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Interview by Enterprise Minnesota
What are your thoughts about the role of manufacturing in Minnesota and the role government should play to help us get out of this recession?
It‟s encouraging to hear that close to 80 percent of the companies surveyed last year were optimistic about their own futures. It‟s consistent with the message I‟m hearing from companies in my district, a few of which I‟ve visited in recent months. It‟s encouraging to find these little nuggets or jewels out there about high-tech manufacturing that exist, which can be attributed to Minnesota‟s success story, the medical device industry in particular. I‟m co-chair of the medical technology caucus here in the House, so I‟ve been trying each week to tour a medical device or technology company and I‟m learning something new all the time. The government should be paying more attention to how we can help our manufacturing or small business community as a whole more than anything.
The number-one concern among small manufacturers is health care. So many of these companies take great pride in being able to provide great benefits, which gives them a competitive advantage – even more so now at this time. What are your thoughts on what’s happening in the world of health care and the changes that are being pondered, and how it will or won’t affect these businesses?
I‟m really worried that the approach Congress is taking with health care is not going to be helpful to small businesses because there are additional penalties, mandates, and additional surtaxes that will be components of the bill. I think we should first and foremost work on lowering health care premiums, not only for small business but also for families and individuals. The House bill improves access the health care and it does that through subsidies, which is why the bill is so expensive. When seven out of 10 jobs are created by small business, we need to help them by allowing them to pool together to spread out risk and extend their own access to care, which will keep their own costs down. That‟s not a component of the bill we passed, even though there‟s strong bi-partisan support for moving toward that initiative on its own. There are some common sense things that aren‟t in the mix of the congressional leadership‟s plan, which is a little bit frustrating to me.
What can lawmakers or manufacturers do to elevate or change manufacturing’s image and importance in the minds of the public, and attract the skilled labor they’re going to need in this economic recovery?
It‟s really exciting when I visit one of these small medical technology companies. They‟re going through a manufacturing process that‟s really high-tech, meeting vigorous clean and testing standards, ultimately having to pass muster with the FDA. Even though certain manufacturing may be moved off-shore, this high tech, value-added manufacturing is still being done right here at home. Of course, they‟re struggling in a tough economic time, without a doubt. But I‟m really excited about what‟s happening with these companies.
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