I realize many people reading this right now are likely confused. Many probably are unclear about what I mean when I talk about manufacturing or industry. So, let’s start there.
It is our collective ability to take raw materials from the earth (metal, wood, rock, and oil) and turn them into the things we depend on to live our lives, enjoy our hobbies, care for our patients, and defeat our enemies on the battlefield. Nations who do not protect this vital sector of industry are trading away their security and their economic prosperity.
For the last 20 years, as a people we have allowed our politicians to single-handedly dismantle our ability to perform these critical processes. Master tradesmen and tradeswomen have retired or chosen new careers in record numbers. We have let our infrastructure crumble. And we have taken our best engineers and technologies and transferred their know-how to regions of the world where people are exploited for inexpensive labor. It will take our nation years to recover from these poor decisions if we choose to make a change today! If not, we may never recover, and we will forever depend on Communist nations like China and their ruling class to provide us with the goods we need to survive.
For this reason, on the parCabinet, I will install a Secretary of Domestic Production. We will put the full faith and credit of the US Government to bear, rebuilding the industries our predecessors sold for pennies on the dollar. (To learn about American-Chinese trade relationships I am referring to, try this article by the Wolrd Economic Forum.)
A central feature of this critical bill will be to get investment capital into the hands of ordinary Americans in the small to mid-sized manufacturing businesses around the country to enable them to compete on a level playing field with their counterparts in the Pacific rim who have enjoyed limitless government support for the better part of a decade.
This is not corporate welfare. This is not a tool for big, organized labor to enrich their members. No executives, shareholders, or union bosses will see a dine of the money in this bill.
No, this is not an industrial bailout. This is an industrial equalizer.
This is giving American industry, and more importantly the American worker, a chance to compete fairly in the world market by giving them the same advantages their competition was given long, long, ago.
For the DIRA to be successful in its objectives, it must accomplish two things.
One. It must help increase the domestic demand for American made goods from both the public and private sectors. The act will require significant changes to federal procurement code, to insist that taxpayers’ money is spent in a manner that flows back to American workers at an increasing rate over time, not a slowing one. Further, it will provide significant incentives to the American taxpayer by way of a national income tax deduction for the money they spend on American made goods, easily tracked with slight modifications to the existing UPC data infrastructure (bar codes).
Two. The act must help the American worker and manufacturing companies become globally competitive. To accomplish this, it would provide the much-needed resources necessary to rebuild American industrial infrastructure and retrain the American industrial workforce.
The DIRA will help Americans drop the rusty images of the manufacturing industry and instead see polish and shine. A world leading industry. Factories of the future. Safe, clean, bright, and productive. Factories that bring back high paying, high skilled jobs, and regain our rightful place on the global industrial stage. Providing American made, high-quality, durable goods that travel not only through our own homeland, but to every corner of the globe, rebuilding our middle class, lifting workers out of poverty, and regaining our international security.
Please join me in urging your legislative representatives to consider this crucial legislation.
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