A year ago on this page, we cautioned that the enormous cost of the financial industry bail-outs and the stimulus plan would sharply curtail US President Barack Obama's ability to push for investment spending and for healthcare and entitlement reform. We felt that by further exploding our federal debt and our reliance on foreign capital, our economic security would decline, especially vis-à-vis China.
Our remedy was simple: focus all energy on creating the 19m jobs needed for near-full employment. We were convinced that only a jobs-based strategy and a reinvigorated manufacturing sector could maintain living standards, enable us to continue to project leadership around the world and produce enough wealth to pay off our new debts and President George W. Bush's $11,000bn debt legacy.
Well, we now need to create 21m jobs and any honest assessment would conclude that we still don't have that jobs-based strategy. There are no long-term plans to support manufacturing and accelerate productivity growth, and we have not embedded in our stimulus efforts a commitment to healthy, well-educated and well-trained workers. We have also not yet taken the steps needed to correct misguided trade policies that have left American exporters confronting a legion of illegal subsidies, currency manipulation, and out-of-balance buy-domestic requirements and environmental standards.