On the recordMarch 9, 2011
I think the poll that was released today, the Bloomberg poll released this morning, again found that America's top priority is jobs and getting people back to work. We've been here 10 weeks and the Republican-controlled Congress has presented zero jobs. It hasn't presented a jobs bill. It has presented a spending plan that will cost 700,000 jobs. That's an analysis done by respected economists across the country. Rhode Island is a State that has a very rich manufacturing history. We are the place where the Industrial Revolution began, home to some of the greatest manufacturing. I think, like many States, we have suffered in this recent economy. Rhode Island has been particularly hard hit. But I think if we are going to remain a world economic power, we absolutely have to make things again in America. If you ask people who believe that we're losing that position as a world economic power, you ask them, who do they think is the world economic power, they say China. If you say, why China? They say, because China makes everything. I asked my constituents during my campaign, go into a store in Rhode Island, try to find something made in America. It's almost impossible. I really hope that the 112th Congress will be the Congress that revitalizes manufacturing in America.
