The Deficit and Jobs

Floor Speech

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Ms. SUTTON. I thank the gentleman. I thank you for your leadership. You gave us a little bit of background that I think is really, really important when we talk about where this deficit came from and how it came to be. I would just add a couple of other points that I think are significant.

At the end of last year, we will remember that the same people who are now cutting indiscriminately, cuts aimed at seniors, cuts aimed at middle class Americans, cuts aimed at Head Start, low-income housing, heating assistance, Community Development Block Grants that add to economic activities in our communities, those same folks, some of them, were over there fighting to make sure that we had super tax cuts for billionaires that were also going to add exponentially to the deficit.

Then they turn around and say, hey, we've got this horrible deficit, and so now everyone has to sacrifice. But whenever the American people hear the words, ``Everyone needs to sacrifice,'' chances are if you're in the 95 percent of the population that controls very little of the wealth in this country, they mean you. They don't mean that top 5 percent that controls most of the wealth in this country. They are all about protecting what they have and grabbing more power.

It's very interesting when we talk about where the policies coming out of the Republican House majority are these days, because all of the cuts seem to be targeted at the people back in the district where I live, hardworking, salt-of-the-Earth constituents whom I am so honored to serve.

Your point is well taken and very sad, that the one bill that they put out there--I mean, hey, you don't have to take our word for it--the bill that they put out there puts 700,000 jobs, more than at risk, it's been determined by their own Republican analysts that it would cost us 700,000 jobs. Frankly, our economic recovery, which is so fragile, is under threat.

A group of 300 economists, including two Nobel laureates, wrote a letter warning that the shortsighted budget cuts to, quote, human capital, our infrastructure and the next generation of scientific and technological advances would threaten future economic competitiveness as well as the current recovery.

So the path that the Republicans are on, and it's funny because we just saw the new budget proposal unveiled and they called it a path to prosperity. I think that the better name is a path to poverty. At any rate, the path that they are on is not a good one.

We know that the answer to what ails our economy is we need to put the American people back to work. We need to have jobs that will create opportunities for the people that we are so honored to represent, that will keep our communities running, will have the revenue that we need to pay for those services, those firefighters, those teachers, those police officers, those nurses, those public servants that make our world turn.

So everyone at all levels of government, regardless of party, should be focused on priority one--getting Americans back to work. That's where we come in with what we need to be focused on, which is: How do we make it in America? Manufacturing matters.

So we are working in this House, as you know, Congressman Garamendi, to make sure we put forth an agenda on the Democratic side of the aisle, and we hope that our Republican colleagues will stop being deflected and will start focusing on what will help the people we serve, which would be focusing on these jobs, giving people opportunity, and creating real value by making things in this country. Not only will we make the products; we will then give a chance to the American people to make it in America, and America will make it again.

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Ms. SUTTON. Will the gentleman yield?

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Ms. SUTTON. In addition to that, at the same time they're cutting Medicare and changing it and removing the guarantee that seniors have known, which is that they're going to have access to that care when they need it, isn't it also true that they're continuing to protect those subsidies to big oil companies, those billions of dollars in subsidies, and are continuing to protect tax breaks that ship those jobs overseas, which has led, in large part, to the decline of American manufacturing?

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Ms. SUTTON. I thank the gentleman and I thank the gentlewoman for her making the case about the fundamental unfairness about what is going on with the proposals coming from the other side of the aisle.

And I think that the point that the gentleman just made about the union movement in this country, helping to build the middle class and frankly, leading us to a place where we had a strong middle class in this country--you know, it's that middle class that makes America so great, that people have a chance to aspire to that American dream.

And so when you stand on this floor or you come here as we do, and you see attack after attack on those middle class families--from attacks on prevailing wage payments that are just living wages that are going to those folks who work in our trades. We see those attacks come up over and over again at the same time that those on the other side of the aisle are protecting that huge income disparity, it's really, really hard to take, I know for us over here, and it's hard for the people who I represent who work hard for a living and are just looking for a chance to take care of their families and make their way.

