Hillary Clinton participated in the live TV show, “This week With George Stephanopoulos” in Indianapolis this Sunday.  The show was aired before studio audience, and the members of the audience had an opportunity to ask the candidate questions directly.  There was a question on trade.  Senator Clinton was asked by a voter: “Hillary, Alexander Hamilton said that the key to U.S. supremacy in the world is the manufacturing sector. Sens. Obama and McCain have stated that these manufacturing jobs that we’ve lost cannot be brought back to Indiana or United States. What is your position? Do you agree with Sens. Obama and McCain?” 
 

Well, Indiana’s manufacturing sector has been hard-hit in the last seven years.  Stephanopoulos did preface the question
by saying that Indiana lost 45,000 manufacturing jobs to China in that period of time.  That is true, but he didn’t mention that the total manufacturing job loss in Indiana from 2000 to 2007 was 109,800.

Senator Clinton said that she believed that the declining manufacturing base is a threat to the overall economy.  She continued, “we need to change the tax code to take out any single benefit from your tax dollars that goes to any business that exports a job out of Indiana to any foreign country. It’s outrageous. It’s unpatriotic that is still going on.” The candidate advocated for strong labor and environmental standards in our trade agreements. “if you go to work in Indiana, there are certain rules that the employers have to follow to protect your safety and your health, and there are certain consumer rules,” said Clinton,”but look what’s happening with China. You know, we get lead-laced toys and contaminated pet food and polluted pharmaceuticals, sent back into our market; they get our jobs.”  She specifically singled out the defence industry to say that: “if we are going to have a half-a-trillion defense budget, then I want to see American workers do what is necessary to produce the defense materials and good for our country.”

There were members of the Steelworkers Union in the audience.  These guys got up before dawn to hear the candidate speak about trade and other important issues.  The voters in TV studios and on the campaign trail should remind the candidates that real jobs and real livelihoods are at stake in this election.  What the candidates say matters a great deal to those who are will be voting tomorrow in Indiana and North Carolina.

 

When Barak Obama met with the Indianapolis Star’s Editorial Board, he too was asked about the U.S.-China trade in the context of the larger U.S.-China relationship.  Barak took his time getting around to talking about trade, but he acknowledged that there are some “indisputable” problems in our trade relationship with China. 

China manipulates its currency; maintains non-tariff barriers; subsidizes its export industries; and has a hugely problematic environmental record.  We in the

U.S., on the other hand, said Obama, have a problem with our own inability to ensure the safety of Chinese imports through inspections.

In Senator Obama’s view, negotiating effectively with the Chinese is not only a question of maintaining a strong economy, but also a matter of securing our own future as a strong nation.  “There’s never been a nation on Earth that saw its economic standing decline relative to the rest of the world and maintained its military pre-eminence,” said Obama.  Senator Obama said that “we’ve been taken to the cleaners” in out negotiations with the Chinese and that, if elected President, he would have a meeting with China’s President Hu to set our economic relationship with China on an equal footing. 

Obama agreed that even though low-cost goods have been helpful in keeping the inflation in the U.S. down, in his words “it doesn’t do you much good to pay $10 less on some sneakers, or $100 less on a flat screen TV, when you don’t have a job.”

Yesterday, Hillary Clinton toured North Carolina with an entourage of senior retired military officers to outline solutions to strengthen our military. Earlier this month, Sen. Clinton was in Indiana, the state that holds its primary on the same day as North Carolina, visiting Allison Transmission plant that builds transmissions for military vehicles. During her visit, Clinton outlined a plan to limit the Defense Department’s ability to buy foreign-made products and would launch a “comprehensive review of our defense industrial base” to determine “where U.S. capabilities are lacking.” Her argument was that when our military relies on foreign manufacturers, we are not only outsourcing American jobs, we are also outsourcing our security.

It has become evident that the U.S. regulatory agencies or U.S. corporations themselves are simply not capable of ensuring the quality standards when the goods are manufactured in far away foreign factories. The cases of unsafe imports from countries like China, threatening the health and, sometimes even lives (as is the case with tainted Heparin) of the American consumers come to the public’s attention almost every month. It’s not a stretch to think that ensuring the quality of equipment our troops rely on in battle will be more difficult if it is made overseas and not in our own country. And if something were to go wrong in the military the general public will be less likely to find out. That is why it is imperative that our leaders think ahead and make sure that the equipment and armor that our military uses is made in the USA.