Edwards Campaign Press Release - Edwards Highlights Proposals To Rebuild The Middle Class Through 21st Century Manufacturing

As part of "Promise of a Better America Week," Edwards calls for smart trade and training policies, new manufacturing opportunities, cutting energy and health care costs, eliminating tax breaks for offshoring and other policies to rebuild American manufacturing

Dubuque, Iowa – Today, at the United Auto Workers Region 4 Presidential Candidates Forum, Senator John Edwards will unveil his eight-point plan to rebuild American manufacturing for the 21st century. Under President Bush, the United States has lost 3.3 million manufacturing jobs and since 1999, more than 40,000 U.S. manufacturing facilities have closed their doors. Edwards believes a strong manufacturing industry is critical to strengthening the middle class. Compared to other sectors, manufacturing is more productive, pays higher wages and benefits, and creates a greater spillover effect for local job creation. Edwards will rebuild the American manufacturing sector for the 21st century by calling for smart trade and training policies; creating new opportunities for manufacturing; cutting health care and energy costs; helping workers and communities recover from plant closings and eliminating tax breaks for offshoring.

"I grew up in Carolina mill towns and I've seen firsthand how people's lives are devastated when factories close down and these manufacturing jobs are lost," said Edwards. "Manufacturing has suffered more than any other sector of our economy because of currency manipulation, illegal foreign subsidies, bad trade deals and rising energy and health care costs. But instead of taking steps to reverse this unprecedented loss of manufacturing jobs, the politicians in Washington have favored profits on Wall Street over the people on Main Street.

"Our economy depends on a successful middle class, but our middle class depends on manufacturing. I am running for president on behalf of the men and women who worked in the mill with my father and lost their jobs when that mill closed. They need a president who will stand up for them, not big corporate interests. As president, I will take action to strengthen and grow our middle class by rebuilding American manufacturing for the 21st century."

Edwards will take the following steps to rebuild American manufacturing:

Smart Trade and Training Policies: Edwards believes we must promote smart trade for American workers and, as president, he will enact trade deals only if they make most families better off. To address the skills shortage reported by 80 percent of manufacturing employers, Edwards will also work with manufacturers to create industry-specific training connected to high-wage jobs, as part of his Training Works initiative, an historic investment in the American workforce.

New Opportunities for Manufacturing: The transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy sources presents an opportunity to reenergize American manufacturing. Through a New Energy Economy Fund, Edwards will dedicate $1 billion of the fund to ensure that American automakers are making the most fuel-efficient, advanced cars in the world – in the United States, with union workers. To help American manufacturers regain their edge in high-tech production, he will make the Research & Experimentation tax credit permanent.

Cutting Costs, Not Jobs: When nearly half of all small and medium manufacturers say that rising health care costs are their most pressing business problem, Edwards believes cutting health care costs must be a national priority. Edwards was the first candidate to offer a specific plan to guarantee true universal health care for every man, woman and child in America and he has also proposed an ambitious initiative to make health care more cost-effective. Rising energy prices have also had a devastating effect on American manufacturing. Edwards has a plan to fight rising oil and gas prices by creating energy competition, reducing speculation in the oil and gas markets, and bringing down demand through greater fuel efficiency and access to renewable sources.

Fighting Offshoring and Helping American Workers: Edwards will eliminate tax incentives for companies to move off shore by ensuring that American companies' profits are taxed at either the U.S. rate or by a foreign country at a comparable rate. Edwards will also help workers and communities impacted by plant closures get back on their feet through deploying technical assistance and recovery specialists and by making new resources available for shoring up the local tax base, attracting new family-sustaining jobs, and helping local businesses.

Edwards' proposals for 21st century manufacturing were introduced during the third day of the campaign's "Promise of a Better America Week." On Monday in New Hampshire, Edwards unveiled proposals to help veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Yesterday, he discussed his proposals to help Americans balance work and family and tomorrow Edwards will highlight his plans to ensure we meet the educational promise of our children.

