By Amy Rawlings
Manufacturers in the United States are ready to power the economy. With the right policies in place, our nation’s job creators will transform a difficult and sluggish recovery into an economic revival. After all, manufacturing has the highest multiplier effect of any other economic sector.
For every $1.00 spent in manufacturing, another $1.48 is added to the economy. Investments in manufacturing multiply across the economy, creating jobs and growth in other sectors. Simply put, manufacturing makes America strong.
Despite some improvements in sales and production, manufacturers continue to have persistent worries. Pro-growth policies are needed now, more than ever, to grow and create jobs. The United States needs a comprehensive plan for economic growth. A bipartisan commitment in Washington to pro-growth policies will make our nation a more competitive place to do business.
In an ongoing effort to show policymakers the importance that manufacturing has to this great country, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) recently released A Growth Agenda: Four Goals for a Manufacturing Resurgence in America. This agenda sets a road map for economic growth and enhanced competitiveness for manufacturers.
This plan is a benchmark for policymakers and provides a set of goals that will get the U.S. economy moving again. A Growth Agenda will guide policymakers to choose policies that make this country a better place to invest, a better place to innovate and a better place from which to export. Our elected leaders must put politics aside and choose policies that strengthen our workforce so that it meets the needs of manufacturing in the 21st century. A Growth Agenda serves as a blueprint for competitiveness that will unleash the economy and manufacturing’s multiplier effect. Importantly, manufacturers’ aspirations are ones that all Americans who want to maintain our country’s economic advantage can rally around.
The following four goals that manufacturers have laid out are the keys to getting our nation moving again:
1. The United States will be the best place in the world to manufacture and attract foreign direct investment.
2. Manufacturers in the United States will be the world’s leading innovators.
3. The United States will expand access to global markets to enable manufacturers to reach the 95 percent of consumers who live outside our borders.
4. Manufacturers in the United States will have access to the workforce that the 21st-century economy demands.
These goals are simple, commonsense choices—choices that can deliver tax reform, enact an “all-of-the-above” energy policy, open and expand global markets to manufacturers and spur innovation. With this agenda as their guide, policymakers have everything they need to ensure a thriving and robust manufacturing sector. Manufacturing makes us strong, and Congress and the Administration must embrace policies that make our country more competitive. With the right policies in place, manufacturers in the United States will ignite the spark that will fuel a manufacturing resurgence.
To download your copy of A Growth Agenda, click here.
If you’d like more information about the NAM, contact us at (202) 637-3000.
Amy Rawlings is Executive Director, State Associations Group and NAM Allies, for the National Association of Manufacturers.
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