America is the "laughing stock of the global community" on trade

[idlisambar]

"Our country is in a crisis. Our country is hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs. The United States ends up looking like a laughing stock of the global community for not standing up for our own manufacturers."

It's old news (dated from May)...

http://www.mlive.com/news/statewide/index.ssf?/base/news-4/108309840241150.xml

...but it's such a nice quote from our up and comer Jennifer Granholm -- it pretty much captures the essence of America's policies on industry and trade. I don't know if it got an airing here on this forum.

With our current account deficit moving toward $600 billion, and growing faster than our GDP, it is not an exaggeration to say that the U.S. is not just losing jobs it's losing industrial capacity. Even with a drastic reduction in the value of the dollar, it is likely we would still be operating in a deficit, as many of our exports depend on the import of foreign components and machine tools.

Granholm's suggestions are the standard ones (mirrored by Kerry) -- enforce trade aggreements, reduce health care costs, etc. and I am not sure they are going to be enough. Our manufacturers need stronger medicine than this, not to mention a stronger leash.

In my view, progressives don't give this issue adequate attention -- it's not sexy but it's a political winner. It fits right in with the theme of "A Stronger America" -- the loss of our manufacturing base is not just an issue of jobs, it goes to the heart of our economic strength as a nation, and the foundation of our wealth. This is an angle that even people who don't fear the loss of their job might appreciate.