Please find the full fact sheet on John Edwards' plan for rebuilding the middle class through 21st century manufacturing below.

Rebuilding the American Middle Class: A Plan for 21st Century Manufacturing

Under President Bush, American manufacturing has experienced its sharpest decline in history, losing 3.3 million jobs or nearly one in five manufacturing jobs. More than 40,000 manufacturing facilities have closed since 1999. Manufacturing has suffered more than any other sector of our economy because of currency manipulation, illegal foreign subsidies, bad trade deals, rising energy and health care costs, and a government in Washington that measures economic progress by looking only at Wall Street and not at Main Street. [BLS, 2007; AAM, 2007]

John Edwards grew up in small mill towns and saw firsthand the devastation that happened when the mill closed and the good jobs went away. He believes that manufacturing will always be important to a broad and strong middle class, the true engine of our economy. Compared to other sectors, manufacturing is more productive, pays higher wages and benefits, and creates a greater spillover effect for local job creation. And – according to an Economic Policy Institute report released today – there are 27 million American jobs at risk of being offshored over the next decade, including millions more manufacturing jobs. [Weller, 2004; EPI, 2007]

Today, Edwards outlined his new eight-point plan to rebuild American manufacturing for the 21st century, focusing on: smart trade, skills training, the new energy economy, research and innovation, health care and energy costs, helping workers and communities recover from plant closings and eliminating incentives for off-shoring.

Smart Trade Policies

Promoting Smart Trade for American Workers

Bad trade deals, cheap foreign labor, illegal foreign subsidies, and foreign currency manipulation have had a devastating effect on American manufacturing, which accounts for 70 percent of U.S. trade. Edwards will enact trade deals only if they make most families better off, considering their impacts on jobs, wages and prices. He will demand and enforce tough labor and environmental standards to prevent a global race to the bottom. Past presidents have failed to enforce trade provisions – including anti-dumping and countervailing duty laws – costing American manufacturers billions in the past decade. Edwards will make top prosecutors at the Department of Justice responsible for enforcing trade agreements. Critically for American manufacturers, Edwards will fight the currency manipulation that has inflated our trade deficit with countries like China and put American manufacturers at an impossible disadvantage. [Weller, 2004; AAM, 2007]

Investing in the Skills of American Workers

We need to work with manufacturing companies and workers to help more Americans gain the skills they need in advanced manufacturing. At the same time that millions of manufacturing jobs are being offshored, more than 80 percent of American manufacturers are experiencing a shortage of qualified workers, as the sector employs ever more advanced technologies while Baby Boomers are retiring. Edwards has proposed Training Works, a historic investment in the American workforce that will match willing workers to industry-specific training and high-wage jobs in sectors including manufacturing. Edwards will create partnerships among businesses, labor unions, community colleges and other educators to create targeted skills curricula. He will promote on-the-job training and career ladders that move low-wage workers into high-wage positions in their industries. Career Academies in high schools will help connect young people to high-demand manufacturing jobs as machinists, craft workers, distributors and technicians. Finally, Edwards' College for Everyone program will pay for a full year of public college tuition and books for any qualified student willing to work part-time.

New Opportunities for Manufacturing

Building the New Energy Economy

The economic transition from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy sources provides an opportunity for reenergizing American manufacturing to build a new energy infrastructure. Last year, venture capital investments in clean energy technology tripled to $2.4 billion. Edwards' New Energy Economy Fund will dedicate $1 billion a year to helping American automakers advance and apply the latest technologies, including biofuels, hybrid and electric cars, hydrogen fuel cells, ultra-light materials, and drive train improvements. Edwards will also use federal government procurement and the New Energy Economy Fund to help American manufacturers lead in production of the key technologies – such as solar panels, wind turbines, fuel cells, and biomass engines – that are projected to become a $226 billion market by 2016. [CAP, 2007; Clean Edge, 2007]

