Below, you’ll find the Reasoning & Rationale to what we call a Bill-Request. Once certain milestones are met, as defined HERE, lawyers will be called upon to draft what will then become a Bill-Demand to Congress and the President.
The lands straddling the North-East, the Great Lakes, and the Midwest, were home once to a mighty industrial sector. Then the factories closed, the workers moved out, the elements moved in, and corrosion took over.
That politicians, their surrogates, and the talking heads on TV, shamelessly refer to these former centers of production as the “Rust Belt” is itself a national shame.
The following was Published in 2015
Every presidential election cycle — during the primaries and the general election phase — the candidates talk up manufacturing like it means everything to them, especially as they criss-cross the states suffering the most acute manufacturing job losses. Then they leave Pennsylvania, or Ohio, or Michigan, to go to New York City, or Los Angeles, or wherever they frequent to collect big bucks for their campaigns, and they willfully forget the people — and the pledges — they left behind.
No wonder manufacturing jobs have bled like they’d been cut at the femoral artery, the carotid, and the jugular.
As of this writing in 2015, the last presidential election cycle was 2012. And, on the campaign trail in the manufacturing states in Feb 2012, here’s a bit of what we saw…
With Republican hopefuls on Michigan’s turf and President Obama not far away, by no accident factory jobs became the election theme.
Manufacturing is (quote) “vital to the health of society” and real important to (quote) “families” said Rick Santorum, that other Family Guy, more slender and somewhat better looking than the original Family Guy Peter Griffin. So what exactly did Rick have in mind to revitalize society and (quote) “sustain” families by way of manufacturing? Uh … let’s have a look at the GOP playbook and see what he might come up with … and, yep, that’s exactly what he came up with: i.e cut taxes on those who least need the tax cut.
Not to be outdone, on Feb 16 2012 President Obama joined the crowded crew of idea-less bureaucrats by going next door to Wisconsin and promising to (quote) “bring jobs and manufacturing back to the United States.” Really, we thought. And, now that you are nearly 4 years into your presidency and neither jobs nor manufacturing have come back, how exactly would you go about doing that, going forward, Mr. President? Although it was still winter in Wisconsin, we heard cricket-like insects chirping all around.
On Feb 18 2012, at Boeing in Everett Washington, Mr. Obama said (quote) “No company should get a tax break for outsourcing jobs. Instead, tax breaks should go to manufacturers who set up shop here at home.” It was pretty much a rehash of the same goulash he came up with 4 years earlier in 2008, as a candidate, and did nothing with.
Mr. Obama touted the Export Import Bank and talked up Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner. Which was great, if you were a big manufacturer. But what about rethinking Finance Mechanisms for small to medium manufacturers, near 80% of whom are rejected by banks on loan applications made to fund business expansion? And what about new ideas to not just finance, but growth-assist both small manufacturers and startups? How about rethinking Education Policy and Immigration Policy to align with a Manufacturing Economy? If we were to ask the President any of that, most certainly there’d be the same cricket-like insects chirping, all around.
About the same time in 2012, at a Master Lock plant in Milwaukee, Mr. Obama said the time for manufacturing jobs to return to America had arrived. And, nearly 4 years later, in late 2015, what did we find? — that things were worse in manufacturing than they were in 2012.
Meanwhile, across the aisle, in Michigan in 2012, Michigan-born Mitt Romney swore he’ll (quote) “fight for American manufacturing.” Of course, were Mitt in Alaska he’d swear he’d fight for sockeye salmon, too, if sockeye salmon could vote. So let’s leave it at that.
Under Our Origins, we wrote:
Germany, a country which compensates her factory workers comprehensively, has a population of about 80 million. America, a country which does not compensate its factory workers as comprehensively, has a population of about 320 million.
America is about 27 times bigger than Germany in square acreage, with natural resources Germans can only dream of, or could not in even their wildest dreams.
Yet in 2010, excluding services, Germany — a country that’s half the size of Texas — exported, in goods, about the same as the whole of the United States, i.e. $1.28 trillion.
No, we cannot compete with China or Mexico in making some goods. But there are goods we can compete in making, that we are NOT competing in making.
So here’s to taking specialized goods manufacture to a multiple of what it is today, and creating millions of high quality jobs for Americans with it.
You’ve just read the short description of our Reasoning & Rationale for this Bill-Request. If that’s enough for you to vote in support of it and you do not need to see our “PROVEN BLUEPRINT” to revive American manufacturing and high-pay factory jobs, then go ahead and vote your support now — but if, however, you’d like to see our design in detail, you’ll find that blueprint HERE.