More than 350 Iowans gathered in Des Moines’ Hy Vee Hall last night for a “Keep it Made in America” Town Hall meeting hosted by TV’s John Ratzenberger.  Those in attendance included officials from almost every major presidential campaign, both Democratic and Republican.  What they heard was straight talk from every day Iowans who are greatly concerned about the state of manufacturing in the United States. 

Panelists at the event included Chaz Allen, the Mayor of Newton, Iowa—a city hard-hit by the recent announcement of their Maytag factory’s impending closure; Joanne Stockdale, a northern Iowa businesswoman who has seen imports pose a serious threat to her company’s success; John Campbell, a 20-year employee and union activist at Bridgestone/Firestone; and Nick Willenborg, a student at Des Moines Community College’s tool and die program.  Each panelist offered a different perspective on issues of key importance to U.S. manufacturing. 

Hopefully the presidential campaign officials who attended will bring the night’s message home to their candidates: voters want to know what the presidential contenders will do to support and strengthen American manufacturing.

A Newton, IA resident who attended the two-hour event sent an email to John Ratzenberger this morning.  He said:
“I appreciate profoundly what you are trying to do…We need to educate the public about the merits of buying American…In Newton, we are down to one lumber yard now.  Our town has dried up, they took down the “Business district” sign and now all you can do is shop at wally world. We spend billions on sporting events, concerts, junk food, but hate to spend a dollar more to buy something made in America, but we like the big wages that are generated at the plants still here…I dunno, John,  Good luck and God bless you.”

Following the Des Moines event last night, we’re already gearing up for a big November, with Town hall meetings in Columbus, OH, Pittsburgh, PA, and Buffalo, NY.  We’ll keep you posted and hope to see you there.
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Many of the presidential candidates are stumping in Iowa this week, and many of their staffers are attending our Town Hall meeting tonight in Des Moines.  We can only hope that the candidates themselves will get the message that we’re trumpeting.  Iowa has lost 22,000 manufacturing jobs since 2000, and many local residents are greatly concerned about the impending Maytag factory closure.  The U.S. needs to take serious action to strengthen its manufacturing base and save American manufacturing jobs.

You can read a good preview of tonight’s show in Newton Daily News.

PS: One way to join us in Des Moines is to tune in live to the event at the blog “Moments of Clarity.”

See you there.

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AAM is in Des Moines, Iowa for our Town Hall meeting tomorrow night in Hy-Vee hall of the Iowa Events Center, 730 Third Street, 6:30 pm.  Iowa is buzzing about the show, and you know things are happening when ABC News includes your Town Hall meeting in the same national roundup as its mention of a Nobel Prize award and the Senate Judiciary Committee’s confirmation of the new attorney general. 

You can listen to John’s interview from this morning on Radio Iowa.  And also, we’re still collecting questions to ask John Ratzenberger at tomorrow night’s meeting.  Send him your questions at AskJohn@aamfg.org 

For those of you who want to keep track of the event as it’s happening, Iowa’s homegrown humorist and political enthusiast Doug Mitchell will be reporting live from the Town Hall meeting on his ‘Life in the Midwest’ blog—which he’s nicknamed “Moments of Clarity.”  Check it out. 

Stay tuned for more news.   

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The AAM team heads off to Iowa today in preparation for our second national Town Hall meeting on October 17.  Over the next few days, we’ll be meeting with various members of the press, and having our host, John Ratzenberger, do a series of TV and radio interviews in order to spread the word.

We’re expecting a great turnout for the Wednesday night event, with even the Iowa staffers of various presidential candidates requesting seats.  It looks the campaigns maybe be catching on to the public’s view that U.S. trade policy needs a serious re-think.  In fact, a piece in today’s Buffalo News (which happens to quote AAM’s Scott Paul) examines exactly this change of heart, spotlighting Hillary Clinton’s renewed attention to trade and manufacturing issues. 

It’s not just Democrats who are focusing more attention on U.S. manufacturing, though.  According to Bloomberg News’ Mark Drajem, a number of free trade Congressional Republicans are also growing more concerned about both the increasing U.S. trade deficit and import safety issues.

We can’t help but be encouraged by this and maybe it really is true that when the people lead, the leaders will have to follow.  A hint of this ran in the Huffington Post over the weekend, by the way.  Apparently, U.S. consumers have become so disenchanted with China-made toys, that they’re turning to U.S. goods, and consequently there’s already been a noticeable increase in sales of toys marked “Made in USA.”

ManufactureThis will be watching carefully to see how it all plays out.  But tell us what you think.  You can ask questions for John Ratzenberger at the Town Hall event this week by emailing him at AskJohn@aamfg.org.

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The news on income inequality is in: NPR reported this morning that the top 1 per cent of the richest Americans earned more than 20 per cent of all U.S. income in 2005.  And the IRS says these income figures surpass what the top earners made in the 1990s when our economy was booming.  This is to say nothing of the share of the country’s overall wealth that the top 1 per cent controls. 

