Summary:
• Revitalize manufacturing industries in PA
through public works and defense contracts
• Tax breaks for “BUYING AMERICAN”
• No tax breaks for companies which outsource
jobs
• No support for trade agreements that cost
us jobs
• Tariff compensation for currency manipulation
Full Explanation:
“Right now,
the Bush Administration is waging a war on America’s
middle class. Take a hard look at this snapshot
of the Republican program: a massive outsourcing
of jobs, a huge trade imbalance, a national debt
in excess of $8 trillion, and the inability of average
families to pay their bills, pay their taxes, and
send their kids to college. There are several changes
we can make to improve this picture."
1. Taxpayers should not subsidize the exportation
of jobs. We may not be able to stop a global company
from using cheap foreign labor, but we should not
be paying for it with tax breaks. I will fight to
eliminate them.
2. And the converse is just as important. There
ought to be tax breaks for “buying American.”
I would fight for that, as well.
3. Where American businesses face unfair competition
because of foreign currency manipulation, such as
we see with Communist China, we need to level the
playing field. It is foolhardy to expect China to
do this for us. That is why I would fight for a
tariff on goods which come to our shores below market-value
prices because of currency manipulation. It would
work like this: if an item were exported to us from
a foreign nation below market value and if the American
manufacturers of that item could show Congress that
the lower price was due to unfair currency manipulation,
then the law would allow Congress to enact a tariff
equal to the amount of the manipulation. In this
way, the item would be priced so that American manufacturers
could compete on a level playing field.
4. To revitalize the manufacturing base which is
essential to our economy, I propose an economic
partnership between the federal government and private
industry to begin needed public works projects.
We are doing it now—but in Iraq! We ought
to be doing it here at home. There are many projects
that would not only revitalize our industries but
also move our nation into the future. In addition
to obvious infrastructure improvements, I have long
advocated two: a Great Lakes Wind Farm and a high-speed
rail system to connect the cities of Buffalo, Erie,
Cleveland, Youngstown, and Pittsburgh. The benefits
to commerce, commuting, real estate, retail sales,
tourism, energy costs, and the environment are obvious.
We already see such projects elsewhere in the world,
particularly in Europe and Asia. America must move
toward the future in these respects, or it will
be left behind. We cannot, as my opponent suggests,
keep funding the same mistakes over and over again.
5. To further revitalize our industries, I propose
that any defense-related contract be filled by American
companies on American soil using American workers.
The Defense Department has a proposed 2007 budget
in excess of $440 billion. It’s time that
money went to help American businesses and American
workers, not just for the obvious economic benefit,
but also to insure greater national security. It
is too risky a business to have sensitive defense
technology exported to foreign manufacturers, particularly
when they may be in countries which might well oppose
us militarily down the pike.
6. I would support only those trade agreements which
are equal to both nations and which insure that
foreign nations pay fair wages and protect the environment.
7. Finally, though the federal government cannot
constitutionally mandate it, I advocate a change
in the way we fund our public schools so that we
relieve the property tax burdens of the middle class.
The nations against which our kids will compete
do not fund education as we do. They use designated
education taxes, income taxes, sales taxes or combinations
thereof, and so should we. In this way, we would
equalize funding for all districts, increase the
chances for poorer kids to climb out of poverty,
and relieve a huge burden now placed upon middle-class
property owners.
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