To Save Jobs, Bush Will Appoint a Manufacturing Czar

[Judi Lynn]

September 2, 2003
To Save Jobs, Bush Will Appoint a Manufacturing Czar

By John Hendren, Times Staff Writer


RICHFIELD, Ohio — President Bush kicked off the unofficial start of the 2004 presidential election season Monday, promising a Labor Day crowd of union members in this battleground electoral state that he would appoint a manufacturing czar and lift a lackluster economy that has left their sector "hurting."

As rain drenched his union jacket and cap, and with a backdrop of cranes and John Deere tractors, Bush outlined a balmier outlook for a manufacturing sector that has shed 2.4 million jobs — most of the 2.7 million the economy as a whole has lost since he took office 2 1/2 years ago. As evidence of his resolve, he said, he has ordered Commerce Secretary Don Evans to appoint an assistant secretary whose job will be to stimulate conditions for a "strong and vibrant" manufacturing economy.

"I believe there are better days ahead for people who are working and looking for work," Bush told a storm-soaked crowd of several hundred people at a training center here run by the International Union of Operating Engineers. "I want you to understand that I understand that Ohio manufacturers are hurting, that there's a problem with the manufacturing sector. And I understand for a full recovery — to make sure people can find work — that manufacturing must do better."

On a day that presidents, by tradition, spend with organized labor, the president was tackling the topic on which he has gotten the least support in recent polls.

This suggests White House officials believe that Democratic criticism of Bush's economic performance cannot go unanswered. With nearly one-third of the nation's 9.2 million unemployed losing their jobs in the last three years, Democrats say Bush has the worst economic record since the Depression administration of Herbert Hoover. (snip/...)

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush2sep02,1,2901144.story?coll=la-home-headlines

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[SoCalDem]

1. Geeeeeez. I wish they would QUIT with the "Czar" stuff...

That is like fingernails on a blackboard for me.. Just quit mucking with people's lives, make the rich guys pay their share, FINE American companies who have more than 5% of their workforce overseas, and we won't need another damned Czar...:grr:

[Gore1FL]

7. no doubt

especially when you consider "the workers" were the ones that toppled the Czars.

[Athame]

8. I was thinking the exact same thing as I read this, SoCal

and then I gagged on this:

"As rain drenched his union jacket and cap, and with a backdrop of cranes and John Deere tractors"

Is he like a paper doll that you can dress up in different outfits to suit the occasion?

:puke::puke: :argh:

[northzax]

25. can W Union Doll be far behind?

c'mon Hasbro, why you trippin?

[oldshoe]

2. This guy is supposed to

see to it that US companies invest in the US. Is this not some sort of tacit admission that US companies are cutting out? or that the investment market needs "fixing"? So much for the invisible hand.

The whole taxcut rationale is that extra money in the rich's hands while be invested domestically. The reality is they put their dough where the returns are highest, and that is not the US, nor is it necessarily in any productive venture. Currency speculation, metals, and whatnot are just as fine, depending on expected return. This is such Econ 101 stuff that's it simply astonds me that Bush Leaguers can fall for it. But then again, they read (and swallow) Coulter. Go figure, I can't.

[cthrumatrix]

3. this is such BS....after every press conf. there should be translation...

Trade treaties started this corporate exit...seeking the cheapest labor on the planet...no penalties..just profit.

And AWOL is going to change this..?

[hang a left]

18. This is just like

the little ass whistle that he is. Did anyone look to see if he had his fingers crossed behind his back. Just like all the millions for the Aids travesty in Africa. Lips moving=more lies

[0007]

4. Is this a joke?

junior needs a czar to create jobs?

The people will do best if it would impeach this counterfeit president..

[stickdog]

5. Good idea, George!

Did you just notice this wittle problem with jobs?

Good boy. You are so observant! Yes, you are.

[DemNoir]

6. People will eat this up...

This Whitehouse political operation has to be about the best in history.

[matcom]

9. WOOOHOOO New Czar with a taxpayer paid SALARY!

:bounce:

WHATAFUCKINGDUMBASS!

:puke:

[salin]

10. just wonder who they will name

does bush have even one buddy who hasn't busted a union or moved (manufacturing jobs) over seas, on in some other nefarious way hurt workers?

