Obama stresses need for manufacturing job training

[LetTimmySmoke]

Source: MSNBC

With jobs and the economy topping Americans' concerns, President Obama headed to a community college in Northern Virginia to highlight the need to train workers for the manufacturing jobs he believes are key to strengthening the economy.

The president returned to North Virginia Community College to announce several new initiatives that are part of the "Skills for America's Future" program launched last year to focus on workforce training, including plans to help half-a-million community college students get industry-recognized credentials that will helped them get skilled jobs, provide more opportunities for at-risk youth and provide new online tools to connect workers with employers.

The president toured labs at the college's Alexandria campus where students are trained to work on advanced vehicles, before delivering brief remarks.

"Right now there are people across America with talents just waiting to be tapped, sparks waiting to be lit," he said. "Our job is to light them and there's no time to lose when we've got folks looking for work, when we've got companies that need to stay competitive in this 21st Century economy and when we know that we've gotta rebuild the middle class and a lot of that's going to have to do how well we do in manufacturing and how well we do in jobs that are related to making products here in the United States of America."

Read more: http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/06/08/6813290-obama-stresses-need-for-manufacturing-job-training

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There's no point in training manufacturing skills in America if all the jobs are getting outsourced to India and China. What we need in this country is DEMAND.

[bainz]

1. +1

Let's train people to do jobs that don't exist. If they cant afford the training, let's just give them loans that they can't pay back.

At least that will create jobs for jack boots to kick in their doors (if they still have a place to live) to get the money back the lenders.

[RKP5637]

9. He tells people what they want to hear. He's been doing that all along. He made

no sense to me. He seems to miss the point of where the problems are. We lavish money on banksters and wall street with trickle down voodoo economics. And the trickle is we're all getting pissed on.

[izquierdista]

25. How do you think he got into Harvard?

And the Law Review at that! He's a lot more like Alex P. Keaton than he is like Cornel West.

[RBInMaine]

36. Fine dumping on voodo economics, but bashing Obama is fringe nonsense.

[RKP5637]

44. Agree, it was too broad a brush! I'm really dumping on voodoo economics. That

IMO is the root cause of a lot of problems we have.

[sudopod]

49. You wouldn't make a good piano.

You only have one note.

[LetTimmySmoke]

59. Well, this is the president who with one hand says that we're gonna train manufacturing skills

Then with the other hand ensures that those jobs will never be there by refusing to equalize trade relations with China.

[woo me with science]

64. The speech was crap.

He proposes nothing concrete that will help people who are desperate for jobs NOW.

Here is what he proposed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ntMncOvhIA



1. A "Skills for America" program that will match up schools and businesses so that students have a "pipeline" to jobs.
Will this create jobs? No. He is talking about matching new graduates to jobs that exist. Newsflash: Not enough jobs exist.

2. The "Skills for America" program will also have 500,000 community colleges provide and document credentials their students receive for manufacturing jobs. That way, companies looking to hire will know exactly what kind of training goes into that degree.
Will this create jobs? No. It will only create bureaucracy to prove that students coming out of community college are qualified for jobs that don't exist.

3. A new WEBSITE on the internet so students and graduates can log on and see what kinds of jobs their skill set qualifies them for.
A new website! Woo hoo! Will this create jobs? No.

4. Mentoring programs and scholarships for students who want to become engineers.
Will this create jobs? No.

5. Invest in research and technology to lead to new ideas and bring new industry.
Will this create new jobs? Well, it could in the long term, but this "proposal" is thrown out along with #6 and #7 in passing, as part of a single sentence. No details. No actual plan or proposal. Just a vague intention. What is he doing for unemployed people right now?

6. Building infrastructure, roads and bridges
Will this create jobs? Well, it might, if it were part of an actual proposal...but it isn't. He throws this out in passing, in the very same sentence as #5 and #7. How will this happen? When? It is not a concrete proposal by any means, like the "Skills for America" program or the new spiffy website!

7. "Manufacturing products here in the US to create good jobs."
Um, okay. This one was thrown out with #5 and #6 in a single sentence, with no explanation whatsoever of how he plans to achieve it.

