Friday, April 25, 2008

Hillary's remarks at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO on April 1

Of the three presidential candidates that are left in the race, Senator Clinton is the only one who is talking about the problems caused by our one-sided trade with China. Too bad none of the solutions she proposes would work. Here are some selections from what she said to the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO on April 1 2008:

And let me just say this, I am deeply concerned about acceleration of the outsourcing of production for essential defense material. I was in Indiana the last couple of days of last week - everywhere I went talking to good hardworking Hoosiers, I heard about how company after company that used to do defense work had either lost the work or the company was gone. One specific example just stuck in my mind. All of you have seen those pictures of the precision guided missiles, right? Going down chimneys, hitting targets thousands of miles away. Well, the targeting is dependent upon these magnets and the magnets used to be made in Indiana, the company called Magnequest. The company was bought out, jobs were eliminated, production was moved to China. Not only did we lose jobs, we lost essential, valuable information because you’re not going to tell me that the Chinese military doesn’t have exactly what it takes to make those magnets....

Yes, we will finally get tough on China. Right now, China’s steel comes here and our jobs go there. I testified before the international trade commission to try to put the breaks on the dumping of steel in our market. They manipulate their currency, they give illegal subsidies, they abuse workers’ rights. And what do we get in return? Tainted fish, lead-laced toys, and poisoned pet food and polluted pharmaceuticals. That is a bad deal for America. When I’m President, China will be a trade partner not a trade master. And we’re going to get that done.

Finally, we’re going to start investing in manufacturing again. Pennsylvania has lost 13,000 manufacturing jobs in the past year; nearly one-in-four manufacturing jobs since George Bush became president. Manufacturing thrived in Pennsylvania throughout the 20th Century. It can thrive again.

I disagree with people who say we can’t be a manufacturing company again because I believe you can’t have a strong economy if you don’t make things. I don’t believe you can support all these other jobs that you represent workers in if you’re not generating jobs from actually producing things. So, for me, it’s not just a question of what’s nice, it’s critical and essential that we bring manufacturing back. We also need it for our defense sector, as I mentioned earlier....

Howard

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