President Trump, in an interview in the Wall Street Journal, claims that there are states that are increasing manufacturing jobs (Wisconsin, Iowa, and Colorado). He then said:
“You’re going to need people to work in these massive plants,” Trump said. “I’m going to start explaining to people: When you have an area that just isn’t working like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you’ll have another area 500 miles away where you can’t get people, I’m going to explain, you can leave. It’s OK. Don’t worry about your house.”
Rick Gallant, one of the five announced Democratic candidates trying to unseat Rep. Reed, quickly responded to the Trump’s comment:
“We’re not abandoning Upstate New York. It’s just not an option. That sort of rhetoric is dangerous and demonstrates just how out of touch with mainstream America our President really is. Instead of tearing down the Southern Tier and Western New York, we’re going to roll up our sleeves and rebuild it. Our congressman’s silence on these remarks speaks volumes.”
Rep. Reed’s silence?
Googling articles about Trump’s moving suggestion in the Buffalo News, Syracuse, and other newspapers I found that Rep. Chris Collins, Rep. John Katko, