Harry E. Figgie Jr.

Mike Collins, writing at Manufacturing.net, suggests that Washington enact targeted tax cuts and credits that encourage investment in the U.S. and creates jobs. Collins cites a bill sponsored by Harry Reid that would “would exempt companies from paying the 6.2 percent social security payroll tax for new U.S. employees who replace overseas workers. This tax [...]

(Photo Credit: mmahaffie) Delaware Governor Jack Marckell, writing at Governor’s Blog, has written a piece called “Marrying Innovation and Manufacturing” on the benefits of clean technology manufacturing. One area with growth potential in both manufacturing and innovation remains clean technology. Around the world, people are getting to work creating and manufacturing products with both environmental [...]

(Photo Credit: Center for Neighborhood Technology) United States Energy Secretary Steven Chu, speaking at the National Press Club, said yesterday that the United States must act to reverse the decline of its manufacturing competitiveness. The US is gradually losing ground to India and China in research and high-tech manufacturing, a top Obama Administration official has [...]

(Photo Credit: barrett4wi) The Alliance for Manufacturing held a meeting for local and national political candidates outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The Wasau-Daily has the story. – The Editors

(Photo Credit: Michigan Municipal League) Speaking at one of 12 campaign events organized nationally by the Alliance for American Manufacturing, Michigan Democratic Nominee Virg Bernero promoted an idea called “make it in Michigan for free.” The proposal calls for tax incentives to encourage companies to make use of old or abandoned manufacturing facilities. Here is [...]

The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) issued a Congressional report card today that offers a guide to which legislators have been supporting American manufacturing. NAM granted its NAM Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence to 221 members of Congress. All of the Senators who received the award are Republicans. A few Democrats on the House side [...]

House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank hailed the bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler Corp. as huge successes and expressed exasperation at the fact that many continue to view the interventions as failures. Frank is quoted by the Detroit News as saying the following: “There’s just no question: the single most effective thing that [...]

Ford Motor Executive Chairman Bill Ford Jr. said in an interview that Michigan should use its comparative advantage to “double down on manufacturing.” It might make sense to manufacture different things than in the past, but building products should still be the state’s commercial and policy focus. Here is the story from the Detroit Free [...]

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has an op-ed in today’s Politico, in which he promotes the “Make It in America” agenda. Here is an excerpt from Hoyer’s piece: At the top of the list is the Make It in America agenda, a plan to boost manufacturing, strengthen the work force and fight for a fair [...]

Writing at The Shop Floor, Carter Wood raises some questions about the nuts and bolts of the Obama administration’s $50 billion infrastructure proposal and concludes that “It’s as if the proposal were designed not for policy, but for politics.” Wood’s post can be read in full here. Our previous coverage of the Obama plan can [...]