On the recordSeptember 15, 2010
I think not only is that true, but also I believe during the Bush Presidency there was a strong focus on a portion of our economy, on our jobs, and somewhat a weak commitment to other sectors. As we all know, when you break down the jobs or the economy issue, it's agriculture, it's manufacturing, and it's service sector. I think the emphasis on agriculture and manufacturing was extremely weak. We see the problems in the agricultural community. I see them in my dairy sector in my district. It's painful to see the lack of attention that has been paid to a fair price for dairy farmers. In manufacturing, it was ignored heavily. They wanted to, as I said, zero out MEP, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, which produced a lot of success for X-Ray Opticals, where now they are exporting. But they put all their emphasis in the service sector, and where they did, they turned their back to regulation, to overview, to kind of stewardship of a sector of the economy that, when left to control itself, brought down, because of greed, the American economy, and it wreaked damage upon us. So what I would say is that we need to put the focus back into manufacturing. The programs we have done here, after the damage that was allowed to occur, are now going to bring back a strong response to manufacturing. And I can't say well enough how strong the Democratic agenda has been here to grow the Make it in America campaign. Make it in America is something that people have been asking for.
