Manufacturing was a Big Talking Point in the 2014 State of the Union
Posted January 29, 2014 & filed under Uncategorized
During his 2014 State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, President Obama made plenty of promises to the manufacturing industry. In total, about 562 words of his 6,847 word speech dealt directly with the state of the manufacturing industry, making up 8.2% of the total speech. Considering that over the course of an hour the President laid out his agenda for the entire year, this is a significant amount of time to address one of America’s largest workforces.
The State of Manufacturing
President Obama touted the recent successes of the manufacturing industry, particularly the recovery of the auto industry, since the Great Recession hit several years ago. He made a special point of note that “over half of big manufacturers say they’re thinking of insourcing jobs from abroad.” If this proves to be true, those looking for work in the key areas of the manufacturing industry could see jobs springing up all over the country.
He also brought to light the government’s contributions to small businesses (who make up 98% of America’s exports), saying that his administration has granted more loans to small businesses than any other in history.
Big Promises
The President has vowed to accelerate the growth of the manufacturing industry over the next four years and beyond. He has laid out a plan that consists of the following promises:
• Fix the complicated tax system and incentivize businesses to create jobs: “Let’s work together to close those loopholes, end those incentives to ship jobs overseas, and lower tax rates for businesses that create jobs right here at home.”
• Take the money saved from tax reform to rebuild infrastructure: “Moreover, we can take the money we save from this transition to tax reform to create jobs rebuilding our roads, upgrading our ports, unclogging our commutes — because in today’s global economy, first- class jobs gravitate to first-class infrastructure. We’ll need Congress to protect more than 3 million jobs by finishing transportation and waterways bills this summer.”
• Innovate new technologies faster than other countries: “…my administration’s launched two hubs for high-tech manufacturing in Raleigh, North Carolina, and Youngstown, Ohio, where we’ve connected businesses to research universities that can help America lead the world in advanced technologies. And Tonight, I’m announcing we’ll launch six more this year.”
• Increase production of American goods: “We need to work together on tools like bipartisan trade promotion authority to protect our workers, protect our environment and open new markets to new goods stamped “Made in the USA.”
• Train a new wave of high tech workers: “So tonight, I’ve asked Vice President Biden to lead an across- the-board reform of America’s training programs to make sure they have one mission: train Americans with the skills employers need, and match them to good jobs that need to be filled right now. That means more on-the-job training, and more apprenticeships that set a young worker on an upward trajectory for life. It means connecting companies to community colleges that can help design training to fill their specific needs.
By Kevin Withers
Official White House Photo courtesy of Pete Souza
