[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 9]
[Senate]
[Pages 12277-12278]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   SUPPORTING AMERICAN MANUFACTURING

  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Madam President, I wish to talk also about another 
issue where we should have done a clean extension--as we have done 
dozens of times in this country. In the past three decades alone, we 
have avoided default by addressing the debt limit 38 times; 34 of those 
were with Republican Presidents. That is almost 90 percent of the time 
we have raised the debt ceiling--more precisely, avoided default--it 
has been under Republican Presidents.
  A lot of us did not like it. We maybe made a public statement saying 
we did not like their fiscal policy, but we never stood in the way, we 
never tried to take hostage--take the government hostage or each other 
hostage by saying--almost like children--if I do not get my way, then I 
am going to block this and I am going stop--I am going to potentially 
throw our financial system and our economy into turmoil. What kind of 
behavior is that for adults?
  Then, when I hear Speaker Boehner and some of his radical kind of 
cheerleaders on the far political right say we should do this again in 
6 months, I wonder what are they possibly thinking, when we go through 
this right now.
  I spend a lot of time with manufacturers around my State. I love 
seeing things made. My State is the third largest manufacturing State 
in the country, exceeded in production only by California, three times 
our population, and Texas, twice our population. I talk to 
manufacturers, and some of them are not investing now for a variety of 
reasons. Mostly they do not see the demand for products because the 
demand is still anemic in our society, in our economy, for companies to 
grow.
  But they also talk about the uncertainty. They talk about the 
uncertainty in the economic environment. This is the worst kind of 
uncertainty we are going to inject into our economy if we are going to 
say let's do this in 6 months. Do they think anybody in North Carolina 
or Ohio or around the State, around the country, any businesses are 
thinking: This is a great time to invest, right when Moody's and 
Standard & Poor's might downgrade us, right when we do not know what is 
going to happen in the next week with a potential default.
  Do they think anybody is going to make a major investment decision 
right now? Of course, they are not. So let's do it again in 6 months? 
When I heard Speaker Boehner--I like John Boehner personally. He is 
from my State. Our offices obviously work together in places such as 
Butler County, Preble County, and the Dayton-Cincinnati areas. But I 
would have thought people would have laughed when he said: Yes, let's 
do this again in 6 months because we do not have a jobs problem to 
worry about. Clearly, we should get this done with and focus--that 
means cutting the budget. I understand that. We have to work toward a 
balanced budget.
  We knew how to do it in the 1990s. In the early 1990s, President 
Clinton--I came to the House the year he was elected President. We 
faced a terrible budget situation and an unemployment situation. But 
you know what. We cut spending. We increased taxes appreciably for only 
a relatively few number of people, the wealthiest people in our 
society. We continued to make investments in education, health care and 
infrastructure and our economy.
  We had almost 8 years--not quite, maybe 7 years some months--of 
regular economic growth, and 21 million new jobs were created. So we 
know how to do this. But this crowd wants to hold the government 
hostage saying, if you do not do it exactly our way, we are going to 
let the government go to default, and once we solve that, let's do it 
again in 6 months.
  I just think it does not make sense. What we should be doing instead 
is focusing--I know what an important manufacturing State the Presiding 
Officer represents in North Carolina, as in Ohio--on manufacturing. We 
are still a country that makes things. My State is particularly a State 
that makes things.
  The year after what is called the American Recovery Act passed, my 
State got more new jobs in clean energy than any State in the United 
States of America. My State is a leader in aerospace. It is a leader in 
auto and steel and chemicals and cement and paper and aluminum and 
glass. Yet we are also in the kind of traditional industries, and we 
are also, as I said, a leader in solar, in Toledo, OH, and other 
places.
  We are a leader in wind turbine component manufacturing, especially 
in the northeast but all over Ohio. We are a leader in aerospace, as I 
