On the recordMarch 10, 2010
The gentleman from New Jersey has some very good ideas, which we have got to look at very seriously, about putting our country back to work and about long-term investments. You know, I have often said that we have got to be the producers of wealth, not just the movers of wealth, and that we have got to build things here. In 1950, over half the jobs in our country were in manufacturing. Today, one out of 10 of our jobs is in manufacturing. We are actually building. Some of that has been because of the fact that we have gained in productivity and because we have gained in efficiency. Yet we have still outsourced too many of our jobs. In States like New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Illinois, we have seen some of those manufacturing jobs go overseas. Our great trade imbalance that we have, the trade deficit that we have every year, is very troubling to me. We have a trade imbalance with China--$280 billion every year. We have a trade imbalance with oil-producing countries because they send $330 billion of oil over to the United States. Those two account for some of the largest imbalances our country has ever known in terms of our trade policy. We know that 95 percent of the marketplace is outside the United States, and Ohio is leading the Nation. Some of our local municipalities have begun to start exporting some of their goods overseas, creating their own trade relationships.
