Who Stole the American Dream? (73 page)
Read Who Stole the American Dream? Online
Authors: Hedrick Smith
63
In its defense doctrine
Preble,
Power Problem
, 29.
64
“America has underwritten global security”
Obama, “The Way Forward.” 370 “America cannot act alone” President Barack Obama, Nobel Prize speech, Oslo, Norway, December 10, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov
.
65
With a monopoly of atomic weapons
Kennedy,
Great Powers
, 357–59.
66
“Reagan severed the connection”
Andrew J. Bacevich,
The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism
(New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2008), 28–30, 36–40.
67
The nation’s pre-recession global trade deficits
Census Bureau, “Trade in Goods with World, Seasonally Adjusted,” accessed April 11, 2012, shows U.S. global trade deficit of $808.8 billion in 2007 and $828.0 billion in 2006,
http://www.census.gov/foreign-trade/balance/c0004.html
.
68
A doubling of the overall defense budget
Thomas Christie and Pierre M. Sprey, letter to Erskine Bowles, co-chair, National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, November 15, 2010; Winslow Wheeler, “Ignorance Is Not Bliss,”
Defense Monitor
, March 2011,
www.cdi.org
.
69
To nearly $1 trillion a year
Winslow Wheeler, “U.S. Security Total Budget,” Center for Defense Information, email, August 22, 2011,
http://www.cdi.org
.
70
Calculated that U.S. defense spending
Preble,
Power Problem;
Christie and Sprey, letter to Erskine Bowles.
71
“It has been a common dilemma”
Kennedy,
Great Powers
, 533.
72
America’s challenge
Ibid., 514–15.
73
“To amass military power”
Eisenhower, State of the Union Address, February 2, 1953.
74
“We pay for a single destroyer”
President Dwight Eisenhower, “The Chance for Peace,” speech to American Society of Newspaper Editors, April 16, 1953.
75
“Instead of fighting this war”
Barack Obama, campaign speech, Charleston, WV, March 20, 2008,
http://www.cfr.org
.
76
“That is enough”
Hillary Clinton, campaign speech, George Washington University, Washington, DC, March 15, 2008,
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu
.
77
“Afghanistan is no longer a war”
Leslie Gelb, “Mission Accomplished,”
The Wall Street Journal
, May 9, 2011.
78
The Arc of Danger
Congressional Research Service, “State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs: FY2012 Budget and Appropriations,” November 23, 2011,
fpc.state.gov
; Walter Pincus, “U.S. Military Presence Will Continue in Iraq,”
The Washington Post
, November 21, 2011; Daniel Froomkin, “Massive U.S. Embassy Will Expand Further as Soldiers Leave,”
Huff-Post World
, September 16, 2011,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
.
79
“The smallest footprint necessary”
Thom Shanker and Charlie Savage, “After Bin Laden, U.S. Reassesses Afghan Strategy,”
The New York Times
, May 10, 2011.
1
“A free people ought”
Alfred E. Eckes, Jr.,
Opening America’s Market: U.S. Foreign Trade Policy Since 1776
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992), 2.
2
“Today, our most important task”
Susan Hockfield, “Manufacturing a Recovery,”
The New York Times
, August 29, 2011.
3
“The social contract”
Leslie H. Gelb, “What Germany’s Economy Can Teach Obama,”
The Daily Beast
, June 5, 2011,
http://www.thedailybeast.com
.
4
A dramatic increase
Two-thirds of Americans see “sharp conflicts” between rich and poor, a jump of nearly 20 percent in just two years. See “Rising Share of Americans See Conflict Between Rich and Poor,” Pew Research Center.
5
Advocating a comeback for manufacturing
Michael A. Fletcher and David Nakamura, “For Factories, 2012 Brings a Happier Tune,”
The Washington Post
, February 16, 2012.
6
A domestic Marshall Plan
Horizon Project, “Report and Recommendations.”
7
“Job creation must be the number one objective”
Grove, “How America Can Create Jobs.” Grove was co-founder of Intel in 1979, CEO 1987–1997, and chairman 1997–1998.
8
Spence has documented how global competition
Michael Spence and Sandile Hlatshwayo, “The Evolving Structure of the American Economy and the Employment Challenge,” working paper, Council on Foreign Relations, March 2011, 1, 4–5, 12–13, 31–32.
http://www.cfr.org
.
9
America needs “to devote public funding”
Michael Spence, “The Impact of Globalization on Income and Employment: The Downside of Integrating Markets,”
Foreign Affairs
90, no. 4 (July–August 2011).
10
“They should promote such manufactories”
George Washington, cited in Eckes,
Opening America’s Market
, 2.
11
“Manufactures are now as necessary”
Thomas Jefferson, letter to Benjamin Austin, January 1, 1816,
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson
, vol. vi, edited by
H. A. Washington. (New York: Riker, Thorne & Co., Washington: Taylor & Maury, 1855), 520–23.
http://books.google.com/books?id=NDg-AAAAYAAJ&lpg=PA520&ots=w3Damr1zCP&dq=To%20Benjamin%20Austin%2C%20Esq.Monticello%2C%20January%209%2C%201816&pg=PR1#v=onepage&q&f=false
.
