Reply #7: Transcript from yesterday's Lou Dobbs [View All]

[Wonk]

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0402/20/ldt.00.html

(snip)

PETER VILES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What if you could solve the manufacturing crisis with the stroke of a pen, instantly create millions of new manufacturing jobs?

Well, behold, the future of American manufacturing. Now, the idea that flipping burgers is manufacturing would be funny if we weren't serious about it. White House economic adviser Greg Mankiw actually raised the idea in his report to Congress.

GREGORY MANKIW, CHAIRMAN, COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: The definition of what constitutes manufacturing is far from clear. For example, when a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, is it providing a service or combining inputs to manufacture a product?

VILES: At the core of manufacturing is the idea of added value. And fast-food jobs don't add much value. If they did, they would pay better. So critics are suspicious of the administration's timing and motives in raising the issue during an election year, when its record on manufacturing jobs is so dismal.

ALAN TONELSON, U.S. BUSINESS & INDUSTRY COUNCIL: McDonald's is not something that just sprung up last week. It's been around for most of the post-World War II period. And to bring up the possibility that now we should start thinking about reclassifying fast-food preparation as manufacturing, it's just plain fishy.

VILES: Mankiw said it's important to have an accurate definition of manufacturing, in case the government decides to base policies on the definition, for example, tax cuts targeted to help manufacturers.

Now, oddly enough, the White House does not support the policy, but that's exactly what Democrats John Edwards and John Kerry are proposing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VILES: Now, none of this is to demean fast-food jobs. For many young Americans, they are a terrific first job or a part-time job, but nobody would argue they are equal to the manufacturing job that have helped build the American middle class -- Lou.

DOBBS: It almost makes one want to ask, are they really serious?

VILES: What exactly were they thinking?

DOBBS: Well, that's not the first time that question has been posed in the last week or two.

Peter Viles, thank you very much.