Posted on 10/07/2006 3:56:30 AM PDT by Man50D
And you Globalists are simply defecating into the fan...here are some disconcerting facts the Globalists try and spin and deflect:
A losing battle: our industrial base
Experts hint that the decline of U.S. manufacturing, reliance on imports imperil future defense capabilities
Indianapolis Star 10/08/2006
Author: Ted EvanoffAmerican troops drive 10,000 Humvees in Iraq. But if the U.S. Army suddenly needed 10,000 more of the slab-sided trucks for the war, the Indiana factory that makes them could not soon deliver. Tooling and machine shops that supply critical Humvee parts, such as extra-large 3.5-inch shock absorber bolts, aren't prepared to gear up output quickly.
"The industrial base just isn't there if we ever had to surge production,'' said Craig Mac Nab, spokesman at South Bend-based AM General, whose cavernous 1,100- employee Mishawaka plant is the Humvee's sole producer.
It's not only army trucks the U.S. might have trouble producing in large numbers.
For the first time since America emerged as a first-rank war and industrial power in the 1890s, some U.S. military planners openly doubt the country's manufacturers can sustain the nation in a major war larger than the Iraq conflict.
"What kind of superpower are you if you can't make what you need?'' asked systems engineer Sheila Ronis, a lecturer at the Pentagon's Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
The decline of the Detroit auto industry and the rise of industrial China have decimated a supporting cast of die, machine, mold and tooling shops, a metalworks industry centered in Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Ohio.
For the same reason imported chairs, televisions and clothes fill American homes, imported parts appear in increasing volumes in military hardware. Imports cost less than homemade.
While no one is sure how many imported parts are used in weapons systems, a growing chorus of researchers and trade groups express concern. They warn the rise of imports and the demise of the metalworks trades threaten the nation's manufacturing base.
"If we needed to seriously increase our capacity for military goods, it'd be a real challenge,'' said Bruce Braker, president of the Tooling and Manufacturers Association. The trade group, in Park Ridge, Ill., represents 1,627 companies, down 25 percent in a decade.
Shakeout in Heartland
In Indiana alone, 20 percent of the 524 tool, die, mold and machine shops open in 1998 had closed by 2004, idling 36 percent of the state's 11,000 metalworks employees. Throughout the industrial Midwest, 1,991 metalworks plants closed and dismissed 80,000 workers in the same years, the U.S. Census Bureau's County Business Patterns reports show.
For three decades, union members have urged consumers to buy products made in the U.S., largely to save union jobs. Ronis, head of the consulting firm University Group in Birmingham, Mich., says the stakes are larger. She links Detroit's decline with national security.
It's a controversial point. Pentagon researchers regularly assess the nation's industrial base. Each year they deem it capable of supplying the armed forces. Even so, some senior commanders now echo Ronis.
"One area of utmost concern for the Defense Department and defense industry is manufacturing machine tools,'' wrote Lawrence Farrell Jr., a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general, in the February 2005 issue of National Defense magazine.
"There is a compelling case to be made," he wrote, "that both the federal government and the private sector need to step up their investments in manufacturing technology, so we can remain competitive with economic powerhouses such as Japan, Germany and China.''
Experience evaporating
America has enough factories. What's inside is in short supply -- experienced manufacturing engineers and talented machinists, diemakers and other highly skilled workers.
"We could ramp up production if we had to, but the problem would be finding experienced machinists. They aren't out there anymore,'' said Sam Reed, president of Reed Manufacturing Services, a 40- employee Franklin machine shop that supplies diesel and appliance makers.
No one expects a sudden turnaround, despite the Japanese automakers' expansion. Even as General Motors, Delphi and Ford set out to shed more than 40 factories between them, Honda and Toyota are investing heavily in the United States.
In Indiana, the two Japanese automakers will spend a combined $780 million on new car assembly lines employing 3,000 workers at Greensburg and Lafayette.
New jobs will help the economy, although Ronis says the new auto plants won't shore up the U.S. industrial base. While GM and Ford dismiss engineers, the Japanese automakers will engineer vehicle powertrains in Japan and obtain critical tooling there. She is concerned the United States' battered metalworking trades won't recover.
Since 1933, the Buy American Act has governed defense procurement. Last year, U.S. suppliers netted $79 billion in Pentagon contracts, compared with foreign firms' $1.9 billion.
However, Ronis, a director of the foundation supporting the Pentagon's National Defense University, contends America's weapons components supply chain now runs to China, France, Germany, Japan and other nations.
That's because U.S. companies spend an undisclosed share of that $79 billion on imported parts. As a result, China supplies as much as 10 percent of the parts for the U.S. Army's M1 Abrams main battle tank, Ronis suggested.
