On the recordJanuary 31, 2012
Understanding the future of this country, that if we are going to compete in a global marketplace, we cannot just be a service economy. We can't just have people working and making beds and flipping hamburgers and selling in retail stores. All these industries, all these jobs could be better jobs if they were better paid. We need to manufacture things. We are the center of innovation. We can educate our young people to become innovators. In fact, I had a meeting this week with educators and the founder of the Austin Polytechnical Academy where they are teaching young people how to work in advanced manufacturing and the new kinds of steel mills and talking about ownership of those plants. I wanted to say just a couple of things about what the President raised at the State of the Union address: So we have a huge opportunity, at this moment, to bring manufacturing back. But we have to seize it. Tonight, my message to business leaders is simple: Ask yourselves what you can do to bring jobs back to your country, and your country will do everything we can to help you succeed. My message is simple. It is time to stop rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas, and start rewarding companies that create jobs right here in America. I have a piece of legislation called Patriot Corporations of America that would reward those patriot companies that hire 90 percent of their workers as American workers. They would get tax breaks.…
