and clusters of supporters waved signs backing the president.

His crowd applauded when Bush argued that two rounds of tax cuts had kept the recession shallow and had helped spur factory jobs.

Democrats said the tax cuts have gone to the wealthiest taxpayers and have sent the deficit spiraling to $480 billion for next year, while doing little to jump-start the economy.

"Nearly 9 million Americans will have no job to return to after their three-day weekend," said Democratic contender Howard Dean (search). "We need a president who is creating jobs, instead of losing more jobs than any president has since the Great Depression."

The Labor Day trip marked Bush's first public appearance since he returned Saturday from a monthlong stay on his ranch in Crawford, Texas. It kicks off a burst of heavy travel in the 15 months leading up to Election Day.

Bush still had Crawford on his mind as he addressed the operating engineers.

"We need a little rain in Crawford," he told an audience shielding itself with rain slickers and garbage bags. "Send it that way, if you don't mind."

To bad 2.7 million jobs had to be lost to get his (George Bush) attention.

Hopefully, our government will do something before we loose another 2.7 million jobs.

Yeee Ya...well I think he was a little slow to call this one.

Jim

Bush was too slow?

Clinton opened the door wide open to the Chinese. There are companies pulling work out of Mexico to send to China.

10 years ago, it was Mexico, now it is China and India.

JR

Opening the door to China is one thing, leveling the playing field is another!!

Why did it take so long for Bush to acknowledge the situation in manufacturing?
The past week is the first time I heard him talk about it to this extent.

When Bush campaigns next year and asks people, "are you better off today than you were 4 years ago", what will most people think? I would give back all the tax cuts for a couple of those Clinton years. I voted for Bush, but will I do it again????
Jim

Jim,

What do you think that Bush or anybody else will really do. His hands are tied with a trade treaty that Clinton signed (for 5 years I think).

He could go to Congress and ask that the treaty be nulified - no way!

He could go to Congress and ask that the manufacturing sector be given tax breaks - I doubt it!

He could go to the IMF and have them put pressure on China to let their curency float - China does not borrow from the IMF so I doubt that they would listen!

Americans have done this to themselves. Clinton signed the treaty, but you can't even blame him. Look down the street and you will notice all of the foreign cars. Some of these are "assembled" in the USA, but the profits all go back to their owners who are overseas.

Do you own a TV? Where was it made?
What about the machines you run and the mikes you use?

The door to China has been opened, and I don't think Bush or anybody else can close it. The only hope that we as a country have is to buy American.

Just my opinion.

JR

By Golly a manufacturing CZAR, The DRUG CZAR is sure doing a GREAT job!
Don, holding the peremeter at Wally World

Well JR:

I think all manufactured products should be made within to similar health and safety guidelines. In China, if a worker looses an eye or hand they just get another warm body. That would not be the case in this country. "Level the playing field".

True, we are all guilty of buying foreign made merchandise. I have owned Honda motorcycles for 35 years.

Our government can do a number of things to help.
1. Make the Chinese lower their trade tarrifs like they agreed to do.
2. Make countries trade with us instead of transferring cash to them. If they sell a million dallars over here, then they should buy a million dollars of our stuff.
3. Encourage companies to stay here. Inform "American" companies investing overseas there capital investments overseas are not tax deductible in this country. I mean, lets not pay them to leave.
4. Who is going to support the people that lost their jobs to imports??? There should be a tarrif on imports and that tarrif should support those out of work not the remaining workers still working.

Jim

Jim,

I agree with most of what you have to say. I do have some exceptions.

Requarding the health and safety aspect. The Chinese manufacturing facilities that I have seen are all very clean and neat and most of them boast of their excellent safety records. Remember, there is not WC when you are in a communist state. I don't think that the Chinese will change that even if we send them a whole bunch of lawyers (maybe the ship would sink on the way over). To level the playing field, we need tort reform in this country.

1. agreed!
2. I agree, but how do you enforce? Do you have the same for oil? What about electricity from Canada?
3. There are no tax credits for overseas investments. A corporation will get the same deductions for an investment that was made in this country. If you take away that deduction, what about the US oil companies that build facilities off-shore? What about the companies that build service centers outisde the borders of the US? In China, you are not taxed on your equipment (property tax). I don't think it's a question of getting paid to leave, but having to pay to stay.
4. I agree with the principle, but personally do not like tarriffs. The Japanese have had a tarriff system to protect their farmers for years. They could import food from the US for much less than they can grow it, but it is almost impossible to get anything to them. The average Japanese spends (as a %) about 2 times an American for food. And the Japanese farmer has grown less productive over the years.

