As a non-partisan service to readers, following are unedited position papers from the Obama and Romney campaign websites on each candidates’ views on manufacturing and trade issues. You may visit the campaign websites yourself at http://www.barackobama.com and http://www.mittromney.com to dig deeper. We welcome any feedback or opinions on this election and what it means to manufacturing in the Comments section below.
Sincerely,
Paul J. Heney
Editorial Director
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Barack Obama
ECONOMY
President Obama is fighting to grow the economy from the middle class out, not the top down. This election presents a choice between two fundamentally different visions of how to grow our economy and create good middle-class jobs.
30 straight months of growth
Before President Obama took office, the economy was losing 800,000 jobs a month. Now, we’ve seen 30 consecutive months of job growth and 5.1 million new private sector jobs.
Mitt Romney opposed the Recovery Act, opposed the auto industry rescue, and said that we should let the housing market “hit the bottom.”
Rescuing the auto industry
FORWARD
President Obama refused to let the American auto industry die. He took a chance on Americans, and it paid off. More than 1 million jobs were saved, the U.S. auto industry is roaring back and adding jobs and all government loans were paid back ahead of time.
BACKWARD
Mitt Romney said that we should have let Detroit “go bankrupt.”
Reviving U.S. Manufacturing
FORWARD
U.S. manufacturing has added more than half a million jobs since January 2010—the most growth in a decade.
BACKWARD
Mitt Romney mocked the President for encouraging young people to pursue careers in manufacturing, and while he was governor of Massachusetts the state lost manufacturing jobs at a rate twice the national average.
Made in America
FORWARD
President Obama has a plan to bring jobs back to the U.S. by eliminating tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, and creating incentives for businesses to bring jobs back to America.
BACKWARD
Mitt Romney has no plan to get rid of tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, and wants to eliminate taxes on American companies’ foreign profits, which would actually encourage more outsourcing.
Making sure everyone plays by the same rules
FORWARD
President Obama passed Wall Street reform to make sure that Americans would never again have to pay to bail out big banks.
BACKWARD
Mitt Romney has promised to repeal Wall Street reform, allowing big banks to once again write their own rules.
Mitt Romney
TRADE
Open markets have helped make America powerful and prosperous. Indeed, they have been one of the keys to our economic success since the country was founded. Approximately 95 percent of the world’s consumers live beyond our borders, and selling our world-class products and services to them is the next great frontier for economic growth. The fewer the barriers to cross-border commerce, the more economic growth we enjoy and the greater the number of American jobs brought into being.
Of course, opening markets must be a two-way street. For America truly to benefit in global commerce, we need to ensure that our entrepreneurs can sell their high-quality products and services around the world. This means that agreements must create a level playing field for competition.
American workers and businesses have unparalleled strengths. If we open new markets to what they produce and ensure that they are treated fairly, we can foster an environment for rapid economic growth and job creation.
OBAMA’S FAILURE
Under President Obama’s watch, America has sat on the sidelines while our major trading competitors have been moving forward aggressively. Thus, since the last trade agreement signed by President Bush in 2007, the European Union has successfully signed agreements with nine countries and pursued negotiations with sixteen others. China, for its part, has signed agreements with four countries and pursued negotiations with fifteen others. In August 2011, a group of Asian nations – including many with whom President Obama has stalled progress on trade – announced their goal to create an economic bloc that would include China but not the United States.
President Obama has also singularly failed in handling commercial relations with China, which has adopted a deliberate policy of building up its own economy by misappropriating western technology, blocking access to its market, and manipulating its currency. The Chinese government facilitates this behavior by forcing American companies to share proprietary technology as a condition of their doing business in China. Instead of responding forcefully, the Obama administration has acted like a supplicant. Having borrowed hundreds of billions of dollars from Beijing to pay for its agenda, it has placed America in a weak position at the very moment when we need to stand tall.
MITT’S PLAN
Mitt Romney believes that free trade is essential to restoring robust economic growth and creating jobs. We need to open new markets beyond our borders for American goods and services on terms that work for America.