mentioned. We are a leader in biomedical and biotech, in large part 
because we have great universities and great teaching hospitals in, I 
was going to say, prominently in northeast Ohio but also Columbus, also 
Cincinnati, also Toledo--all over our State. Clearly, we know how to do 
these things. But what we have seen in the past three decades is a 
shift in our Nation. Thirty years ago, manufacturing was 25, 26, 27 
percent of our gross domestic product. Basically, one-fourth of the 
dollars in our economy were all about manufacturing.
  That created great wealth, because the way to create wealth is to 
make something, to grow something or to mine something, preeminently. 
So 30 years ago, manufacturing was some 23, 24, 25, 26 percent of our 
GDP. Financial services was only 11 percent in those days. Today, it is 
almost the reverse. Financial services makes up about 20 or 22 percent 
and manufacturing makes up only about 11 percent of our GDP and even a 
slightly smaller percent of our workforce.
  Why does this matter? It matters because we know when we make things 
it creates wealth. Manufacturing jobs pay 20 percent more, on average, 
than service jobs. We know the difference between retail versus making 
steel or the difference between fast food restaurant work versus making 
cars or chemicals or glass or biotech.
  We know manufacturing jobs have a strong multiplier effect. So if we 
have an auto company--let me give an example. The Chevrolet Cruze is a 
car my daughter just brought--by and large, an Ohio car. It would not 
have happened if we had not done the auto rescue that so many of my 
colleagues opposed for ideological reasons, not substantive, practical, 
let's-make-it-work reasons. Nonetheless, we know the auto industry is 
coming back and we know manufacturing jobs have increased--far too 
anemically, but they have increased over the last year.
  But the Chevy Cruze, the engine is made in Defiance, OH, and the 
bumper is made in Northwood, OH, and the transmission is made in 
Toledo, OH, and the steel comes out of Cleveland, OH, for much of the 
car. The aluminum wheels come out of Cleveland, OH. The stamping is 
done in Parma, OH. Some of the other stamping is down in Lordstown, OH. 
The assembly is done in Lordstown, OH. There are 5,000 people working 
just on the assembly alone. So that is the multiplier effect. When we 
assemble in Toledo, we assemble the Jeep. Chrysler assembles the Jeep 
in Toledo.
  Some 3 years ago, only 50 percent of the components for the Jeep were 
American made. Today, over 70 percent are American made. So we know 
manufacturing creates all kinds of jobs, making 20 percent more, on 
average, than service jobs.
  Since the beginning of the recession, though, we still see profits at 
large financial institutions and other service firms increase, but our 
Nation's unemployment rate is still hovering around 9 percent. So when 
profits go up for those financial services firms--and I appreciate 
JPMorgan Chase in Columbus, OH. I met with their top person in Ohio 
just this week--just moving from Cleveland to Columbus. I know the 
important work they do in my State. I know they provide thousands and 
thousands and thousands of jobs. That is all a good thing.
  But I also know in an economy which is not paying attention to 
manufacturing, we do not get the multiplier effect, we do not get the 
higher wages, we do not get the employment growth that we might get 
otherwise.

[[Page 12278]]

  That is why, yesterday, Senator Rockefeller and I convened a meeting, 
where Senator Whitehouse, Senator Jack Reed, Senators Schumer and 
Klobuchar and Feinstein and others attended. We talked about a real 
national manufacturing strategy. That means closing the skills gap. We 
have a lot of jobs in places such as Iowa and North Carolina, Ohio, 
where they go unfilled because we do not have well enough connected 
worker training with those jobs, with the needs. We need to pursue 
better tax and trade policies. We need to pay special attention to 
manufacturing.
  Yesterday, the Senate sent to the House legislation we passed 
unanimously that said: When the government buys American flags, rather 
than 50 percent--a requirement that 50 percent of them be made in the 
United States--the requirement now is that 100 percent be made in the 
United States.
  Why do we not put more focus on ``Made in the USA''? It will matter 
for us. It matters for our national pride on flags, to be sure, but it 
matters for our communities, it matters our companies, and it matters 
for our workers.
  I yield the floor and I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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