I don't know all of the answers to this. Hell, I don't even know a lot of the questions. I'm just trying to hold on until retirement.

JR

Tsar, Czar and Kaiser all mean Caesar.

The US constitution prohibits Titles of Royalty and makes no provision for the installaton of Dictators or Caesars.

Energy Czars, Drug Czars and Manufacturing Czars are the Last Thing the USA needs.

The Washington reporters who brought the term Czar to us were not just fooling around. They know the people involved personally.

They are telling us that the position confers too much power to an unelected government official.

Centralized decision making at this level usually makes for bad policy and the chance of serious wreckage.

It is the job of Congress to address the issues of equitable workman's compensation, product liability, frivolous lititgaton and needless over regulation.

There is nothing wrong with American Manufacturing and American manufctrers don't need a Czar of any kind.

There are very many issues concerning labor, regulation and taxation that have to be handled right now and that all falls to the Legislature.

Mr. Bush is going into an Election Year. He is going to have the entire Executive Branch woofing all about manufacturing.

Wrong outfit.

The 435 Fools on The Hill are the only ones who can do anything.

And, oh yes, If you feel like banging your shoe on the table in the Manner of Nikita Krushchev, Do it at your State Capital.

There are 50 legislatures that need a good working over.

You may be looking at Washington with pleading, Hound Dog Eyes, and getting Knifed in the Ribs by the boys and girls in your own State Legislature.

I live out here in West-By-Gosh so admittedly my view of California is cloudy, but common sense tells me that Throwing Joseph Graham Davis out of the Governorship might Feel good, but he is just a Governor not a Czar.

To Do some good, Californians have to do some Good Electing in the next Statewide elections when they get their chance to change those who manufacture California's laws.

Do YOU know the name of your State Senator or Sate Assemblyman or Congressman?

Go Bite Him or Her!

Gov. Davis now says that if we keep him he will do things differently.
So he is acknowledging he screwed up and wants another chance. I don't think so.
He is just a slimeball career politician who changes his tune to whatever he thinks will work.
The only thing he is good at is raising campaign funds. He does a fantastic job of that.

I do know the name of my legislators. And they get an earful from us.

Complaining to your US Senate reps doesn't do much good when their names are Feinstein and Boxer though.

At least the L.A. mayor's office sent someone to our shop to listen to our concerns and they took the action we wanted. No complaints there.

Les

Both political parties involved with China
and for many years. Manufacturing will continue to decline both here and europe.
Politicians might listen but they won''t act until they get paid.

Fellas -

Best part of all is this: Where will the displaced factory workers turn for help when they lose their jobs, a stop on the way to losing their homes and cars? Well - to Gov' help, of course. But where will the $$$ come from? We're already $400 billion in the hole this year, and more next year, WITHOUT factoring in the cost of the war and the coming prescription drug coverage for senior citizens.

We've got Boomers hitting the dole at the same time giants swaths of the country are losing whole sectors of manufacturing. Incredibly, Bush has had as his first priority lowering revenues and is still pushing for more. Rain or shine, the rich need to pay less. (It's the solution to everything.) Where the rest of us figure in I'm not sure. Hell, who gives a shit about the middle class and poor folk, or should care? We've graduated to a pay-to-play election scheme, where each politician has to spend about a third of his time currying favor with the folks who can bankroll their next run for office. Guess who comes out on top when the legislation comes 'round.

I've said it before, but we are in some deep shit here. But as long as ol' George waves the Bible ever' now and again, and as long as my idiotic party has as its top goal integrating gays into the mainstream, then nothing will happen to break this insane logjamb developing over our extended budget crisis. Crisis? Man, there isn't even a word to describe the mess we're in financially.

We're looking dead straight at a future in which we'll have a massive number of older Americans drawing sky-high medical bills as the workforce shrinks in whole, and with a side-order of Walmart jobs replacing formerly high-paying manufacturing jobs. And all the while, the ever-strained average American family will shop all the more often at Walmart.

The Chinese are going to end up with our jobs AND our money, and are additionally the ones who'll be lending us our own $$$ back to cover operating expenses the damn GOP refuses to pay for as we go along.

At some point, this whole scenario will become entirely untenable. Americans will be rioting in the streets Argentina-style within ten years, bet on it. If the current President gets re-elected, and we all know he will because America loves a dumb liar and hates the Dems over our BS social policies, then we'll soon be $10 trillion in debt.

