Hoyer: Make It in America agenda

Wall Street reform will create an important new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and make sure that borrowers and lenders live up to common-sense standards of responsibility and honesty. It ends TARP. And it ensures that the costs of any future financial crisis will be borne by the financial industry—keeping taxpayers off the hook for future bailouts. Wall Street reform will remove an important source of economic uncertainty, helping to free up the $1.8 trillion in cash sitting on the sidelines in corporate America. That is private sector cash poised to be redeployed into job-creating investments—the kind of investments that led to the chip and the tech boom in the 1990s. The more we strengthen the integrity and transparency of our financial system, the more we rebuild the confidence needed to encourage investment in America, and the more our financial system gets back toward its core purpose: helping allocate capital to families investing in their future and entrepreneurs investing in job creation. Moving Forward After Lost Decade All of those policies have a common thread: After a lost decade, middle-class Americans now have a Congress and administration that is helping it make up the lost ground and building for future prosperity. All of that work has helped move our economy back toward strength — though, for too many people, that is still not their reality. With millions of Americans still out of work, no one claims that we’ve reached success — and Congress can’t rest. QUESTION TWO: What Remains to be Done? So the second question is: what remains to be done? Democrats are fighting for the middle class. Republicans— as much as they want to use the economy as a political weapon — are looking to go back to the very same policies that caused many of the problems the middle class confronts today. In fact, the NRCC chair, Congressman Pete Sessions, summed up his party’s approach last weekend: ‘We need to go back to the exact same agenda’ of the Bush Administration. By almost all indications, it was an agenda that failed. Democrats, on the other hand, are putting forward new ideas to drive our recovery, particularly when it comes to our vital manufacturing sector. "Make it in America" Agenda That’s why House Democrats are launching the Make it in America agenda: a strategy to boost American manufacturing. For generations, Americans have looked to our manufacturing sector as a source of economic vitality, a source of good-paying jobs, and a source of pride: America has always been proud to be a country that makes things. Some worry that those jobs and that pride are a thing of the past — but Democrats are committed to regaining America’s manufacturing edge. The Make it in America agenda will include bills to encourage investments in industry, improve manufacturing infrastructure and innovation, strengthen the American workforce, and create a level playing field for American manufacturers that compete worldwide. These bills are just a start: more are to come, and many House Democrats are coming forward with ideas that can contribute to a manufacturing revival. All of these efforts will bolster President Obama’s plan to support 2 million more jobs by doubling U.S. exports in five years — a plan that is already showing success, with exports up significantly over last year. (See President Obama's National Export Initiative.) And they will build on the impact we’ve already had: since the beginning of this year, our private sector has actually created 136,000 new manufacturing jobs. I hope that Republicans will join us in strengthening our manufacturing sector. I’m glad that many of them supported the Manufacturing Enhancement Act and the SECTORS Act in the House. But the fact remains that Republicans have an 18-month pattern of standing, with near unanimity, against every measure to create jobs for the middle class. A wide range of job-creating ideas are waiting to be enacted, but they continue to face partisan obstruction — even though many of those ideas have won strong bipartisan support before. For instance: We would help businesses develop and bring to market new technologies to increase productivity. We would further invest in science, technology, engineering and math education. We would encourage entrepreneurship and investment by letting businesses deduct start-up expenses and exempting small business capital gains from taxation. We would establish a new fund, without increasing the deficit, to help community banks lend to small businesses — because 45 percent of small businesses seeking loans were turned down last year. We would extend the R&D credit.We would also end tax breaks that encourage corporations to outsource American jobs overseas. Republicans are fighting to keep that loophole open; Democrats want to close it and keep more jobs here. Republican obstruction has even extended to unemployment insurance — at a time when there are still five applicants for each new job. Unemployment insurance is one of the most effective ways of stimulating demand, because it’s quickly spent. Moody’s Economy.com found that it produces $1.63 in economic stimulus for every dollar spent. View the original article here