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Obama at Intel: America, make more stuff

The president makes a case for bringing more manufacturing jobs home to the U.S. when he spoke at Intel's Chandler, Ariz., manufacturing facility.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
Brooke Crothers
3 min read
President Obama speaking at Intel's Chandler, Arizona chip plant, now under construction. 'I'm here because the factory being built behind me is an example of an American that is within our reach...An America where we make stuff and sell stuff all over the world.'
President Obama speaking at Intel's Chandler, Arizona chip plant, now under construction. 'I'm here because the factory being built behind me is an example of an American that is within our reach...An America where we make stuff and sell stuff all over the world.' whitehouse.gov

President Obama paid a visit to Intel's Chandler, Ariz., chip plant today, praising the chipmaker for keeping high-tech manufacturing jobs in the U.S.

Here are some excerpts from his remarks. The event was streamed live at whitehouse.gov.

An America that makes more: "I'm here because the factory being built behind me is an example of an America that is within our reach. An America that attracts that next generation of good manufacturing jobs. An America where we make stuff and sell stuff all over the world...We can't go back to a economy weakened by outsourcing. And last night in the State of the Union, I laid out a vision of how we move forward. Laid out a blue print of an economy built to last. It's an economy built on American manufacturing with more good jobs and more products made in America."

Incentives to create domestic jobs: "This [Intel] project is going to employ thousands of construction workers [and] when this project is finished, Intel will employ about a thousand men and woman making the computer chips that power everything from your smartphone to your laptop to your car. As an American, I'm proud of companies like Intel that create jobs here. We have a huge opportunity to create more high-tech manufacturing jobs in the United States and bring back some of these jobs from overseas but we're going to have to seize the moment."

Obama continued. "That starts with changing our tax system. Right now, companies get all kinds of tax breaks when they move jobs and companies overseas but when a company chooses to stay in America, it gets hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. That doesn't make sense. Let's stop rewarding business that ship jobs overseas, let's reward companies that are investing and creating jobs right here in the United States of America...What we should do is subsidize and give tax breaks to companies that are investing here. High tech manufacturers like Intel. Today my administration is laying out several concrete actions we could take right now that would discourage companies from outsourcing jobs and encourage them to invest in the United States."

U.S. auto industry: "It starts with manufacturing...Look what's happened to the auto industry. On the day I took office it was on the verge of collapse. Some people said we should let it die, but we had a million jobs at stake, and I refused to let that happen. And, so, we said to the auto companies, in exchange for help we're going to demand responsibility. We've got to make sure that industry retools and restructures and that's what they did. Over the last two years, the entire industry has added 160,000 jobs. GM is No. 1 in the world again, Ford is investing in new plants, Chrysler is on the mend."

Engineering jobs: "Because [Intel is] supporting science and math education, they're helping to train new engineers. Paul [Otellini] (who is a member of Obama's jobs council) is chairing a project initiated through the jobs council. We're looking to get thousands of new engineers all across America. We can use more engineers."

Note: One of the cranes in the background (see photo above) is the largest land-based crane in the world and can lift up to 4,000 tons.