Valley could benefit from manufacturing emphasis touted by Obama

For many years, Mission resident Joe Quiroz never had to search hard for work.

Then, eventually, the work ran out.

Quiroz, 45, struggled to find work in finish carpentry, an industry battered in preceding years by the recession, plummeting home values and a lack of consumer confidence. The decline led Quiroz’s usual word-of-mouth sources for work to disappear and sent him scrambling for help at Workforce Solutions, where officials have been assisting him with his job search.

“It’s been a relief. For a while, I was worried about where did all the jobs go,” Quiroz said Tuesday during a short break from scouring the Internet for work. “The jobs are still there if you know where to look.”

Speaking to millions of unemployed Americans in danger of losing confidence in the American dream, President Barack Obama used his third State of the Union address as a platform to convince voters of his vision for mending the economy that is vastly different than his GOP colleagues.

• Analysis: Obama speech puts him in campaign arena
• Obama challenges: Shrink gap between rich, poor

With Congress grid-locked in an election year, Obama sought to sell his vision of a government that ensures basic economic fairness over free market rule. He described a “blueprint for an economy that’s built to last … on American manufacturing, American energy, skills for American workers and a renewal of American values.”

But Republicans on the presidential campaign trail and in Congress said the speech was another example of failed leadership under Obama.

U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Corpus Christi, said Obama’s “failed tax-and-spend policies” have resulted in “high unemployment, high gas prices, high taxes and a decrease in America’s credit rating” in the first three years of his administration. He said America’s version of a fair share “means equal opportunity and a level playing field, not equal results through wealth distribution.”

“This is a make-or-break moment for America, but the real key to moving forward and rebuilding our economy will be when we rely on our founding principle of hard work and begin to remove the barriers that stand in the way of job creators ready and willing to put Americans back to work,” Farenthold said.

With the economy likely to decide November’s election, Obama outlined his vision for repairing it based on a return to American manufacturing.

Valley economic development officials have expressed renewed optimism about the local economy, driven in part by a strengthening manufacturing sector. Valley manufacturers, heavily dependent on cross-border ties with the Mexican maquila industry, have steadily ramped up production of raw materials and other components used to supply the factories.

Obama proposed creating tax breaks to incentivize American manufacturing and eliminating deductions for companies that outsource jobs. He also pledged to open new markets across the world for American products, beginning with new trade agreements signed into law with Panama, Colombia and South Korea.

U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, said the address provided a roadmap to build a stronger economy focused on the middle class.

American energy investments — another component of Obama’s address — have resulted in new job opportunities in South Texas, from the massive Eagle Ford shale to wind farms along the coastal regions, Cuellar said. The country is also creating jobs in American manufacturing for the first time since the 1990s.

“The United States is known for building and creating things, but when have we last talked about American manufacturing?” Cuellar said. “It’s been a long time but it’s an upward movement.”

Texas unemployment dropped to 7.8 percent in December, its lowest rate since the summer of 2009. Although Rio Grande Valley employers have steadily added jobs month over month, the unemployment rate in both the McAllen and Brownsville areas stood at 11.2 percent, the highest in the state.

But after taking office amid historic job losses, the Obama administration has overseen an economy that’s added 3.2 million private sector jobs in less than two years — “proof (the president’s) vision is working,” said U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa, D-Mercedes. While the European financial crisis clouds the future, America has a recovering stock market and improved consumer confidence.

In McAllen, a new research park under way to promote rapid response manufacturing will create jobs and a skilled workforce, Hinojosa said. A job fair his office hosted in November at the State Farm Arena brought some 3,000 jobs with many of them filled.

“President Obama wants to build an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy,” Hinojosa said. “We must keep the middle class strong and be fair when it comes to taxation. We will do that by working hard to create a climate for business, build a quality workforce and expand on our infrastructural needs as we grow.”

Outside of the economy, Obama also highlighted the withdrawal of troops from Iraq and the death of Osama bin Laden. He said comprehensive immigration reform would be derailed by election-year politics but voiced support for the DREAM Act, the legislation that provides a path to citizenship for young people who agree to attend college or join the military.

“Send me a law that gives them the right to earn their citizenship,” Obama said. “I will sign it right away.”

Obama briefly referred to the U.S.-Mexico border, saying he’s put more boots on the ground than before, contributing to fewer illegal crossings than when he took office. But Eagle Pass Mayor Ramsey Cantu, the chairman of the Texas Border Coalition, said Obama should have promoted a border security strategy targeting a weakness at the nation’s legal border crossings.

He said Mexican drug cartels continue to smuggle record numbers of drugs through those crossings without a cohesive strategy to confront them.

“A sensible approach would be to attack the drug smuggling operations where they occur and anticipate where they might move in response — a strategy that requires greater federal investment in more U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel and technology,” he said.

--

Jared Janes covers Hidalgo County government, Edinburg and legislative issues for The Monitor. He can be reached at jjanes@themonitor.com and (956) 683-4424.

--

TWITTER
Follow Jared Janes on Twitter: @moncounty