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WARREN -- Democratic presidential candidate Timothy J. Ryan has released his full vision to strengthen the U.S. manufacturing sector and the middle class, in part by creating an executive-level chief manufacturing office.
The plan also calls for expanding apprenticeship programs, doubling union membership and "rebuilding forgotten cities and Rust Belt counties" by creating an infrastructure development fund to leverage public and private dollars on transportation and infrastructure projects, according to his campaign.
In addition, Ryan wants to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour and expand venture capital investment to distressed communities.
"We must invest in new industries, especially the technology sector, which is building the foundation for a new era of American industrial supremacy," Ryan said. "American laborers must also be empowered. If we want to prepare for the current and future challenges of an increasingly global market, we must create apprenticeships and programs to adjust to the labor demands of the 21st century."
The National Manufacturing Office in the proposal would be headed by a chief manufacturing officer, who would develop and put into place a national manufacturing strategy. To expand the union presence in the U.S., Ryan is proposing making it easier to form a union, allowing public-sector employees to bargain, make it illegal to replace striking workers and allowing independent contractors to organize.
Said Republican National Committee spokeswoman Mandi Merritt, "While Tim Ryan talks about bringing back jobs, President (Donald) Trump has actually done it, creating nearly 18,000 manufacturing jobs in Ohio alone. Not to mention Ryan's new plan comes with a job-killing government mandate for a $15 minimum wage, which has been proved time and time again to cost jobs and hurt lower-income workers. This is not a plan that Ohioans, or our country, can afford."
Ryan's unveiling of his plan Saturday comes just days in advance of the second round of Democratic presidential debates. Ryan of Howland, in his ninth term in Congress, will debate on night one Tuesday of the two-night event in Detroit.
Manufacturing and boosting the working class has been a key theme of Ryan's campaign, which lags behind several other more well-known Democrats looking to unseat Trump in November 2020.
A Real Clear Politics average of national polls has Ryan at 0.3 percent, which is tied for last with author Marianne Williamson and U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado.
Ryan qualified for the second debate the same way he did for the first -- on his poll numbers. He had 2 percent in a University of New Hampshire poll and 1 percent in two others polls, and it appears his poll numbers are what pushed him over the edge again.
That's because his campaign, Tim Ryan for America, reported in its second-quarter campaign finance report he had 13,000 individual donors, far off the 65,000 unique donor threshold set by the DNC.
He may find himself struggling to make the cut for the third and fourth debates in September and October as the DNC will tighten its qualifications. For a candidate to make it to the stage for those debates, he / she will have to meet higher thresholds for polling and donations, rather than just one of the criteria.
rselak@tribtoday.com