What the hell will be going on in America in ten years? Fer cryin' out loud - there ain't no way to do it other than pay your way, year by year. What is wrong with this man? Why doesn't he know this? Something terrible has emerged during this administration - a rationalization that $400 to $500 billion yearly deficits are manageable. We've entered into a semi-permanent habit of borrowing mountains of cash to cover the day-to-day expenses of governing.

By the time our willfully ignorant citizenry has stirred itself to accept the facts of our new Mad Math (a giant assumption itself), it'll be pretty late in the game. The fatcats in the GOP are hoping that it'll be so late, in fact, that our mountainous debt will require wholesale amputations of the body politic. Goodbye nanny state, we'll miss ya, but we can't afford to keep on seeing you.

What we'll actually have is something worse - an enraged, fearful, despondent public which regularly needs government assistance of all kinds, and therefore won't accept such drastic cuts in public services, and a revenue system permanently incapable of meeting our needs unless taxes are raised dramatically.

Well, we won't have to worry about whether taxes get raised. (That's inevitable. This money we're borrowing isn't free. It's just that we won't get anything for the extra coupla grand we pay every year, ad infinitum...) We'll end with a half-crazed lower class that can't find work or public support, an upper class still hollering about its tax burden (even though it has been significantly lowered), and a middle class lying to itself that things aren't as bad as it has obviously become.

And somehow, the GOP will convince our mind numbingly adolescent population that it was all the result of something Clinton did. And they'll buy into it, being pissed off and knowing little beyond what they've gleaned from Reality TV shows. In the end, this country is going to be so nuts-to-butts over the problems of our debt that about half of us will give up on government altogether. All hail the rise of Fascism.

That's when the televangelists are going to clean house, Amen.

[This message has been edited by J. Elliott (edited 09-02-2003).]

That last post included most of the Dems rhetoric.
You left out one item....the evil rightwing agenda.

Les

Dear Les -


Not so much an 'evil' agenda as shamefully irresponsible. Every GOP member of Congress knows there is no way to kill off public spending to a degree necessary in order to balance the budget. Not a chance - it would involve an amount of bloodletting that our esteemed citizenry would never accept. And the Republicans aren't any more interested in being kicked out of their jobs than anyone else, so they'll keep on sucking up to the public with new spending each term while the treasury sits bare. It isn't right. Tax-and-spend is bad, but no-tax-and-spend even more is cowardly. What we have now, after three rounds of tax cuts, is permanent red ink to the tune of hundreds of billions each year. It was an immoral, self-indulgent act of betrayal. In my opinion, the American people have been asking for it by being so abysmally detached from politics. That a fox has raided the henhouse was predictable - all I want is for the GOP to stand up like men and take the heat when people come to realize just how badly we've been set up.

Man, I'm one unhappy Southern Democrat. My own party is full of ****, even more so in some ways than the GOP. I spent too many years in a liberal college town to buy all this crap coming from my own side. Beware the ivory-tower dwelling, fair skinned set.

Liberals bother me, but conservatives scare the hell out of me. Around here, in rural NC, you can't find anyone who even cares to pay attention to this deficit. Why care? I mean, now we've got God on our side with Bush, right? You'd think we were on our way to easy street, taken from the tenor of conversation at the local Cracker Barrel. I'm really, really worried. Jesus isn't coming back to balance the budget. I'm fairly secure on this one, I think.

I know this last post was apocalyptic, which makes it tedious. But this is bad stuff, very bad, and the GOP doesn't care one hoot for the Dem's opinion - not on this or otherwise. (Same when we were in control.) Therefore, it falls to the Republicans to fix this craziness. Which is appropriate - you ain't EVER seen a Dem run $400 billion back-to-back deficits. This is a GOP made crisis, and it is the GOP who is responsible for making it right.

Anyone care to bet that Bush, even next term, will ever come close to proposing a balanced spending plan?

Les,

Good Job!

J.

You want to blame Bush for everything. You forget that Congress is the spending arm of the government. During the LBJ years, we were going to elliminate poverty. Over 3 trillion dollars later, we still have poor. Spending and government aid is not the answer. Neither is taxation. The smartest thing that the government ever did was payroll deduction. If the average American had to hand out money to the government every month, they would scream. But they don't miss it, they don't even see it.