Opening New Markets
Every president beginning with Ronald Reagan has recognized the power of open markets and pursued them on behalf of the United States. George W. Bush successfully negotiated eleven FTAs, encompassing sixteen countries. He also had the vision to commence negotiations with a number of allies around the Pacific Rim to expand significantly the Trans-Pacific Partnership. All told, these agreements have enabled people across the world to come together and build a better future. Economists estimate that the agreements have led to the creation of 5.4 million new American jobs and support a total of nearly 18 million jobs. Looking beyond just our FTA partners, our total exports support nearly 10 million American jobs. These are not just jobs; they’re good jobs, paying significantly above average, and more than one-third are in manufacturing.
• Reinstate the president’s Trade Promotion Authority
• Complete negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership
• Pursue new trade agreements with nations committed to free enterprise and open markets
• Create the Reagan Economic Zone
Confronting China
China presents a broad set of problems that cry out urgently for solutions. It is time to end the Obama administration’s acquiescence to the one-way arrangements the Chinese have come to enjoy. We need a fresh and fearless approach to that trade relationship. Our first priority must be to put on the table all unilateral actions within our power to ensure that the Chinese adhere to existing agreements. Anyone with business experience knows that you can succeed in a negotiation only if you are willing to walk away. If we want the Chinese to play by the rules, we must be willing to say “no more” to a relationship that too often benefits them and harms us.
• Increase CBP resources to prevent the illegal entry of goods into our market
• Increase USTR resources to pursue and support litigation against unfair trade practices
• Use unilateral and multilateral punitive measures to deter unfair Chinese practices
• Designate China a currency manipulator and impose countervailing duties
• Discontinue U.S. government procurement from China until China commits to GPA
You may want to check your facts.
Some of your stronger points for Obama & against Romney, have already been proven FALSE , by no less than CNN last night.
If you are working for the Obama camp, at least be proud enough to stand up and say so.
What Romney’s writers have written here about our trade relations with China is absolutely correct. The steps written here to deal with that problem also sound great. We certainly do need to confront China and impose duties.
But I do not believe that either Romney or the Republican Party have shown a record of being tough and punitive against China’s unfair practices. During the last Republican administration is when we threw our doors wide open to China.
How frequently does a company hire a new recruit for an occupied position not based so much on their satisfaction with the new recruit as their disappointment with the current employee? Better to have the hope of not failing than the proof of not succeeding.
UNLESS WE PUT INDUSTRIAL ARTS BACK IN THE SCHOOL SYSTEM WE ARE IN MORE TROUBLE THAT NOW. WE NEED THE STUDENTS TO START IN 6TH OR 7TH GRADE TO LEARN THE VARIOUS TRADES THAT IT TAKES TO MAKE A WORLD. RIGHT NOW GOOD EMPLOYEES ARE HARD TO FIND AND YOUG PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN TO WORK . THE VOC TECH SCHOOLS SHOULD ALSO BE BACK IN THE HIGH SCHOOL , THESE ENTRY LEVEL SKILLS WOUD ALLOW A STUDENT TO LEARN MORE AND BE READY TO ENTER THE JOB MARKET WITH THE BASIC SKILLS . IF A STUDENT WERE TO BECOME A DOCTOR BUT HAD AN AUTO ACCIDENT AND COULD NOT OPERATE HE WOULD HAVE A SKILL TO FALL BACK ON AS WELL AS DO HOME REPAIR. ON TOP OF THAT IF A STUDENT WHO WANT TO BE AN ENGINEER WOULD HAVE A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT IT TAKES TO BUILD SOMETHING AND DESIGNE A BETTER PRODUCT. ROMNEY AND RYAN WILL DO THIS BASED ON CONVERSATIONS AND SPEACHES.
Roger, thank you for the comment. These are not my points. As I clearly stated at the beginning of the blog, these are simply position papers from the Obama and Romney campaigns, posted here for ease of comparison by our readers.
Warmly,
Paul J. Heney
Editorial Director
I would do away with this service. It is very partison and bias. Anyone in the business world should be smarter that this.