12
American history is replete with examples
For a broad, detailed discussion, see Prestowitz,
Betrayal of American Prosperity
, 50–61, 76–78.
13
In 1842, Congress awarded Samuel F. B. Morse
Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, “House History: Electronic Technology in the House of Representatives: ‘What Hath God Wrought’: House of Representatives and the Telegraph.”
http://artandhistory.house.gov/house_history/technology/telegraph.aspx
.
14
Reagan administration put political pressure on
Clyde Prestowitz, email, December 10, 2011.
15
To create “precompetitive” technologies
Prestowitz,
Betrayal of American Prosperity
, 103–09.
16
So there was ample precedent
“Obama Advisor Bloom to Depart,”
The Wall Street Journal
, August 9, 2011.
17
“Virtually everything Jobs has developed”
Prestowitz,
Betrayal of American Prosperity
, 287.
18
“We invented products and then made them”
Susan Hockfield, “Manufacturing a Recovery,”
The New York Times
, August 11, 2011.
19
“We broke the chain of experience”
Grove, “How America Can Create Jobs.”
20
The German economy has grown faster
David Leonhardt, “The German Example,”
The New York Times
, June 8, 2011; Robert Reich, “The Limping Middle Class,”
The New York Times
, Sunday Review, September 4, 2011.
21
Germany generated $2 trillion in trade surpluses
German Office of Federal Statistics, “Foreign Trade Data,” Statistisches Bundesamt, Deutschland, 2011,
http://www.destatis.de
.
22
The United States racked up $6 trillion in trade deficits
U.S. Census Bureau, “U.S. Trade in Goods and Services, Balance of Payment Basis,” Foreign Trade Division, June 9, 2011,
www.census.gov
.
23
The German model shows
Steven Rattner, “The Secrets of Germany’s Success,”
Foreign Affairs
90, no. 4 (July–August 2011).
24
Marquee brands and precision machine tools
Census Bureau, “U.S. Trade”; and German Office of Federal Statistics, “Foreign Trade Data.” 387 “It’s because we stuck to manufacturing” Marcus Walker, “Is Germany Turning into the Strong Silent Type?”
The Wall Street Journal
, July 27, 2011.
25
“The social contract”
Gelb, “What Germany’s Economy Can Teach Obama.”
26
“German unions also agreed”
Harold Meyerson, “Two Cheers for Germany,”
The Washington Post
, June 28, 2011; Nicholas Kulish, “Defying Others, Germany Finds Economic Success,”
The New York Times
, August 13, 2010; John Schmitt, “Labor Market Policy in the Great Recession: Some
Lessons from Denmark and Germany,” Center for Economic and Policy Research, May 2011,
http://www.cepr.net
.
27
German companies shortened everyone’s workweek
Rattner, “Germany’s Success.”
28
A long-term structural jobs problem
Horizon Project, “Report and Recommendations.”
29
Modernize America’s outdated transportation networks
Building America’s Future Educational Fund, “Falling Apart and Falling Behind: Transportation Infrastructure Report 2011,” 5,
www.bafuture.org
.
30
Backing from such traditional political adversaries
Office of Senator John F. Kerry, “U.S. Chamber, AFL-CIO Urge Infrastructure Bank, BUILD Act Creates Jobs, Strengthens Competitiveness,” March 15, 2011,
http://kerry.senate.gov
.
31
The United States has fallen from No. 1
World Economic Forum, “The Global Competitiveness Report 2011,” table 6,
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GCR_2010–11.pdf
.
32
An estimated cost of $115 billion
Building America’s Future, “Falling Apart,” 11, 16–35.
33
It will “never be cheaper”
Daniel Alpert, Robert Hockett, and Nouriel Roubini, “The Way Forward,” New America Foundation, October 2011, 15–16,
http://www.newamerica.net
.
34
A win-win for all sides
Ibid., 17–18.
35
Put five million young people to work
Leo Hindery, Jr., and Leo W. Gerard, “A Vision for Economic Renewal: An American Jobs Agenda,”
Huffington Post
, July 22, 2011,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com
.
36
A “gathering storm”
National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine,
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Energizing and Employing America for a Brighter Economic Future
(Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2007);
Rising Above the Gathering Storm, Revisited: Rapidly Approaching Category 5
(Washington, D.C.: National Academy Press, 2010), 2, 5.
37
Scientists date the American slide
Evan Osnos, “Green Giant—Beijing,”
The New Yorker
, December 21, 2009. Osnos’s statistics come from the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
38
The United States fell to No. 4
Robert D. Atkinson and Scott M. Andes, “The Atlantic Century II: Benchmarking EU and U.S. Innovation and Competitiveness,” Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, July 2011,
http://www.itif.org
.