Investing in Research and Innovation

Manufacturing today is highly advanced, including nanotechnology, robotics, lasers and biotech. American manufacturers are responsible for nearly two-thirds of all business R&D. But in 2002, for the first time ever the United States began importing more advanced technology products than it exported, and the deficit in these products is now nearly $40 billion. To help American manufacturers better compete in high-tech production, Edwards will make the Research & Experimentation tax credit permanent. This credit has expired or nearly expired 11 times in the last 25 years, discouraging companies from making long-term commitments to advanced research. Edwards will also modernize our patent laws, which haven't been updated in 50 years, to provide even more incentives for research. [NSF, 2007; Census, 2007; Paul, 2007]

Cutting Costs, Not Jobs

Cutting Health Care Costs

Nearly half of all small and medium manufacturers say that rising health care costs are their most pressing business problem. Edwards was the first candidate to offer a specific plan to guarantee true universal health care for every man, woman and child in America. He has also proposed an ambitious initiative to make health care more cost-effective by taking on the drug and insurance companies, revolutionizing preventive and chronic care, mandating information technology, and promoting evidence-based medicine. These and other steps will save the average insured family $2,000 to $2,500 a year, and, to the benefit of all employers and especially manufacturers, they will eliminate at least $130 billion a year in wasteful health care spending. Edwards will also create Health Care Markets to offer group rates and lower administrative costs to small businesses. [NAM, 2006]

Getting Industry Energy Costs Under Control

Rising energy prices have had a devastating effect on American manufacturing, as industry uses more energy than any other sector of our economy. For example, each $1 increase in natural gas prices adds $3.7 billion to chemical manufacturers' costs alone. Edwards has a plan to fight rising oil and gas prices by creating energy competition, reducing speculation in the oil and gas markets, and bringing down demand through greater fuel efficiency and access to renewable sources. He will also launch a new EfficiencyWorks initiative to dramatically increase the efficiency of America's factories, plants and industrial buildings. A combination of plant retrofits, energy efficient lighting and heating, and on-site heat and power generation using renewable sources can cut industrial energy use by at least 20 percent, simply using currently available technologies. Edwards will also provide responsible employers with free energy efficiency consulting, offer manufacturers tax incentives for energy efficiency investments, and enact power grid and utility reforms to enhance energy conservation and distributed generation. [NAM, 2006; DOE, 2004]

Fighting Offshoring and Helping Affected Workers

Eliminating Tax Incentives to Move Offshore

The U.S. tax code now encourages multinational corporations to invest overseas by allowing them to indefinitely defer taxation on their foreign profits. The effective tax rate on foreign non-financial income is now less than 5 percent, far below the U.S. statutory tax rate of 35 percent, and in some cases corporations are actually receiving subsidies to invest overseas through a "negative tax." Edwards will eliminate the benefit of deferral in low-tax countries, ensuring that American companies' profits are taxed when earned at either the U.S. rate or by a foreign country at a comparable rate. This will restore tax fairness and create a more level playing field for U.S. manufacturers that keep their production in America. [Grubert and Mutti, 2002; Altshuler and Grubert, 2001; Treasury, 2000]

Help Workers and Communities Get Back on their Feet

Edwards understands that the 3.3 million workers and 40,000 plants are more than numbers: they are breadwinners, families, and communities. As president, Edwards will improve Trade Adjustment Assistance and expand it to help all workers dislocated by globalization, regardless of their industry, making an estimated 600,000 workers a year eligible. To help communities, Edwards will require the independent U.S. International Trade Commission to determine which communities will face stiffer competition under new trade deals. When a plant closing appears imminent, Edwards will immediately deploy technical assistance and recovery specialists to work with affected employers, unions and local officials just as the government does for areas facing a military base closing. New resources will be available for shoring up the local tax base, attracting new family-sustaining jobs, and helping local businesses expand.