Backruptcy may have furnished better results for automobile companies. IF i was Ford i would be upset.
Obama policies are anti business and business are not being run normally. Business and socialism don’t like each other.
Obama doesn’t lead. He promises to take care of people. We have all heard about doing away with grade and everyone fails.
Please quit this service.
It is important to understand where our wealth originates. Not all commerce contributes to our nations wealth. This Obama does not understand. Our commerce can be divided into three basic categories.
1. Government-induced commerce, which includes the government bureaucracy, military, education and public services, these activities consume enormous amounts of money but do not produce revenue for our GDP.
2. Domestic commerce, which includes such things as retail sales, service businesses, health care, insurance, and repair shops. These activities are essential to our society. However, they only shuffle money around within the country but do not contribute significantly to the overall wealth of our country.
3. Then you have Domestic production of internationally consumed goods that include agriculture, mining and manufacturing. These activities acquire wealth from other nations thus they generate real, not printed or borrowed, revenue. This activity increases the country’s wealth and generates revenue we need to support ourselves and all our essential programs! Everything we have and do is dependent on a healthy productive infrastructure.
From day one through the twenty years post-World War II free enterprise and capitalism provided the incentive and ability for the U.S. to become the most powerful and greatest nation on earth. Since that time, our government has enacted so many additional taxes, over-burdensome regulations and poor trade laws that our productive infrastructure is in a severely weakened, possibly unrecoverable, condition. The few companies that currently are showing a profit are not sufficient to sustain our economy. Our GDP is less than our payment obligations. That simply means the U.S. is in a position it can’t pay its bills! I think we can all agree that the environment for wealth creation is dependent on having a healthy domestic productive infrastructure and it is the responsibility of our government to provide and sustain this productive environment. Unfortunately for the last 40 years it has dropped the ball. This past three years have been the worst yet in the decline of American productivity. It is past time to pay attention to the writing on the wall. We are at a point where we have lost our dominance in the steel, auto, tool and die, plastic and even pharmaceutical industries. We can’t afford to lose more of our productive infrastructure!
The sad reality is that the bureaucracy is now choking on the bureaucracy and our society is paying the price. Unfortunately, many people believe that jobs and the production of products have gone away because greedy companies are looking for lower labor costs. As a manufacturer, I can assure you that U.S. companies prefer to have their products made right here in their own facilities under their own direct control, not elsewhere. The main reason jobs and opportunities are leaving is because of a hostile business environment created by our government and the sociopolitical environment. If Americans want to have job opportunities, products made here in America, a strong economy, restoration of our strength as a nation and not have insurmountable debt, it is imperative to actively support the most powerful economic principle on earth, capitalism and free enterprise. Concepts that by his own actions and policies Obama is destroying.
This being said, don’t confuse the needs of domestic American companies with multi-national companies. Multinational companies have their products made in any country that gives them the best deal to produce their product. Domestic American companies employ Americans and don’t want to outsource to foreign countries. However, they are overburdened with taxes, over-regulation and poorly constructed trade laws that the bigger multinational companies can afford to avoid. As a result our productive infrastructure declines and our ability to compete globally and employ Americans declines as well. It is obvious to me that the more we over-burden our domestic productive base the deeper and long lasting this recession will be. Domestic productivity creates jobs, wealth for all of our nations obligations such as defense, education, and public services etc. Therefore, it improves everyone’s way of life. This situation has gotten so bad that even when we develop a new technology the physical products of that technology are typically made elsewhere. The result is, we don’t benefit from our own creativity. Therefore, the intellectual property and the revenue it could have produced, is lost.
