Time Running Out to Rebuild the U.S Economy   by James Parks, Oct 29, 2009

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The unwillingness of political leaders to act boldly for the nation’s economic future has put our prosperity in danger, and it’s past time to do something about it, union leaders and lawmakers said today.

Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell (D) told the closing session of the Building the New Economy conference in Washington, D.C., that other nations, especially India and China, have made a huge commitment to rev up development of efficient energy sources and threaten to leave the United States in the dust. Said Rendell:

Time is running out. The science and technology are there, but do we have the will? The time of American economic dominance is fast disappearing.  If we have an America that doesn’t make anything, then we become a second- or third-rate power.

Rendell, United Steelworkers (USW) President Leo Gerard and Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) made up the final panel for the conference.

Rendell says the United States has the resources and creativity to develop a new green economy that provides good jobs and rebuilds communities, but lawmakers need to be pushed to act—and act quickly.

He urged conference participants to go home and “sound the clarion call to the American people” and actively write letters, op-eds, whatever it takes to get the country aroused over the issue of  rebuilding manufacturing by taking the lead on creating green technology.

A major part of rebuilding the economy includes updating the nation’s infrastructure, all three speakers said. Blumenauer said the time to act is now.

We have been dragging our feet too long. We just replaced the most anti-infrastructure administration in history. We need to recast our vision for the 306 million Americans in this water-stressed, energy-short economy that barely has been pulled back from the abyss.

Just as previous presidents such as Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight Eisenhower launched major infrastructure projects that redefined the nation, we need to take strong action now, Blumenauer said. Not only will rebuilding our electrical grids, schools, water supply lines, roads, bridge and other parts of the infrastructure benefit our country as a whole, Blumenauer said.

It is the quickest way to put Americans back to work in every state and city.

Gerard added that it is “unacceptable” to let America’s manufacturing capacity slip to between 8 percent and 11 percent of our Gross Domestic Product when other countries are ramping up their industrial capacity.

Our government has been too timid in dealing with our competitors, especially China, which has violated trade laws and used its government-backed export industry to undercut U.S. companies, resulting in huge job losses and plant closures, Gerard said.

While our economic roots were being ripped out, our government is telling China to just slow down.

We need jobs that create wealth, Gerard said—jobs that take a raw material, and through creativity and hard work add value to the product before selling it. He also said we need to create tough laws that restrain Wall Street’s greed and prevent the same people who got us into this mess from ever doing it again.

He likened the deregulation of Wall Street to letting your 3-year-old child loose for eight hours in the world’s largest candy store.

You know what happens when you come back and get them. Their stomachs are full of candy and sugar. It’s coming out of their pockets, and you know they’re going to puke on your shoes. I’m tired of Wall Street puking on my shoes.  

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