REFORM PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
3281 North Meadow Mine Place
Tucson, AZ 85745
Tucson, AZ -- While America mourns the tremendous loss of September 11th, and subsequent losses on all fronts from bio-warfare terrorism, to losses in the financial markets, the airlines, hotel, tourism and related industries, yet another great loss has been added to the heap: the recent bankruptcy of Pennsylvania’s Bethlehem Steel,” said Gerry Moan, chairman of the Reform Party USA.
“The loss of jobs from the fallout of recent terrorist attacks has reached the tens of thousands and is truly devastating to comprehend, but no single industry has been terrorized as brutally as our manufacturing base, and at the hands of our own politicians.”
Pat Choate, Crafted with Pride in the USA Council campaign manager and former chairman of the RPUSA, said, “During the past year, America lost almost 1 million manufacturing jobs. Today, manufacturing employment in the United States stands at the same level it did almost 40 years ago. We think the loss of these good-quality, high-paying jobs matters.”
Since 1992, the RPUSA has warned Americans of the “great swooshing sound,” as Chris Hollenden, Chairman of the Reform Party of Pennsylvania, called it. “To management the swooshing sound is lost growth. To stockholders, it’s lost profits and asset values.
To labor, it’s lost jobs. To retirees, lost benefits. To municipal officials, budget shortfalls. To state officials, increases in unemployment compensation. To consumers, less competition and higher taxes. And to the nation, a weakened defense,” he said.
“Manufacturing assures our national defense,” Choate added. “It makes possible our global leadership. It undergirds the living standards of more than 17 million American workers and their families.” He said that Abraham Lincoln believed that “a nation that sells raw material will grow ignorant and poor, while the people who manufacture will grow intelligent and rich.”
“Today our nation is urgently, and justifiably, focused on homeland security and anthrax,” added Moan, “but until the two major parties see the direct link between their foolish free trade policies and our weakened common defense, we will never see real security in our homeland.”
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http://reformparty.org/NewsViews/2001/pr10_26_01.html