The American people have the determination, ability, equipment, and intelligence to work and earn our way out of this problem. We just need a supportive environment that is free of an overly needy, top-heavy administration to give us the freedom to do it! If you want jobs and adequate financial resources to meet our needs, lets together make the U.S. a place that both domestic and multinational companies find attractive to be productive. Then and only then will you see the United States return to being a strong, stable, reliable country. This of course, will require legislative action. Therefore, I am pleading with you to consider the consequences of your support for the Obama administration. The liberals and conservatives both need to evaluate the philosophies of their parties. The Democrats are masters at PR. They claim they are the party “for the people” but their actions have shown a continual need for wealth that is taken from our productive sector and redirected to support their own programs that do not improve America’s vital productivity but do influence voters to favor them politically. Unfortunately, the effect of this huge drain on domestic American productivity has taken its toll. We have lost our leading position in many critical areas. It comes down to this elementary lesson. “You can’t get away with biting the hand that feeds you”. The Republicans have their faults to, and they are not good at PR but at least they understand that in order to have and sustain our country it is essential to support our productivity. The Democrats have used their PR skills to spin this reasoning into claiming the republicans are benefiting the “rich” as if working hard, and making good choices in life are a bad thing for America. I for one am not jealous of someone else’s money. I am glad that there is still an environment left in this country where one does have the opportunity to generate wealth. Understand, we need to have the ability to generate wealth in order to have the excesses of wealth necessary to care for those actually in need of assistance. Void of that excess of wealth we end up borrowing from other countries thus weakening our global standing.
Myself and most other domestic producers are very scared of the near future. If everything that should be done to improve the business environment for domestic American productivity was done today, it would still take at least five to seven years to rebuild, retool and reclaim the level of productivity that we should have right now. We don’t have five to seven years!!! Now consider the speed of congress and the political forces that shape our nation. Then you realize how much trouble we are in! I hope this perspective helps you understand the fragile nature of American businesses, our declining world status and the reason for the lack of employment opportunities. I support the experienced businessman over a guy that has never had to make payroll and has always lived off of others!
BTW, Correction to your article; Mitt Romney is for Fair Trade not Free Trade. There is a big difference. Free trade is hurting us. Fair trade policies are what we need! Free trade only sounds good on the surface but as we all know it is not good for American productivity and global competitiveness.
Speaking from my own experience, I have a job right now because I had 4 years of Community college for Electronics. The rest of my experience was because I had the drive to do almost everything for myself while growing up. What I did not know, I went to the Library and found out how to do them and I kept great notes for future reference. I was working on my 1971 fuel injected automobile while everyone else was still fighting carbs in their cars for instance.
What we seem to lack in this country anymore is the need to learn how “stuff” works and how to repair it when it breaks. I was repairing things when others threw them out in the trash! Seems to me if the last two generations had the same drive as I have even today, things might be different in America.
In short, we need to care again, we need to look at everything in the positve instead of how dark things are. Stuff happens…but you need to smile and go on.
Education, and common sense needs to return to fellow countrymen if we want this great country to continue.
I am 72 and still working in manufacturing, I have seen grat times and now I see our country as a 3rd world country. And why is this country in the shape it is in.
It all started with a trip to China by president Nixon, and then slowly with political mannipulation began the erosion of the USA manufacturing giant. Durring the last administration and the bank and housing mess. So are we ready to put this country back in the hands of the republicans.I THINK NOT.
Personally, I have lost not one but four different manufacturing jobs between the years 2000-2008 under Republican trade policies, and have friends who also suffered multiple lay-offs during that time. I have yet to see any will among the corporate rulers of this country to sanction China or impose some sort of tariff.
In each of the three cases, my employer either opened a Chinese shop or began buying parts from China when we had been making our own parts here in USA.
You clearly don’t comprehend the meaning of “non-partisan” service. Your credibility is now “0”.
Michael, sorry you feel that way. But I’m curious, please explain how listing the two campaigns’ positions IN THEIR OWN WORDS gives me zero credibility?
I am an engineer and I’ve been sending work to China for many years, but I have to tell you the truth, the reason is not only because China is more price competitive, the main reasons are as follows:
* I get better quality from China (and I have tried working with top notch manufacturers in the U.S.).
* I get it in less time (3 to 4 weeks for a mold in China vs. 8 to 12 weeks in the U.S.).
