Positive Information For Millions of Americans or Snippy Partisan Swipe: "America a rising manufacturing star?"

I subscribe to the "Daily Grind", a conservative right-wing newsletter put out by the people behind the Americans for Limited Government blog NetRightDaily. To say that I read their content would be a misnomer,but I do quickly skim over the content occasionally and agree with some of what they have to say. When those occasions arise, it's generally because the articles start off as a commonsense appeal for bipartisanship legislation that address many of issues affecting our country but quickly disintegrate into conservative speak and political bashing of  Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, President Obama and liberal/progressive ideology, while completely forgetting that Republican conservatism as practiced by those in House and Senate are just as much to blame for the current political problems that we face. 

Case in point, below is a recent article that touts the potential reemergence of the American manufacturing sector due to the improvement of the manufacturing climate in U.S.  Many companies that fled this country over the past 3 decades for cheap labor and less restrictive regulations are now looking to come back to this country because labor and energy costs have become more competitive in recent years. 

By the end of what was a good news, positive story about the return of manufacturing jobs to this country and what it would mean for millions of Americans, becomes a snippy, partisan swipe at the Obama Administration for trying to ensure that we have clean air to breath and water to drink. 

Take a feel good story and turn it on its head in an attempt to score a political point.  It's maddening! 

NetRightDaily
By Rick Manning 

The Boston Consulting Group just released a study comparing manufacturing costs around the world, and the United States fared surprisingly well. Writing about the U.S. and Mexico, the authors explain the improved manufacturing environment saying, “Because of low wage growth, sustained productivity gains, stable exchange rates, and a big energy-cost advantage, these two nations are the current rising stars of global manufacturing.” 

The big energy-cost advantage is the key. 

While China struggles with higher energy costs, the United States is just scraping the surface of its natural bounty of fossil fuels. The innovative unlocking of a vast sea of natural gas and oil over the past decade has transformed the United States’ position in the future of where world manufacturing will grow and prosper. In fact, CNBC reports that natural gas prices alone have fallen by between 25-35 percent in the past decade in North America. This drop in energy costs is contrasted by a 135 percent rise in natural gas costs in China. 

And the U.S. manufacturing sector is beginning to respond with federal government measures of industrial production up 0.4 percent for its sixth consecutive monthly gain, the Federal Reserve reported last week. Manufacturing output advanced 1 percent in July, its largest increase since February. 

CNBC quotes Hal Sirkin, a senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group saying that the old assumptions that manufacturing is cheaper in Asia and South America have “fundamentally changed.” 

“This means companies will start to move manufacturing out of those expensive countries if they can, to cheaper countries like the U.S.,” Sirkin said. 

Increased U.S. manufacturing means more much needed good paying jobs, and while the days of hundreds of workers operating alongside one another building a car is outmoded, a resurgent U.S. manufacturing sector is welcome in what has otherwise been a jobless recovery. 

These are the exact kind of jobs that our nation still desperately needs as the Bureau of Labor Statistics has found that more than 7.5 million Americans are working part-time because they can’t find a full-time job. What’s even more startling is that for the U.S. Department of Agriculture reports that the number of food stamp recipients remains at crisis levels with more than 45 million people receiving food assistance each month for three straight years. 

Ironically, the very Obama Administration which purports to want to help those in need is pushing regulations like EPA’s proposed power plant rules. Regulations that put the very energy cost advantage our nation currently enjoys at risk by deliberately driving up energy costs by closing down dozens of coal burning power plants. The same agency is also pushing ozone standard regulations that the House Energy and Commerce Committee says “is already contributing to uncertainty and holding back investment.” 

America’s free enterprise system and abundant natural resources have given our nation another opportunity to rebound from the moribund new normal of despair that President Obama and those of his ilk seem to embrace. 

The only question that remains is whether America will choose a path toward prosperity or the continual downward drift to the ash heap of history. 

Rick Manning is the vice president of public policy and communications for Americans for Limited Government.