[prolesunited]

12. Well, actually if you look at his record of appointments

That would make him/her most qualified for the post.

Can't think of them all off the top of my head: Poindexter, Pipes, Perle, etc.
Does anyone know if there is a list of appointments and reasons why they are not qualified to run the department because they oppose the policies the office is supposed to uphold?

[salin]

21. Should folks in manufacturing be even more alarmed at this development?

Just look at what having a Bush appointee has done for the Environment (clean air/water, etc.), for the Dept of the Interior (escalating gifting national resources to private industry), heck even for labor (changes in OT laws). :shrug:

[SharonAnn]

39. Don't forget "education", it's in pretty bad funding shape now

thanks to Bush not funding them.

[InkAddict]

14. Apropo Name and, BTW, Pure Speculation

I believe Dennis LeStrange is leaving IKON after a management "realignment."

From a corporate news release: "As part of the realignment, Dennis LeStrange, Senior Vice President of IKON North America, will leave IKON effective October 1, 2003 to pursue other interests."

THINGS ARE STRANGE, ALL RIGHT!

[Liberal Veteran]

11. Only about 15 years late......

Manufacturing is already pretty much decimated. How a Czar for the mass IT and services exodus going on?

And do we really need a Czar to figure out that it's globalization in disparate economies that is causing this?

[teryang]

13. We have a Czar already

It's Nicholas II, presiding over fiscal, economic and military diaster. His days are numbered.

[Wickster]

15. A Czar! Yeah, well THAT ought to fix things!

(sarcasm firmly on)

Another crony needs to be paid off with our money? Then the next thing is staffing -- see all the jobs he is creating -- but they won't be allowed to join the union.

Bob Dole may want a job, afterall he is married to the Sen. from North Carolina who promised that no manufacturing jobs would be lost under her "plan." (Pillowtex just closed down).

Don't know how much more I can stand. :cry:

[Cheswick2.0]

16. gee, wonder if the czar will suggest tax cuts for industry?

ya think?

[WillParkinson]

17. FANTASTIC IDEA!

Because, I mean, it worked SO well with the Drug Czar and the AIDS Czar.

So many Czars makes me feel just like I'm in Russia.

[FlashHarry]

19. To Save His Job, Bush Will Appoint a Manufacturing Czar

I think they got the headline wrong...

[catmandu57]

20. I hope whoever it is does just as good a job as the drug czar

What is it with these fools and the word czar? Do they believe it has some magical connotation?.

[Fovea]

26. Its about

Karl Roves Rasputin fantasies.

[JaneQPublic]

22. It will mean at least ONE new job...

...the one for the guy assigned as Job Czar.

Hell, if they appoint a Task Force, that could mean 6 or 8 more new jobs!

[conservdem]

23. He really dropped the ball on this issue and I doubt this Czar

will really turn the tide. Dems should hit him hard on this.

[ixion]

24. No more Czars, please. This is a Democracy.

n/t

[arwalden]

27. Oh My! A CZAR! -- I Feel MUCH Better Now! Don't You Feel Much Better, Too?

[Sideways]

36. Yes Yes I Do Now Let Me Eat Your Toe Jam

Czars require that don't they? Oh next let me at your belly button. Lint licking proles just adore that kind of kinky shit.:crazy:

[kodi]

28. is not a state run economic policy anathema to conservatives?

this is further proof that bush is a radical, not a conservative. hammer the sob on this.

its not apparent to most that the US has used trade policies as a chip in foreign policy bartering, with the easily foreseen consequences that entire US industries are being wiped out just so third world countries remain in the thrall of US policy makers and multinationals.

in 2001, Bush allowed a dramatic increase in imported pakistani textiles to flood the US after pakistan said that they would help the US in its war on terra, this was also done with india to placate india not to nuke pakistan over kashmir (although the tv show the "west wing" used computer technology as the bartering chip with india in that show's scenario), with the consequence that huge swaths of american factory workers are now unemployed.

the clinton adminstration did the same thing with his west africa and carribean basin trade initiatives which allowed textile quotas to be dropped for places like central america, ghana, nigeria, etc. all the while the chinese and iranians were secretly pouring their textiles into these regions (and mexico) for later shipment to the US to bypass the restrictions and quotas placed on them by US trade negotiators.

the US did this post-WWII with japan in steel, korea in ship building, and now china in electronics.

while the wisdom of this sort of thing is certainly within debatable discussion, no allowances were made to deal with the dislocation of the US workers in these industries.