8. "Above all, (improving the economy) requires training and educating our citizens to outcompete workers in other countries."
Really? Above all you are going to focus on training and education to fix the economy? Is that going to create the jobs that are so desperately needed right NOW?????

9. "Pass the Workforce Investment Act to build on this progress with new and innovative approaches to training...Eliminate training programs that don't work. Put more money in the programs that work to help workers obtain jobs...That's how we're gonna get people into the middle class and stay there...and rebuild the economy."
Really? That's how you're going to fix the economy? And this is going to create new jobs how?

10. Then at the end he made some thrown-in comments about investing in clean energy and keeping tuitions from rising.
It was, overall, incoherent.



This speech was not reassuring. It was depressing as hell.

[RKP5637]

2. Yeah, exactly what I was thinking too and saw your last sentence. It's a bunch

of BS until everything stops being outsourced. It was a good pitch, but he missed the point IMO of where the problems are.

[markpkessinger]

3. That all well and good for the longer term, but....

... the jobs crisis is occurring now; people's economic lives and futures are being destroyed now. Encouraging job training for hypothetical, future jobs which do not now exist does nothing to address the crisis we are facing now.

[notadmblnd]

4. Why? So we can all immigrate to china?

[Vanje]

5. ..to fill all thoseunfilled manufacturing jobs?

Those pages and pages of manufacturing positions wanting hard working Americans to come to work to fill them?

What a load of crap.

Listen : WE DON'T NEED MORE SCHOOLING. WE NEED JOBS!

[ProSense]

12. Krugman

Making Things in America

Manufacturing sector is creating jobs for the first time in decades.

[Cant trust em]

13. What does Krugman know about the economy?

:sarcasm:

[liberation]

43. Nothing, obviously

since he doesn't have self referring blue links.

duh!

[Demit]

15. From the OP article—

"...while the president argued manufacturing training programs were necessary to provide companies with the skilled workers they need, employment in that sector actually fell slightly -- by 5,000 jobs -- in May."

Krugman's column was dated May 19. I guess the May jobs data wasn't out yet.

[ProSense]

19. Yeah,

the May jobs report sucked, but that doesn't change the fact that manufacturing has been adding jobs for the first time in decades.

[StarsInHerHair]

58. yes consumerist has an article on the top 10 in danger of extinction jobs

http://consumerist.com/2011/06/top-10-dying-us-industries.html perhaps the Pres. wants to have a look?

[Vanje]

6. Fail! nt

[villager]

7. If only he would stress... the actual jobs!

But, you know, don't want to upset the rightwingers, after all!

[Peter1x9]

8. What a waste of time and money...

unless he was talking about Chinese workers. :banghead:

[Vanje]

10. Recc'ing

because I want more DU-ers to see this wagonload of presidential FAIL.

[Dappleganger]

11. What a farce.

Those people are still around, they didn't get swept out to sea. Just pay them what they are worth and stop giving all the profits to the fatcat CEO's.

[DreamSmoker]

14. Many very skilled out of work in California

This is just crazy with so many Educated and Skilled people out of work anyway..
I am one who is very skilled in many things.. There is no work here for us at all..
I live in a Old City in So.Cal. who made just about everything at one time..
Rockets to Tile... Now all that is left here is Taco Stands and Carpet installers..
Mostly Thieves and Criminals rule the streets now..
I went to the Store for food the other day. Only to have my Tail Gate stolen right off my old 1995 Nissan..
Its really bad here now..

[w4rma]

16. Obama is full of BS on this. (nt)

[Vanje]

17. Its insulting

Thats what it is.

[Demit]

18. I don't understand why kids have to go to community college to get jobs in manufacturing.

The article mentions 'learning how to drive advanced vehicles'.

So kids now have to pay for their own training for manufacturing jobs now. And/or this government program is subsidizing what used to be on-the-job training given by the companies themselves. Nice, President Obama. I see you're on the job of finding new & innovate ways to subsidize corporate costs.

[ProSense]

20. There are always

apprenticeships.

[Demit]

27. Apprenticeships are ‘earn while you learn’ situations. Not 'pay for it before we hire you'.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

51. exactly. I'm a HS dropout, and I've done a few manufacturing jobs with no training...

