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Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Marijuana issue may go to ballot
The Ohio Ballot Board decided Wednesday that a proposed constitutional amendment concerning medical marijuana is a single issue.
The ruling clears the way for backers to begin collecting the required 385,253 valid voter signatures to make it onto the statewide ballot this fall. The amendment seeks to allow patients to legally use marijuana as a medical therapy.
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TweetOhio Sen. Brown responds to State of the Union
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) released the following statement tonight following President Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address:
“Tonight’s State of the Union address gave manufacturing the attention it deserves,” Brown said. “Manufacturing is the backbone of our economy, providing good-paying jobs and helping to lead our economic recovery. The auto rescue was not only critical to the Big Three, but to thousands of auto parts suppliers in Ohio. The next step is a national manufacturing strategy that enforces trade law, encourages clean energy innovation, and trains workers for emerging industries. Tonight’s speech helped lay the blueprint for a national manufacturing agenda that Democrats and Republicans can unite behind.”
Last year, Brown expressed dissatisfaction that the 2011 State of the Union Address didn’t focus enough on manufacturing. Brown called for a “real strategy” on manufacturing, and introduced The National Manufacturing Strategy Act of 2011. This bipartisan legislation, introduced with Rep. Mark Kirk (R-IL), would require the Commerce Secretary to conduct a comprehensive analysis of the nation’s manufacturing sector and submit to Congress a National Manufacturing Strategy.
The goals of the Strategy are to increase manufacturing jobs, identify emerging technologies to strengthen U.S. competitiveness, and strengthen the manufacturing sectors in which the U.S. is most competitive. In 2010, Brown led a bipartisan group of ten U.S. Senators in a letter to President Barack Obama urging the adoption of a national manufacturing strategy.
Throughout 2011, Brown traveled around Ohio meeting with manufacturers, small business owners, and workers as part of his “Made in Ohio Tour.” Described as “Congress’ leading proponent of American Manufacturing,” Brown has outlined six key imperatives for strengthening the manufacturing industry:
· Creating a business climate, through tax and health care policies, favorable to investment in manufacturing;
· Investing in the manufacturing capacity for national priorities such as clean energy and critical military equipment;
· Strengthening our component supply chains through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP);
· Matching dislocated workers with emerging industries through sector-based workforce training strategies;
· Making the research and development tax credit permanent to lend predictability to this crucial incentive for manufacturing innovation;
· Promoting exports and defending against unfair trade.
Tonight, the President outlined a “Blueprint for an America built to last,” supported by four pillars 1) American Manufacturing; 2) American Energy; 3) Skills for American Workers and 4) American Values.
Brown was joined at the President’s address this evening by Elizabeth Williams, a General Motors Lordstown autoworker and single mother of two. Earlier today on a news conference call, Brown discussed recent data compiled by the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) showing positive projections for new employment in Ohio’s auto industry. Brown outlined how the auto assistance not only stabilized Chrysler and General Motors, but helped save and add manufacturing jobs throughout the State of Ohio.
Despite growth in the auto industry and overall manufacturing jobs growth for the past nine consecutive quarters, a recent National Science Board report showed a 28 percent loss of high-tech manufacturing jobs in the United States. American manufacturers, including the auto industry, face unfair foreign competition - particularly from China. Since the U.S. established permanent normal trade relations with China and China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, the United States’ deficit with China on auto parts trade has increased ten-fold, from $1.03 billion in 2001 to a projected $10.27 billion in 2011. Brown is urging the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the Currency Exchange and Oversight Reform Act, bipartisan legislation authored by Brown that represents the biggest bipartisan jobs bill—at no cost to U.S. taxpayers—passed by the Senate last year.
TweetU.S. Rep. Jim Jordan responds to State of the Union
Congressman Jim Jordan (R-Urbana) issued the following statement in response to President Obama’s State of the Union Address:
“The President missed a great opportunity tonight to put the campaign rhetoric aside and commit to supporting common sense solutions that will help get our economy back on track. The American people want us to work on simplifying the tax code, producing more American energy, and stopping the onslaught of new federal regulations that are creating uncertainty and economic stagnation.”
“Instead, President Obama is pledging to double-down on his failed plan of more government, more job-killing regulations, more borrowing, more debt, and higher taxes.”
“There are almost 30 jobs bills, passed by the House and waiting for action in the Senate. The President would do better to urge his former Senate colleagues to debate and vote on some of our jobs bills, which will jumpstart our economy.”
TweetOhio Sen. Portman responds to State of the Union
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-Ohio) today issued the following response to President Obama’s third State of the Union address:
“I had hoped to hear President Obama lay out an alternative vision to the same failed policies of expanded government and more spending. With nearly 22 million Americans unemployed or underemployed, and a $15 trillion national debt, we need a new course. Americans cannot afford to wait any longer for the pro-growth policies that will lead to job creation.
“As a longtime proponent of tax reform, I looked forward to hearing the president talk about pro-growth tax reform along the lines recommended by his own Jobs Council just last week. Instead he seems to view individual tax reform as just another vehicle for higher taxes on job creators. On corporate taxes, I was pleased to hear the president express the need for reform. The right approach to make America more competitive requires lower rates, ending loopholes and preferences, and a territorial system that puts U.S. workers and businesses on a level playing field. This can be done in a revenue-neutral way. Taxing companies that do business overseas more will hurt job growth in America.
“A more efficient tax system will not solve the problem alone. I was concerned that, with Washington’s record debt and deficits, President Obama did not talk about the need for Washington to control spending. With the debt now larger than the nation’s economy, we heard little tonight when it came to real plans to save our growing entitlement system from bankruptcy and insolvency.
“I also would have liked to hear his reason for rejecting the Keystone XL pipeline, one of the largest private sector infrastructure projects in the nation. This project would create tens of thousands of jobs, and would likely have benefited Ohio’s struggling manufacturing sector.
“President Obama should live up to his past promises to change the tone in Washington and work with Republicans to turn the economy around. That means less time campaigning, no more delays in putting forward a budget - a serious one this time - and more time focused on the issues so that Washington can fix our cumbersome tax system while enacting regulatory reform to remove barriers to job creation, an energy plan to reduce our reliance on foreign oil, and health care reform to expand access and reduce costs.”
TweetSpeaker Boehner responds to State of the Union
Congressman John Boehner (R-West Chester Twp.) issued the following statement tonight in response to the president’s State of the Union address and the Republican Address to the Nation:
“Job creation is the driving issue for working families, but President Obama largely ignored the fact that his own failed policies are making our economy worse. Unable to run on his record, the president has regrettably turned to blame and division when what’s needed is a united effort to promote small business job creation.
“As someone who’s run a small business, I heard little tonight in the way of new ideas or a plan to remove government barriers that are hurting private-sector job creation, only more of the same. Republicans have a Plan for America’s Job Creators - an alternative to the president’s failed policies - and it’s time for Senate Democrats to allow a vote on our bipartisan jobs bills. Republicans will also continue pushing for the Keystone project, which the president did not mention tonight despite his recent decision to destroy 20,000 American jobs.
“It’s always an honor to welcome the President of the United States for the State of the Union. I only wish, with so many still asking ‘where are the jobs?,’ that the president had honored the people’s desire for results and accountability. In stark contrast, Governor Mitch Daniels told it like it is, and made clear the challenges we face require honesty, leadership, and solutions that get government out of the way so our economy can get back to creating jobs.”
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