The fallout from Tuesday's State of the Union address continues. Tom Dononhue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, told the Fox Business channel it was a political speech "full of taxes and taxes, regulations and regulations, stimulus and stimulus. It doesn't address the two fundamental questions at hand and that is how do we drive growth into the United States to the extent that, number two, it creates jobs?"
"I heard a lot about how we were going to regulate things, how we were going to constrain things, how we were going to tax issues. But I didn't hear anybody say 'and here's what we're going to do to move forward, to liberate the free enterprise system in this country to put people back to work.' It was all about what government was going to do and what the president was going to do with the arm of government to see what he could do to put people back to work. But that's not gonna help," Donohue concluded.
Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, responded: "The President deserves credit for highlighting manufacturing on a national stage, but presidential leadership requires more than speeches. President Obama had a chance to set a bold manufacturing agenda in motion, and he missed it."
"On regulations, for example, the President touted his Administration’s efforts to rein in some regulatory excesses and costs—$10 billion in savings over the next five years. But, Boiler MACT, Utility MACT, Cement MACT and the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, to name just a few of this Administration’s rules, would impose costs that dwarf the savings highlighted by the President.
"And on labor, the President never mentioned the aggressive actions that the National Labor Relations Board took in the past year. If President Obama wants manufacturing to lead the economy, federal agencies cannot swoop in and tell manufacturers where they can do business."
Timmons concluded: "It’s 20 percent more expensive to manufacture in the United States than it is among our major trading partners — even after excluding the cost of labor. The best way to create an environment to increase manufacturing employment in America is to lower the cost of doing business through pro-growth tax rates, sensible legal policy, reasonable regulations and affordable and secure energy supplies."
The Association of Washington Business is Washington's state chamber of commerce and manufacturing and technology association as recognized by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and National Association of Manufacturers, respectively.