[denverbill]

29. Well, that's ONE less unemployed person.

Why doesn't he appoint 3 million manufacturing czars, then we'd be talking.

[Donna Zen]

30. The czar equation

Czar+serf=the bush feudal nation

[TahitiNut]

31. Another "golden egg".

For those pigs who feed at the public trough, every such problem is a "goose" -- one that lays golden eggs for crony capitalist oligarchs. Are drugs a "problem"? Why then let those who sell them get all the money? Compete for the "golden eggs"! Appoint a "czar" and pick the public's pockets of billions -- that's a huge "golden egg"! (Make sure to keep the "goose" alive, though! In fact, fatten it up!) Want more geese? Then create more problems! Terrorism? Fatten that goose by creating more terrorists! That's the ticket! Unemployment? Fatten that goose by shipping jobs overseas! That's the ticket! Crime? The fatter that goose (prisons that hard boil those eggs) the more golden eggs it lays! Fatter geese means more golden eggs for the oligarchs! Never, never kill the goose. (If it dies because it's too fat, the oligarchs eat the foie gras.)

[StandWatie]

32. "manufacturing czar"

I'm laughing my ass off. Please W, bring back the Czar he and organized labor got along splendidly last time...

[MGKrebs]

33. Mission accomplished!

Czar appointed, manufacturing therefore is fixed!

1. Appoint czar.
2. Stick him in a little office in Alexandria.
3. Pay his salary, but no other budget. (Please use the copier downstairs.)
4. Issue "white papers" saying what manufacturers need to do to fix their deal, i.e., whack the unions, and what government will do to help, i.e. cut corporate taxes, relax environmental/safety rules, immunity from lawsuits.

It'll be just like Indonesia!

And if things still go badly, just declare a "manufacturing emergency" and suspend ALL the rules.

[TahitiNut]

35. Raising kids.

1. Kid demands something.
2. Parent says "no".
3. Kid throws a tantrum.
4. Parent says "OK".
5. Rinse and repeat.


Oligarchs rape and pillage an industry built on the labor of a community of workers. Public says "no". Oligarchs throw a tantrum -- exporting jobs and raising prices. Public says "OK, take more of our money and pay us less for our labor". Lather, rinse, repeat.

[maggrwaggr]

34. How 'bout the president of Wal Mart??

He'd be just perfect.

"if y'all want jobs, well heck, plane tickets to China are cheap this week"

[Frangible]

37. Then stop outsourcing them to China!

I have much h8 for outsourcing to foreign countries just to put money in a suit's pocket.

[David Zephyr]

38. That's What His "Secretary of Labor" Elaine Chao Is Supposed to Be

Duhhhhh.

[Keithpotkin]

40. if only he could appoint 2 million "czars"...

then this whole job crisis would chill out.

[kentuck]

41. Well, that's really being courageous....??

How about "creating" more jobs instead of "saving" the ones we have. Although we want our jobs to be "saved", is it simply too much to expect that you might create a job for those unemployed? After all, if we only lose 100,000 more jobs, are they going to brag about what a great job they did of saving our jobs? If we didn't have the czar, we would have lost more than 500,000, etc,etc BS... Sort of like, man it's a good thing we have the Homeland Security, we haven't had a terrorist strike since we started it....uh-huh..

[opihimoimoi]

42. DID THE DRUG CZAR THINGY WORK???

NO FUCKING WAY

In fact, it became worse.

[FloridaPat]

43. No one got the joke!

Whatever Bush says doesn't happen. Either he is not even going to bother naming someone or the person will be so pro-business it won't matter. The name of the game is to spot the lies, not treat them like a real truth.

[radfringe]

44. I think all we can expect out of the "manufacturing czar"

is for more bushit to be manufactured

[ElsewheresDaughter]

45. ahh jays'us! yeah that'll do it...create another high level position

for another cronie :grr: :grr: :grr:
wonder who this new Czar will be>>>Kenneth Lay?
BUCK FUSH!!!!!