Sen. Sherrod Brown's Recipe to Stop the Economic Hemorrhaging: Fix Our Manufacturing Policies

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Sen. Sherrod Brown's Recipe to Stop the Economic Hemorrhaging: Fix Our Manufacturing Policies

By Kathleen Wells, Race-Talk. Posted January 20, 2010.

An interview with Sherrod Brown, the progressive senator from Ohio who calls for unleashing America's economy to build wind turbines and solar panels.




As chairman of the Senate Banking Subcommittee on Economic Policy, Senator Sherrod Brown, D-OH, has been a strong and consistent advocate for the middle class and working families. Often described as "Congress's leading proponent of American manufacturing," he has been steadfastly working with the Obama administration to create a national manufacturing policy. Over the past year, Brown held a series of subcommittee hearings examining ways to rebuild U.S. manufacturing and is also fighting to ensure that our nation's trade laws work for domestic manufacturing and American workers.

The follow is a transcript of an interview with Senator Brown.


Kathleen Wells: Later this month or early in February, it is expected that the Senate will take up a jobs bill . How can Americans be certain that this bill will actually create jobs and put people back to work?

Sherrod Brown: First of all, without the first Recovery Act, we would have been in a much worse economic position than we are in now. It clearly created jobs. Even though we were losing that number of jobs, it obviously created jobs in terms of direct spending on infrastructure. It created jobs by putting tens of billions of dollars in state and local governments so that they didn't lay off teachers, firefighters and mental health counselors, etc.—all the kinds of things that state and local governments funded.

This jobs bill needs to do more direct infrastructure spending. We are facing a huge infrastructure deficit to pass on to our children. Water, sewer, highways, bridges, universities, broadband—all the things we have not funded as well as we should have, and have not built infrastructure well enough, are a huge problem for our children and grandchildren if we don't do it right now.

Second, this bill needs to make sure that it's got a manufacturing policy, so that we are moving forward in building wind turbines, solar panels and other kinds of alternative energy manufacturing that this nation absolutely needs to do. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/145282/sen._sherrod_brown%27s_recipe_to_stop_the_economic_hemorrhaging%3A_fix_our_manufacturing_policies

[duphase]

1. Thanks, Senator. It's way overdue.

If the president had shown EARLY leadership on this issue, MA might have held fast, and the rest of 2010 and 2012 would be much
more likely to be secure for Democrats/the nation.

[Triana]

2. If it makes sense (and this does) - they won't do it

Unless it also makes THEM money and/or HURTS them NOT to do it, somehow. It's that simple. Dem or Repub it's that simple.

[AnArmyVeteran]

3. Every representative & senator should be like Sherrod Brown

Sherrod Brown is a true progressive. If the democratic party had followed his example Obama's popularity would still be soaring and we would be well on our way to reversing and correcting all of the damages caused by 12 years of republican control of congress and 8 years of republican control of the executive branch.

If I ran the democrat party meaningful health care reform would already be passed. Where are you Obama? Get tough. Stop the bi-partisanship crap. DO WHAT IS RIGHT FOR THE UNITED STATES AND AMERICANS!