* The Chinese are more interested in trying new things and innovating (I am also an inventor and have developed new products and new manufacturing processes and the Chinese were always willing to work with me with an attitude of attaining success) where American companies want to do the least amount of work, take the most amount and time and charge the most amount of money, and
* the Chinese are very responsive and professional where in the U.S. it takes days to a week just to get a response to an e-mail or a phone message.
I think that Americans lost their will to work and lost pride in their work. That is the most logical deduction of what has happened here.
I think that America still has a lot to offer the word, but we need to reinvent ourselves and not try to compete in an industry where we have no chance of competing. Putting high tariffs on Chinese goods will not help up, it will only punish the American consumer because it will not lower the prices of American goods, so why do it? It will only mean that Americans will not buy as many products as they do now and the economy will suffer even more.
Mr. Kamin,
I find your comments interesting, since some of it is opposite of what I have heard and experienced in the past.
* I get better quality from China (and I have tried working with top notch manufacturers in the U.S.).
What I have heard is this may be true for first article, or the first batch, but as time goes on, it starts to slip, and slip quickly. Have you noticed this?
I have met with a few companies that are looking for us to find US suppliers due to this exact issue.
* I get it in less time (3 to 4 weeks for a mold in China vs. 8 to 12 weeks in the U.S.).
With molds I have seen this as well. However, the molds have required rework and tinkering to make them work. Have you found this as well?
I have also heard of ridiculous order requirements, (one recent visit they are required to order 1 year of merchandise to ensure they have product to sell). Millions of dollars of inventory is sitting in their warehouse, with the hopes that they can sell it, and that nothing changes from the time they ordered it until the time it leaves their facility. They are looking at the per part cost, not the cost of living with that decision.
* The Chinese are more interested in trying new things and innovating (I am also an inventor and have developed new products and new manufacturing processes and the Chinese were always willing to work with me with an attitude of attaining success) where American companies want to do the least amount of work, take the most amount and time and charge the most amount of money, and
This can be a double-edged sword from somethings I have heard. While yes, they may be interested in trying new things, once it works, things are made in twos: your order, and their new product. Not saying this is the case all the time, but it does happen.
I work for the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which works with small to medium sized companies. One of our new main charges is to work with these companies to increase innovation speed and reduce risk. This is a known issue, but it is not an all-or-none issue. There are some companies that are willing to take chances, as they understand that true growth does not come from cost cutting, but being the go-to-place for new and innovative products and services.
Have you added up the cost of the parts + shipping + all the other charges associated with it? While the per part cost may be cheaper, once you add the overhead, there are times the advantage is gone. I met with a company yesterday coming out with something new because the current process has the parts made in the US, then sent overseas, just to have them sent back. Their new technique/technology will allow them to have a per part cost lower than the overseas, and that does not include the lack of overhead.
* the Chinese are very responsive and professional where in the U.S. it takes days to a week just to get a response to an e-mail or a phone message.
This again is opposite of what I have heard and experienced. It may be who you are dealing with, and in what industry.
I am an engineer and inventor. I work for a larger consumer product company based in the United States. I could not agree more with the comments of John Kamin. This has been my experience to the tee. What John describes is one of the root causes of our problems with trade and manufacturing. We need to look inward, understand this completely and stop the scapegoating.
Also as some have alluded to, it would help for our primary education system to rediscover craft and the trades. Our Go To College or nothing education system is turning out lots of people with student loan debt and no marketable skills.
Regarding the China issue: I will agree with Mr. Kamin, that as a new manufacturer I find the Chinese infinately easier to work with than Americans. American industry is oriented only to large scale production of already proven designs or smaller scale with large markups, as with defense manufacturing. New innovation has no choice but to go to China for nurturance. One reason I gave up early on trying to make my product in USA was that, from the person who answers the phone and up the chain the American manufacturing folk with whom I was interacting were unfriendly, depresso, donkey-headed and often rude while the Chinese are overly friendly and courteous, and I don’t care if it’s phony because it is more pleasant. I especially enjoy the Chinese custom whereby my first contact with a company in China is usually a pleasant woman or girl in the 19 to 30 year range….beautiful Asian flower paintings! American women in manufacturing seem to have the English bulldog as a role model, and that may be an insult to the bulldog. I have dwelled on this aesthetic aspect of doing biz in China as a general metaphor pointing to underlying probs in USA culture…the spirit of Tom Edison, Emelia Earhart, Nikola Tesla, A. Bell, Bill Putnam, Dvorak, Charles Ives et al has for the most part gone missing. Yes, yes, lots of new product coming out, but most (other than b2b) aimed at the coarse consumer. A lot of product lacks art and does not inspire. People, please, expose yourselves and children to some Beethoven, live to live well, be polite (like Asian children) and make product that Germans would admire. I support only fair trade with China (et al). I think Romney will change the game with China. However others besides myself must work to change the game in American minds. Thank you.