39
China in 2008 surpassed the United States
Alan L. Porter, Nils C. Newman, Xiao-Yin Jin, et al., “High Tech Indicators: Technology-Based Competitiveness of 33 Nations” (Atlanta, GA: Technology Policy and Assessment Center, Georgia Tech University, 2008),
http://www.tpac.gatech.edu
.
40
Ranked the United States fifth
“U.S. Falls to 5th in Global Competitiveness, Survey Shows,” Associated Press, September 7, 2011.
41
The trends in patents
National Academy of Sciences,
Gathering Storm, Revisited
.
42
The United States will soon be importing
Rob Atkinson, Michael Shellenberger, Ted Nordhaus, et al., “Rising Tigers, Sleeping Giant: Asian Nations Set to Dominate the Clean Energy Race by Out-Investing the United States,” Breakthrough Institute and Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, November 2009,
http://www.thebreakthrough.org
.
43
It will take dramatically expanding government funding
National Academy of Sciences,
Gathering Storm
, appendix E, recommendations called for $13 billion a year in government spending for a decade, starting in 2007.
44
Obama provided a kick start
President Barack Obama, remarks, National Academy of Sciences, April 27, 2009; “Fact Sheet: A Historic Commitment to Research and Education,” April 27, 2009,
http://www.whitehouse.gov
.
45
Obama put $400 million
Matthew L. Wald, “Energy Firms Aided by U.S. Find Backers,”
The New York Times
, February 2, 2011.
46
Government has to be much smarter
“FBI Raids Solar-Panel Maker,”
The Wall Street Journal
, September 9, 2011; “In Rush to Assist a Solar Company, U.S. Missed Signs,”
The New York Times
, September 22, 2011; “Rich Subsidies Powering Solar and Wind Projects,”
The New York Times
, November 12, 2011.
47
“Many bought into the idea”
Jeffrey R. Immelt, “An American Renewal,” Detroit Economic Club, June 26, 2009; Steve Lohr, “G.E. Goes with What It Knows: Making Stuff,”
The New York Times
, December 4, 2010.
48
“Without an industrial base”
Richard McCormack, “The Plight of American Manufacturing,”
American Prospect
, December 21, 2009,
http://prospect.org
.
49
“You cannot survive as a nation”
Leo Hindery, Jr., interview, June 28, 2011.
50
Fifty-nine thousand factories were shut down
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
Quarterly Census of Employment & Wages (QCEW) Database
, accessed January 20, 2012,
http://www.bls.gov
.
51
“Close a manufacturing plant”
McCormack, “Plight of American Manufacturing.”
52
Booz Allen Hamilton predicted
Booz Allen Hamilton, “The Green Jobs Study,” U.S. Green Building Council, November 12, 2009,
http://www.boozallen.com
.
53
More modest job growth
“Clean Power, Green Jobs,” Union of Concerned Scientists, March 2009,
http://www.ucsusa.org
; Robert Pollin, James Heintz, and Heidi Garrett-Peltier, “The Economic Benefits of Investing in Clean Energy,” Center for American Progress, June 2009,
http://www.americanprogress.org
; Steven Greenhouse, “Millions of Jobs of a Different Collar,”
The New York Times
, March 23, 2008.
54
The test is whether
Grove, “How America Can Create Jobs. ” 394 The Alliance for American Manufacturing Hindery and Gerard, “Vision for Economic Renewal.”
55
The alliance wants the government
“Our Plan,” Alliance for American Manufacturing, August 15, 2011,
http://www.americanmanufacturing.org
.
56
Two recent high-profile cases
David Barboza, “Bridge Comes to San Francisco with a Made-in-China Label,”
The New York Times
, June 26, 2011; Annys Shin, “As Chinese Workers Build the Martin Luther King Memorial, a Union Investigates,”
The Washington Post
, November 23, 2010.
57
George W. Bush tax cuts
Fieldhouse and Pollack, “Tenth Anniversary of the Bush-Era Tax Cuts.” Thomas L. Hungerford, “Changes in the Distribution of Income Among Tax Filers Between 1996 and 2006: The Role of Labor Income, Capital Income, and Tax Policy,” Congressional Research Service, December 29, 2011,
fpc.state.gov
. Edmund L. Andrews, “Tax Cuts Offer Most for Very Rich, Study Says,”
The New York Times
, January 8, 2007.
58
Large majorities of the public favor
Bruce Bartlett, “23 Polls Say People Support Higher Taxes to Reduce the Deficit,” Capital Gains and Games, August 10, 2011,
http://www.capitalgainsandgames.com
; “Poll Shows Americans Oppose Entitlement Cuts to Deal with Debt Problem,”
The Washington Post
, April 20, 2011; CNN poll, August 5–7, 2011; Gallup poll, August 10, 2011.
59
An alternative idea is to
Fieldhouse and Pollack, “Bush-Era Tax Cuts.” 395 Estimated the tax loss to Charles Rossotti, former IRS commissioner, interview, October 27, 2003.
60
“They are very decent people”
Warren Buffett, “Stop Coddling the Super-Rich,”
The New York Times
, August 15, 2011.