Rod Blum: “First I want to thank Chairman Brady, Ranking Member Levin, the rest of the House Committee on Ways and Means, and my…”

“First I want to thank Chairman Brady, Ranking Member Levin, the rest of the House Committee on Ways and Means, and my colleagues on both sides of the aisle who join in cosponsoring this important legislation, H.R. 4923, the American Manufacturing Competitiveness Act of 2016. I also want to thank my colleague from North Carolina (Mr. Walker) for his leadership in educating our freshman class about this issue. Mr. Speaker, this legislation creates an open and transparent process to consider reducing burdensome manufacturing tariffs through miscellaneous tariff bills while at the same time maintaining the commonsense House ban on earmarks. Without this legislation, American manufacturers will continue to pay high tariffs on essential raw materials that have no domestic source. This undermines manufacturers' competitiveness with foreign manufacturers and damages their ability to create manufacturing jobs here in America. Mr. Speaker, our economy has been limping along for quite some time now. This is the worst economic recovery following a recession since World War II. GDP growth is just 60 percent of our 70-year average. I will say that again: 60 percent of average. Because of this, wages for working families are stagnant. American businesses are being stifled by red tape, high taxes, and a Federal Government that crowds out private investment through its addiction to deficit spending. I am not willing to accept that this economy is the new normal.…”