We also see those attacks on collective bargaining to silence workers, to take away rights to even have a voice at the table, to be part of the solution, which they have been and will continue to be.

You know, those power grabs, those attempts to disempower ordinary Americans, we have to fight against. There is a better way, and this Make It in America agenda offers us that better way.

Manufacturing, we all know, is a multiplier in terms of jobs. We know that for every manufacturing job, it has a multiplier effect of four more jobs. And in some industries, the auto industries, it's as high as 10 additional jobs.

We know that where people manufacture, if we manufacture in America, we do research and development in America. We maintain our capacity to be strong as a Nation--both economically as well as in our sense of national security. What happens if we can't make it in America?

So here we are. We have a number of proposals, we know that we need a national manufacturing strategy in this country. Democrats are committed to making sure that we have one.

Another area that we need to work on that I think the American people--honestly I think that they expect this, and I'm hoping that our friends across the aisle will see fit to join us in the effort to make sure that when taxpayer money is used to build our infrastructure, which in and of itself puts people to work, we will use that taxpayer money to buy American iron and steel and manufactured goods and get that multiplier effect as we build our streets and our roads and our bridges and our sewer systems and our water systems and our alternative energy products.

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Ms. SUTTON. I will yield to the gentleman.

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Ms. SUTTON. Absolutely. I introduced that legislation.

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Ms. SUTTON. I thank the gentleman for bringing it up. It is called Keep American Jobs from Going Down the Drain Act. And what it says is very simple. It says that as we do what we need to do in this country to rebuild our infrastructure, our water and sewer systems, that we will make sure we do it using American iron and steel and manufactured goods because that puts the American people back to work.

Other countries have similar procurement policies, and it's way past time that this country also do what it can to keep these jobs right here in Ohio, right here in America.

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Ms. SUTTON. I thank the gentleman.

You know, again, this Make It In America agenda, it really is something that we believe that whether you are a Republican, a Democrat, that everybody can embrace, and frankly, everybody needs to embrace. We saw what happened when we had our economy relying on the financial sector, where you had a few people moving money around. And it wasn't real value that was being created. When that bubble burst, we had a big problem. But when you engage in manufacturing, you take something of lesser value and you turn it into something of greater value. That is something that we can rely on.

So one of the things that we have to do is we have to have a national manufacturing strategy. And in that national manufacturing strategy, like on the agenda, the Make It In America agenda, we need to look at a number of things and how they all work together so that they will support U.S. manufacturing and U.S. workers.

Why do we need a manufacturing strategy? Well, it's kind of obvious, but I do think it's worth noting that others have national manufacturing strategies. So Germany has one, South Korea has one. In fact, every other industrialized nation has a network of currency, trade, tax, investment, innovation, and skills policies that promote their domestic manufacturing. So right here in the House we encourage our colleagues on the other side of the aisle to join us in this Make It In America agenda, to promote a national manufacturing strategy that deals with trade policies that are fair, and that there will be a reciprocity of trade that will no longer leave our workers and our businesses at an unfair disadvantage, where others will be forced to play by the rules in the same way that our manufacturers and our workers play by the rules. A program that also promotes tax policies that encourage manufacturing in this country and stops the outsourcing of jobs overseas, which we have seen take place for decades now. That will be smart with respect to our energy policies, our labor policies.

We shouldn't be attacking workers. Workers are not the ones who drove our economy off the cliff. So that whole issue of disproportionate shared sacrifice, right? Just like we saw the disproportionate wealth accumulated in this country as it did with the help of the policies that were promoted by the last Republican administration. We need education policies as a part of that national manufacturing strategy to promote a workforce that will keep us competitive and on top. Policies that protect intellectual property and research and development right here. Because where you have research and development you have manufacturing, and vice versa.Of course, we need to strengthen and rebuild this country by investing in our infrastructure. It puts people to work, and it is what we need to do.

Smart cuts make sense, but so do smart investments, and infrastructure is a good way to go.

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