BUT THE DAMN JOBS JUST DON'T EXIST ANY MORE!!!

[lbrtbell]

21. Training for what?

The jobs that are being shipped to China and India?

Memo to Obama: Either encourage your fellow Dems to vote to bring jobs back here, or shut up. It's pointless to train for a job you'll never get.

[Vinee]

22. That makes sense if they get a one way ticket to China after their training is completed.

[Hubert Flottz]

23. I guess all those trainees will be headed to the far east after we

pay to school them.

[Coyote_Bandit]

24. Either

(1) He is completely out of touch with - or unconcerned about - Main Street America or
(2) He isn't very bright or
(3) He's blowing sunshine up somebody's ass.

And I don't think he's stupid.

[RKP5637]

35. +1, n/t

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[taught_me_patience]

28. We train and get more efficient

so that the business owners can make more money? I don't fucking think so.

[OhioChick]

29. This is a joke, right? n/t

[EFerrari]

30. Note to the Obama team: Repeating the word "future" over and over

only causes anxiety for people whose present is unbearable and reminds them of how little you are doing for them today.

[Vanje]

31. EFerrari is correct , YET AGAIN! nt

[boppers]

32. "manufacturing" or "skilled jobs"? The two are not consistent.

Maybe he's talking about robotics technicians, or CNC programming skills, but for the most part, assembly line manufacturing isn't skilled labor, which is *why* it can be so easily outsourced to people with minimal skills and education.

[valerief]

33. Manufacturing job training for what manufacturing jobs? He must be talking

about training in foreign countries. Where the jobs are.

[shoeless]

34. Training for Factory Jobs

These days, the only training needed for the manufacturing sector is for security guards to watch over the shuttered factories.

[madrchsod]

37. no one believes him anymore....

[liberation]

42. There are plenty who do listen and believe him (or any other politician) regardless of record

never underestimate the power of cognitive dissonance among large groups of people.

[RBInMaine]

38. The President touts investing in job training, and the fringe here dump on him. Typical.

[madrchsod]

40. fringe?....

i`m one of those skilled laborers that has been fucked over by trade policies since the mid 70`s. first it was korea, india,mexico,and finally china. when i read what obama is saying i realize he`s just like every president since carter. i`ll get excited when obama starts talking about these things...

trade policy

manufacturing policy

nafta

tariffs

tax policy

investment policy

card check

the last president that actually tried to do something about trade and jobs was richard nixon. now that is really pathetic is`t it...

[Vanje]

53. We don't need training. We need JOBS!

We need a president who gets that.

[RBInMaine]

39. Bashing him for this?? But then again, Bernie Sanders is too right wing for these bashers. Pathetic.

[liberation]

41. On the positive side, it seems strawmen fabrication remains in the US and hasn't been outsourced...

yet.

[somone]

45. So they can follow the steps of unemployed manufacturing engineers and workers

[Mnpaul]

46. I think Obama needs manufacturing training

He can't seem to realize that those free trade crapolicies he supports have done more damage to American manufacturing than anything else.

[Hotler]

47. Mr. Obama. Sir, is that he best you got. Corporate Amerika and Wall St. need....

a serious ass chewing. Those fuckers kept cry bagging about extending W's tax cuts. "oh! we can't do any hiring until we know what our taxes are going to be.". Sir, you handed those fuckers their tax break now tell them they need to put up four million good paying jobs as good faith and after that we'll come back to the table and deal more. Not having a spine, how do you survive pick up basketball?

[oNobodyo]

48. What kind of jobs program...

...do you think you could get past a republican house that would put everyone out of work just to make Obama and the dems look bad?

Seriously, the republicans aren't going to let a single job through and will kill as many as possible.

You might be able to increase demand by doing something about the mortgage crisis...nope republicans won't let that happen...

Maybe direct government spending on infrastructure projects...nope they'll block those too even if it means hundreds of millions to their own states...

[sarcasmo]

50. We need jobs not training, this is such an out of touch statement, really sad.

[alp227]

52. putting the cart before the horse? n/t

[freshwest]

54. Let's see your reasoning there:

'There's no point in training manufacturing skills in America if all the jobs are getting outsourced to India and China. What we need in this country is DEMAND.'

