Harris lays out manufacturing framework in Pittsburgh
Vice President Harris on Wednesday announced a framework for her manufacturing agenda, which she said was aimed at “making sure America, not China, wins the competition for the 21st century.”
Her plan is to increase investments in biomanufacturing, aerospace, artificial intelligence, quantum computing, blockchain and other emerging technologies.
She also said she would offer tax credits to companies who expand “good union jobs in steel and iron and manufacturing,” to support existing workers and factory towns.
She said she would work to eliminate degree requirements while increasing skills development and also call on the private sector to emphasize skills and not only degrees for workers.
“One of the recurring themes in American history is that when we make an intentional effort to invest in our industrial strength, it leads to extraordinary prosperity and security, not only for years but for generations,” the vice president said in remarks at the Economic Club of Pittsburgh, Pa.
“Across all these industries of the future, we will prioritize investments for strengthening factory towns… retooling existing factories, hiring locally, and working with unions. Because no one who grows up in America’s great industrial or agricultural centers should be abandoned,” she said.
The address was given in Pennsylvania, perhaps the key state in the race between Harris and former President Trump.
Harris suggested the U.S. can’t afford to fall behind China in making changes to its manufacturing sector to make it more competitive.
“China is not moving slowly, they’re not. And we can’t afford to either,” she said. “As president, if things are not moving quickly, I will demand to know why and I will act, I will work with Congress, workers and businesses…to reform permitting, to cut red tape and get things moving faster.”
Harris bashed Trump throughout her remarks, calling him “one of the biggest losers ever on manufacturing,” in part because he promised to build factories but some were scaled back like the Foxconn facility in Wisconsin.
She also argued that Trump’s economic agenda would weaken the economy and hurt working people.
“For Donald Trump, our economy works best if it works for those who own the big skyscrapers, not those who actually build them, not those who wire them, not those who mop the floors. I have a very different vision for our economy,” she said.
Trump gave an economic-focused speech earlier this week, also in Pennsylvania. He spoke about his plan to use tariffs to help U.S. industries, and threatened Illinois-based John Deere with massive tariffs on its products if it outsources some of its manufacturing to Mexico, as it had previously announced.
In a statement, the Trump campaign criticized Harris’s address.
“Kamala Harris is right about one thing — it’s time to turn the page,” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “She’s had three and a half years to prove herself, and she has failed. Personal savings are down, credit card debt is up, small business optimism is at a record-low, and people are struggling to afford homes, groceries, and gas.”
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