You blame the polititions, but I blame the lawyers. This country is in desperate need of tort reform. My father (86 years old & still working) is in the medical field. His malpractice insurance has gone up 500% in the last few years. If you want to talk about taxation, talk to him. He has told me that in 1948 while he was working as a store manager for a national chain, his tax rate was less than 5%.

This country is screwed up, I will admit that. But I would rather live here than almost anywhere else (my wife is Brazilian and I know a great beach city there). I did not get screwed up during the Bush or Clinton administrations. We did not have a deficit before LBJ. It took 40 years to get us into the mess, and it will probably take longer to get us out.

You also complain about giving tax breaks to the rich. Name me one poor person that started a business, built a college library, or provided scholarships. That is a typical liberal BS view. Spending and taxation are not the answers!

I'm more of an optimist. I remember when people like you were complaining that the Japanese would take over this country. Then, I think it was Taiwan. And later, NAFTA was the problem.

The sky is falling, the sky is falling.

JR

I have to tell you one thing Joel, the higher my taxes get, the harder it is to balance MY budget.
Since I can't print money or create it out of thin air, I have to earn it.
I have to make sure that my spending does not exceed my income.
Pretty simple formula.

Jobs need to be created. Those jobs need to be in the private sector and not the public sector. Tax breaks and credits will create private sector jobs. Tax increases will create public sector jobs.
Which would you prefer?

I would hire at least two more employees right now if they cut the workers comp increases we have suffered the last couple of years.
President Bush is trying to give me incentive to purchase new machine tools with the proposed credits.

People who complain about the rich getting the most benefit from tax cuts are crybabys and fools.
Who will create more jobs if they are able to retain and spend more of the money they earn, the rich or the poor?

I could go on and on but I have to head to the shop and put in 10-12 hours today. Since our taxes have been raised, 8 hour days are a thing of the past. The higher taxes{workers comp mainly}, has resulted in a REDUCTION of the workforce.
There's your proof in a nutshell.

Les

JR, you are right about the tort reform.
Lawyers see everybody as cash cows to be milked dry.
Look what happened when they limited the product liability on small aircraft to 14 years. Cessna built a new factory and went back into production making small single-engine planes.
Jobs were created and the lawyers are upset because now it is harder to sue the manufacturer when some fool kills himself and others in a 30 or 40 year old plane.

Tort reform will create the kind of jobs we need.

Les

Guys,

Les, I read most of your posts with a bit more attention than usual. I've gathered you're trying to do business in a possibly rough neighborhood in a state known for Democratic excess. And when I read that Warren Buffet plans to increase business taxes, (or at least I think it was Buffet who came out for this last week), the first thing I thought about was seeing you explode on the forum here. I fully believe that taxes and regs have about driven you nuts out there in sunny CA. My condolences, honestly.


JR - You're right, I don't like Bush. I also didn't like Clinton. But whereas Clinton held some hope as President, being pretty bright with an appetite for facts, Bush is sorta slow and almost wholly without curiousity about the world. You can see it in his dull eyes, his expression. He is an ex-drunk who found Jesus, and that's about it. Now he's President because the GOP raised $80 million and begged him to run, assuring him he couldn't lose to Gore. Finally, he caved in and said "OK". Now that he is the Man, he's covered up in problems that are way over his head. I absolutely detest the lack of gravity to this man. His taunting bullshit to Bring it On (resulting in Americans deaths), his dogmatic reliance upon tax cuts to fix everything, his determination to mix tax revenues with religion. The way he pisses on the rest of the world, and then stupidly expects them to support us when we ask for support or lie down for us when we say, "Sit". It is like having your average next-door-neighbor as President.

Bush, the House, and the Senate, all under GOP control, have engineered the most irresponsible budget shortfall in the history of the world. No one has ever owed as much money to as many people as we do now. But instead of doing something to fix it, they make it worse. Why? My point is simply this - Republicans are all about cutting taxes, but not any more interested in slashing services afterward than the Dems are. It is unethical, and under Bush we've finally gotten to the point where they don't even pay lip service to balancing the books.

There exists a 500 year civilization cycle, which swings back between East and West. West now includes the USA (member of the west since 200 years or so ago).

Something is making our government WAN TO comply, to make sure the cycle continues.

They are not aware of it, they don't retard it or dampen it, they throw away our future with the greates abandon and in total ignorance.

Bush speech on manufacturing (article)

He doesn't get full credit for turning in his homework this late in the game. Partial credit is it!

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

(I will try to not dbl post, although I am sure that you all want to read it twice.)