Mr. Harvey, I agree with you, a little Beethoven wouldn’t hurt. Today’s music (if you call it that) is just brain numbing and has so many negative connotations to it that I am sure it is just rubbing off on people.
Mr. Bergs.
I can’t say that everyone’s experience with China is the same. I will admit that China has everything when it comes to manufacturing; you can get excellent products and you can get worthless garbage. It all depends on the vendors you chose.
It sounds like from what you are saying that 1) you don’t have the right vendor if they have to keep on tweaking, and 2) it sounds like they are using Aluminum molds for high production or possibly for abrasive plastics, like those containing glass fibers or abrasive chemicals. My experience with vendors like those however, and I have experience those, is that when they quote a mold, they will tell you that they will build it out of Aluminum and that they will replace the mold for free when the time comes to do so. That is not always to way to go. I generally get my molds in P20 steel or equivalent.
Going back to the “tinkering” comment, it generally depends on the tolerances required and the amount of detail, but they are generally better than U.S. molders in getting things right on the first shot (again, depending on the vendor).
There are companies in China, like in the U.S. that will not look at you unless you have quantities in the millions. My experience is in quantities from 1,000’s to 100,000’s. The beauty of China is, there are more manufacturers in almost every industry than you can shake a stick at, so, if one doesn’t work, there are 10,000 others.
As far as trusting the Chinese not to steal your new ideas, that is an issue, but, if you are at least patent protected in the U.S. and most of the rest of the world, it may or may not be an issue. In my case, I have worked in highly regulated markets where the Chinese have not yet entered, so it was not as much of a concern for me. I have on occasion spread things around so that one vendor is not producing all of the components for a single product, that way they do not have all of the IP. You also have to look at it from another perspective; the Chinese do what Americans do – they buy a product, take it apart, study it and reverse engineer it. The difference is, they copy it exactly down to the scratches where the Americans at least put a new face on it :o)
I will tell you what I am afraid of though… China are starting to do more and more contract engineering, and if we don’t do something about that, I will be out of a job soon as well…
Two points in the big picture:
1. “Business” taxes. BUSINESS DOES NOT PAY TAX! People pay tax. Anyone who thinks otherwise is only fooling the dumb among us.
2. Regulations. GEEZ people! Romney said that some regulation is obviously necessary. However, when you regulate businesses to the point where they can’t turn around, then you will find them move their businesses to China! Think coal. What did Odumbo say? “Under my plan of cap and trade, energy costs will NECESSARILY skyrocket.” Now, that’ll help all of us, hu?
I work in manufacturing as well, I find that I cannot rely on Chinese parts.
The problem with American products is that the management of our companies is pathetic! Engineers who most of which have never built their own designs, managers without a clue to production requirements and the value of the labor at hand, and owners who are only concerned with profit margins. Over the last 2 decades I have seen payroles regress to pre 70’s levels. How can you maintain a positive work environment when the workers feel little more than slaves? Not to mention annual layoffs. Only to be exemplified by the masses of illegals willing to work for near nothing.
It is ok for them to live 20 to a household, but that is not the American standard to which Americans are accustomed, and so many flock here to achieve.
The term American standard is now history.
Are there solutions? Sure! But as Mr.Romney says, not everyone will like them.
After all, you can’t support half the country on the taxes of the other half!
Do the math.