I thought that people with decent paying manufacturing jobs make enough to create demand. That was sort of the union mantra back in the days when I was involved in union organizing. But since the Reagan years, the working man has been treated like garbage.

I'm sure you don't mean it to sound that way, but do you mean to say that the people who get the jobs from the training won't want to buy anything made in the USA (thus creating DEMAND)?

Vocational training has sadly been eliminated from the curriculum of many high schools and those who don't qualify for college are left with little options. European countries provide training for those whose abilities and interests don't fit the college model.

Not everyone is going to grow up to be a teacher, lawyer, doctor or computer technician. And there's nothing wrong with that! I have friends in Europe who make a good living who did not go to the university route. Why not here?

[George Wythe]

55. Oh, there is a demand, it's just that the Chinese are the only ones benefiting from it.

[sendero]

56. Obama is CLUELESS.

... about economics and it's going to cost him a second term. Job training will do NOTHING to fix our present problems.

[OhioChick]

66. You're absolutely right n/t

[lib2DaBone]

57. Mr. Obama takes the American people for fools... Manufacturing? Ya.. that's what we want to hear.

What manufacturing? You guys in Washington took apart our factories, and shipped them, brick-by-brick, to China. You also gave China new technology...as much as they wanted! WTF?

At the same time.. you laid off American workers.. cut unemployment benefits and treated the working poor in this country as if they are bastard step-children.

If there is a hell, Mr Obama, I hope you and your Bankster-buddies in Washington will be sent there.

BTW.. China just gave Pakistan 50 new high-tech fighter jets. Aircraft they built on technology they STOLE from the USA... And you think China is our friend? God help us.

[alp227]

60. just found this Media Matters article responding to Michelle Malkin trash talking this speech

"'Boondoggle': Fox News Derides Vital Manufacturing Jobs Initiative"

Obama said: "So today, we're announcing several new commitments by the private sector, colleges, and the National Association of Manufacturers, to help make these partnerships a reality." MM also quotes a Wall Street Journal article from May 6: "Large and small manufacturers of everything from machine tools to chemicals are scouring for potential hires in high schools, community colleges and the military."

Hmm. Any second thoughts?

[jmowreader]

61. Obama must also stress the need for dereaganizing the tax code

The most cringeworthy thing a Republican can say is "we can fix the tax code by getting rid of loopholes." It is cringeworthy because "loopholes" enable high-wage jobs to exist in the United States.

The great exodus of jobs to the other side of the Pacific Rim started after Reagan eliminated all the loopholes that allowed corporations to deduct their US-based manufacturing operations.

If President Obama is really serious about bringing manufacturing back to the US, and he may be, the first thing he needs to do is to re-implement the tax code that existed when President Nixon was still in office. There's no way this will happen until the Republican population in the Senate drops to...oh, maybe 30-35 if you bulk the pukes, the blue dogs and Joe Lieberman into one category. By making it cheaper to manufacture in the US--which you accomplish with a combination of tax incentives for US-based manufacturing and tariffs for manufacturing done offshore--you will have manufacturing in the US.

People talk about how manufacturing in China is cheaper because the wages are lower. If you manufacture in the US like they do in China, Chinese manufacture is cheaper. An iPod, which is manufactured in China, is a handmade device: they've got tables in this big room. Around them are all these young'uns who spend 12 hours a day gluing the same part to the same place on the board, then handing the completed board to the next person who does the same thing. Apple used to own plants in the US, Ireland and Singapore, and all of them were very highly automated. Yes, it's going to cost a BUNDLE to build a nice factory in the US, but with proper tax policy it makes more sense to do it than to bring crap in from China.

[woo me with science]

62. Good fucking god.

THIS is what he proposes?

[Nossida]

63. Yeah Right

And just what will you train them to Manufacture?
Buns and Hamburger patties?
the Corporate Oligarchs have moved all of the best
Manufacturing positions overseas. Where they can
exploit Workers for a few pennies per hour.

[cottonseed]

65. Doesn't sound like a terrible program. It's not the answer

to all our problems, but I'm sure it will be a big help to a lot of kids.