Share
ARDEN - Hours after outlining his second-term agenda, President Barack Obama traveled to North Carolina on Wednesday to highlight his proposal to boost manufacturing, the first of three days of campaign-style trips to build popular support for his ideas.
Speaking on the floor of a once-shuttered Volvo factory that now produces heavy-duty engines, Obama called for expanding the number of global centers for high-tech manufacturing, ending tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas, helping workers get training and partnering to help communities affected by factory shutdowns.
“There are things we can do right now to accelerate the resurgence of American manufacturing,” the president told a crowd of employees on the factory floor at Linamar’s North Carolina facility.
He pointed to the Canadian-owned company as a success story: In 2011, it announced that it would open its fourth American facility at the shuttered Volvo factory outside Asheville. It’s since hired 160 workers, with plans for 40 more by year’s end, Obama said.
He said his administration had started three global centers to spur manufacturing in hard-hit areas, and that he was asking Congress for $1 billion to open 15 more.
“I’m doing what I can through administrative action,” the president said. “But we need Congress to take up these measures.”
--
Email: lclark@mcclatchydc.com; Twitter: @lesleyclark
