[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 31 (Thursday, March 11, 2004)]
[House]
[Pages H1039-H1040]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          LOSS OF JOBS IN OHIO

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, yesterday President Bush made a 
campaign trip to Cleveland to speak to small business people to explain 
his economic policy and to try to answer why Ohio has lost 300,000 jobs 
in the last 3 years; to try to explain why Ohio has lost 160,000 
manufacturing jobs; that one out of every six manufacturing jobs in 
Ohio has disappeared, likely permanently for most of them. One out of 
six jobs in manufacturing has disappeared since President Bush took 
office.
  He also came to Ohio to answer why the head of his council, the 
chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, Gregory Mankiw, said that 
outsourcing of jobs, jobs moving overseas, that Mr. Mankiw said and the 
President signed a report supporting this, that outsourcing was a good 
thing because it makes the economy more efficient.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I think the President needs to explain a little 
better. Last week, I was in Akron, in my district. Akron, Ohio. I spoke 
to some company owners who own small machine shops with 50 employees, 
30 employees, or 100 employees, but all small manufacturing businesses. 
One owner of a machine shop came up to me before I spoke. He gave me a 
stack of these fliers. He actually gave me about four times this many, 
about six or seven inches of fliers. He told me that he gets about this 
many fliers every month, and he says these fliers are auction fliers. 
They basically are notifications from companies all over the United 
States that are having fire sales; that are having going-out-of-
business sales.

                              {time}  1345

  Mr. Speaker, here is an auction flyer that says high-tech 
manufacturing plant closing in Elk Grove, Indiana.

[[Page H1040]]

  Another one is a plant closed, everything sells, from Verona, 
Pennsylvania.
  Here are two complete stamping and machine tool shops closing. They 
are selling all their equipment. They are looking for buyers. This is 
from Oak Brook, Illinois.
  Here is a plant closing, everything must sell, from North Carolina.
  Another one here from Marion, Ohio, complete shop close-out auction. 
The absolute auction, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, in my district, complete 
liquidation of the Cuyahoga Falls plant.
  Precision C&C job shop downsizing because of outsourcing, from 
Scottsboro, Alabama.
  Another one from Massachusetts, large-capacity fabricating and 
machine shop closing.
  Another one, 3 days, two tremendous public auctions, two companies, 
machinery and equipment and real estate. Plant closed, everything must 
go, real estate for sale.
  Another company, plant closed, everything sells.
  Another one from Ross, Ohio, plant closing due to relocation 
overseas.
  Another one from Medina, Ohio, facility closed, all must go.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not think the President understands the depths of 
this problem in this country. These are companies, hundreds and 
hundreds and hundreds of companies representing hundreds of thousands 
of workers who are going out of business, who are downsizing, who are 
shipping their jobs overseas; yet the President says that he supports 
outsourcing, that outsourcing is a good thing.
  The President needs to look in the eye of some of those 800,000 
workers in this country who have seen their unemployment compensation 
expire in the last 3 months, and this Republican Congress refuses to 
extend those benefits. It is not just 800,000 workers. It is 800,000 
families; it is millions of children; it is communities; it is our 
schools. Everyone is affected by the plant closings.
  The President's answer, if there is bad economic news, and if he 
looked at some of these plant closings, fire sales, going out of 
business auction brochures, he would say we need to do more tax cuts 
for the wealthy, maybe some of it will trickle down and create jobs; we 
need to do more trade agreements like NAFTA. That is the President's 
answer to every bad piece of economic news. When the President sees 
unemployment goes up, he says more tax cuts for the most privileged and 
more trade agreements that hemorrhage jobs overseas.
  When the President sees bad economic numbers, terrible trade 
deficits, the highest in history, our trade deficit with China alone is 
now $124 billion, and that is where a lot of these companies are going, 
the President's answer is we need more trade agreements like NAFTA and 
tax cuts for the wealthiest people in the country.
  Mr. Speaker, we need to pass Crane-Rangel, which will give incentives 
for domestic manufacturers and small businesses. We need to extend 
unemployment compensation to those 800,000 families.

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