Overseas orders
If overseas supply lines were disrupted, U.S. manufacturers could step in. In many cases, though, engineers could not quickly scale up production. Much of the factory manufacturing equipment also comes from abroad.
In 2004, a third of the new U.S. metalworking machinery was imported, along with almost 46 percent of the process control instruments and nearly a quarter of the relays and industrial controls, reports the U.S. Business and Industry Council, a trade group in Washington that studies imports and exports.
"Imports may be the thing to do, but no one has asked the question, 'To what extent is a strong U.S.-located manufacturing base still vital to U.S. national security?' " said economist Alan Tonelson of the U.S. Business and Industry Council. The conservative trade group, based in Washington, favors import restrictions.
Pentagon planners divide into two groups. One emphasizes what is called systems integration -- as long as we know where in the world to buy the machinery and components, the U.S. can put it all together here.
A second group prizes U.S. manufacturing prowess. Some of these target Wall Street. They say manufacturers outsource merely for lower prices to meet Wall Street profit goals. Instead, some military planners argue, U.S. corporations no longer should report quarterly earnings. And U.S. tax incentives should encourage production and innovation in the United States.
Despite Detroit's decline, some metalworks plants thrive. In Indianapolis, Major Tool & Machine avoids automotive orders and focuses on defense, nuclear and aerospace.
Still, Jim Flanagan, president of the expanding 310-employee company, sees the industrial trend.
"This country,'' Flanagan said, "is losing its manufacturing edge.''
Exactly. HCON 487 IH is just the beginning. Having four congressmen, from four different states sponsoring the Resolution, begs for far more pressing questions that proves this isn't just another kooky blogsphere contrived conspiracy. |
That because the only thing you know about the corridors is what Corsi knows and what Kimby posts from the leftest websites. And that ain't much.
Based on your concept, we should return to an agricultural economy.
Other then an Open Border Lobbyist barking at the moon, you haven't shown this thread very much yourself, have you? |
Well, you still haven't answered my question yet. What have you done about the Arizona NAFTA highway. Does it bother you that your state govt sends trade mission to Mexico, trying to expand trade?
Gee, we have a goodly number of ex-Texans up here...
And its not just roads. We have to build power plants and reservoirs also.
And just how does your anti-Minnesota schtick amount to a hill of beans i net, since the White House and Mexico are determinedly letting in every Tom, Dick and Harry from south of the Rio Grande....
Maybe you should be thinking about building two fences around Minnesota. One to keep everything out and one to keep everyone in.
We have been guarding the border with Canada for 147 years. You have no idea of the terrors you have been protected from.
As for keeping everyone IN Minnesota that would be a rather Soviet Berlin Wall policy you seem to advocate....why am I not surprised...
Maybe I should repost my gif for him, lol.
Of course he wouldn't say anything. He's not in charge.
I am.
Yeah. Its called "markup". And the Chinese will soon be eliminating the Middle Man. Don't ask how.
So pretty soon you yourself will be wading across the Rio Grande as sung by Johhny Tex...
Think about it like this. When you go to the store to buy a cheap import, remember that included in the cost are the toll charges on the truck carrying it as it passed thru Texas.
Thank you so much for paying for our roads.
As you haven't answered mine, I don't have to answer ANY of your questions either! I don't care about Arizona's NAFTA highways or any other U.S. roads. I do care about illegal immigration. And no, it doesn't bother me that our state, or any other state sends trade missions to any part of the world. So what's your point...if, in fact you have any points? |
Which one?
The illegals lovers are here I see
So, a'hem. Have you noticed that foodstuffs and mostly raw materials are largely what China buys from us...while we are reduced to Third World status importing manufactured goods from them? So, let's say we try and evict you Globalists and your policies of destruction instead, restoring pre-Globaloney policies. We follow the general policies of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, Theodore Roosevelt etc... affirming our sovereignty. BUT OH NO!, we are supposed to believe your alarms that we will somehow suddenly get the opposite of what we in fact empirically did get?
LOL!
You Globalists just don't know when to quit.
Anyways, I note you totally blew off the adverse defense impacts which the Globalists said would never happen...
If you don't care about Arizona's NAFTA highway, why would you care about Texas' NAFTA highway.
I don't know if you guys get the secret memos but there's another guy in charge there soon. Fox has to give up the key to the (secret) executive washroom.
Third World status?
You guys are way too serious for us guys.
A hand-picked successor. Also all in favor of dumping their problems on US! Wooo-hooo!
And this is good for the UNITED STATES precisely how?
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