The headline of yesterday’s Wall Street Journal article asked with the sense of puzzlement: “Why job market is sagging in the middle?”  Here’s their explanation: “Technology and globalization are eroding demand for workers who do routine tasks in factories and offices, many of whom are high-school or even college grads.”  Routine tasks–sounds second-rate, doesn’t it?  Sounds so much less exciting than being a hedge fund manager, or a lawyer, or a nanny to the rich—one of the many personal service occupations that is expected to flourish, fueled by the demand from the top earners in our society.

The truth is these “routine tasks” have sustained our economy and communities across the nation, fed families, and were a source of pride for many, who felt that they were working to be a part of the American dream.  Americans who knew that if they worked hard, they could own a home, have a middle-class standard of living, and give a solid foundation to their kids, who would be able to do anything they wanted to do in the future. 

For those of us who have been following what has happened to manufacturing in our country, this news about growing income inequality is no news at all.  For well over a decade, our manufacturing base has been steadily eroded by unfair competition from abroad and government policies that encourage U.S. companies to take production overseas. 

While consumers in many cases gained from the increased trade in their ability to consume more, that gain came with a cost.  It costs us in the quality and safety of the products that we purchase; it costs us in the loss of good-paying jobs, and the decline of communities that were supported by those jobs.  And it does cost us in the increasing inequality in our society.  America is becoming a nation of haves and have-nots, not a nation where every American can succeed regardless of where he or she has come from.

We can fight the rising inequality with income redistribution through the tax system.  But when was the last time a comprehensive tax reform that effectively redistributed the income from the rich to the poor was enacted in this country?

Neither is the wealth redistribution mechanism alone the best solution for income inequality.  For most Americans subsisting on a check received from the state is not a dignified way to live.  We were brought up with the idea that we work to make a better future for ourselves and our families.  American workers would rather be given the opportunity to make a life for themselves than simply be given a government hand-out

That is why it is crucial that we keep good-paying manufacturing jobs in the U.S.  We want to preserve the middle-class in this country to have confidence in the prosperity of our nation for years to come.  That and because not everyone wants to be a rich man’s butler.

While the AAM team prepares for Round Two in our series of ”Keep it Made in America” Town Hall meetings (which will take place in Des Moines, IA on Oct. 17), our national director, Scott Paul, gave a terrific talk this morning on NPR’s The Diane Rehm Show. 

AAM’s Kerri Houston was also hard at work, publishing a great piece in today’s Des Moines Register entitled, “Wanted: A president who will champion U.S. manufacturing.” 

And, in tandem with the Town Hall meeting, we’ve been in touch with numerous Iowa bloggers, both to spread the word and to invite them to cover the event.  One of them, Michael Libbie, has written a good preview of the event.

We’ll see you there.

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There’s been some very good post-debate discussion of yesterday’s GOP contest in Dearborn, Michigan.  The Washington Post’s Steven Pearlstein feels that “the leading Republican candidates aren’t serious about economic issues,” and noted that, on the subject of trade, the candidates merely debated “whether globalization has been good or bad,” but offered no real solutions.  That’s about the extent of their economic prescription. 

What’s troubling is that, even though the debate took place in hard-hit Michigan—which has lost more than 279,000 manufacturing jobs in the past seven years—there was little if any direct talk about the economy’s woes.  The Detroit Free Press’s Stephen Henderson said that he waited “in vain” for commentary on “auto industry woes” and “jobs” and thought the candidates were only focused on how much their party “despises any tax, for any purpose, levied against any American.”

As AAM’s Scott Paul regretfully predicted, there simply wasn’t the kind of focused, concerned talk about manufacturing flight that the American people are clamoring for. 

In a further irony, the candidates reflexively argued against taxation, but never caught on to the de facto (and protectionist) set of taxes placed on U.S. exports via foreign currency manipulation and subsidies.  Of the top tier candidates, Fred Thompson and Mitt Romney did offer critiques on China, and the need for countries to “compete fairly.”  But in the end, no one yelled loudly and clearly that it’s high time for a dramatic change in policy.

And so, we’re left waiting in vain until the next debate. 

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ManufactureThis invites you to submit questions to John Ratzenberger for our Town Hall meetings.  You can email him your questions at askjohn@aamfg.org

One question that a number of people have asked John is why he got involved in the fight to strengthen U.S. manufacturing.  And, as John related at our Manchester, New Hampshire Town Hall meeting, he was born and raised in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  He’s seen firsthand what happens when factories leave the communities that they once sustained.

With that in mind, please email your questions and comments to askjohn@aamfg.org.  And make sure to let us know if we can include your full name, city, and state when we ask John your question, or when we post it on our blog.

See you next week in Des Moines.
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AAM’s Scott Paul has published a noteworthy piece on the Huffington Post.  In reaction to John Harwood’s striking WSJ article about growing disaffection for free trade among Republicans, Scott asks whether the GOP presidential candidates are paying any attention.  Or, more specifically, will they be intuitive enough to talk about manufacturing jobs in Dearborn tonight—an industrial city with a front row seat for the 279,000 manufacturing jobs that Michigan has lost since 2000.

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AAM Senior Analyst Kerri Houston published a great piece in the Detroit News that asks whether any of the GOP candidates will stand up and fight for American interests.

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