Political Quotes

“I rise to discuss legislation called the All-American Flag Act of 2011 and make some comments about what has happened to American manufacturing and how this is a small step but an important step in beginning to convince this body that ``Made in America'' is something we should focus on, that a manufacturing strategy from the White House is something they should focus on, and that putting people back to work to make things in America again is the right strategy to pull us out of a recession. The Labor Department's most recent jobs report confirmed what workers in my State are already aware of--that employers are still not hiring. Workers who have jobs are seeing smaller paychecks, and they are barely keeping up with bills and insurance costs. In too many cases, soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan are facing even greater challenges in the labor market. I was at Youngstown State University recently talking about the specific programs there. In Cleveland, through MAGNET--a group called MAGNET in Youngstown and in northeast Ohio is helping soldiers and sailors and marines leaving the service, integrating into the classroom, and helping them find jobs in that region--someplace we have fallen woefully short. Manufacturing, which was moving along steadily earlier this year--we had seen 12, 13, 14, 15 months of job growth in manufacturing, not enough job growth but some--that is even slowing down.…”