Obama's Prepared Remarks From Ohio Presser

Remarks of Senator Barack Obama

The Patriot Employer Act

Monday, February 17th, 2008

Niles, Ohio

We just had a great tour of the metal shop here at RTI and I got a chance to meet some of the workers. For generations, companies like this have not just been the backbone of Ohio's economy, but America's. From the products they make to the jobs that put food on the table of working families, they've helped make this country home to unrivaled opportunity and prosperity.

But in the last few decades, the thousands of jobs and companies that left America have put that promise in jeopardy. Too many factories have shut their doors. Too many workers have seen a lifetime of labor rewarded with a pink slip and a dumped pension as their job moves offshore.

We know that some of these changes are a result of forces we cannot control. Revolutions in communication and technology have made it easier for companies to send jobs wherever labor is cheapest, and that's something that cannot be reversed. So I'm not going to stand here and say that we can stop every job from going overseas. I don't believe that we can – or should – stop free trade.

But that doesn't mean we have to accept an America of diminished dreams and lost opportunities. That doesn't mean we can't make the global economy work for the best, most productive workers in the world. And that certainly doesn't mean we have to accept unfair trade deals like NAFTA or permanent trade with China that put special interests over worker's interests.

Few areas of the country have been hurt worse by these agreements than Ohio, which has lost nearly 50,000 jobs because of NAFTA and over 60,000 due to the growing trade deficit with China. In the last year alone, 93 plants have closed in this state. In some places, even the machines themselves are unbolted from the factory floor and shipped to China. And yet, year after year, politicians in Washington sign trade agreements that are riddled with perks for big corporations but have absolutely no protections for American workers. It's bad for our economy, it's bad for our country, and it will not happen when I am President.

Now, in the years after her husband signed NAFTA, Senator Clinton touted the trade agreement as First Lady and called it a victory in her book. She also supported permanent trade with China when she was running for Senate. But now that she's running for President, she say we need a time-out on trade. No one knows when this time-out will end. Maybe after the election.

Well I didn't just start criticizing unfair trade deals like NAFTA and China because I started running for office – I do it because I've seen what happens to a community when the factory closes down and the jobs move overseas. I began my career as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago, where we fought joblessness and poverty in neighborhoods that were devastated when the local steel plant closed. I've met with Maytag workers in Illinois who are now competing with their teenagers for jobs at Wal-Mart.

And it was partly a result of these experiences that I proposed an idea back in 2004 that I intend to make law as President. It's called the Patriot Employer Act, and it would cut taxes on companies that create good jobs here in America, maintain their corporate headquarters here, pay decent wages, prepare their workers for retirement, and provide their workers with health care. And instead we'll do something this country should've done a long time ago – we will end the tax breaks for those companies that ship our jobs overseas. We should not be giving incentives to corporations to move plants and workers overseas, we should be giving incentives to companies that want to invest in America's economy and America's future, and that's what I intend to do as President.

To help titanium plants like RTI, I'll also ensure that our military gets the precious metal materials it needs from American companies if they're available here in America. Because there's no reason our own government shouldn't be doing all the business it can right here in America. That's how plants like this one will stay strong for generations to come, and that's how America will stay strong in this new century.