Group: Buy American is a step in right direction

By Don Shilling

YOUNGSTOWN — The Buy America provision in the federal stimulus bill is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to protect domestic manufacturers, a lobbying group says.

Alan Tonelson, a research fellow with the U.S. Business and Industry Council, met with the media Wednesday as part of a visit to the Mahoning Valley.

Tonelson said his group, which supports small and midsized manufacturing companies, welcomed rules that require domestic goods to be used in infrastructure projects financed by the stimulus bill backed by President Barack Obama.

The legislation allows companies from 38 other countries to bid on projects, but these countries must be members of an existing free- trade pact. The members include European countries and Japan, but not China and India.

For too long, U.S. presidents and Congress have ignored the needs of this country’s manufacturing base and allowed jobs to be shipped to low-wage countries overseas, Tonelson said.

Those policies contributed to the recent credit crisis and deepening recession, he said.

The nation had grown to finance consumption through credit, instead of earnings, because it became harder for U.S. workers to earn middle-class wages, he said. When easy credit was taken away, the economy collapsed, he said.

Manufacturing is the only sector in the economy that historically has paid workers enough to be in the middle class, so the nation should be doing what it can to keep manufacturing jobs, he said.

The nation’s leaders missed an opportunity when they awarded billions of dollars in loans to General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, he said. Those loans should have included domestic-content standards for vehicles built by those companies, he said.

The next big opportunity for the country to support manufacturing will come as the government provides incentives for companies to invest in environmentally friendly power, such as wind power, he said. Any government incentives should be tied to having a certain percentage of domestic content, he said.

The government should be researching the energy industry to determine what domestic content is now and set targets for improving those numbers, he said.

Tonelson was in town with Pat Lowry, a spokesman for U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Niles, D-17th.

Lowry said the congressman has joined with Tonelson at past events locally and in Washington, D.C., because they both support domestic manufacturers. Tonelson said his group reviewed the voting records of congressmen after Ryan’s first year in office in 2003 and found his voting record was most aligned with the Business and Industry Council.

The council has 1,850 members, mostly family-operated businesses. Tonelson said he is hoping to boost membership in the Mahoning Valley with trips such as the one he is on this week. Membership is weak in the Valley but much stronger in the Akron and Canton areas, he said.

shilling@vindy.com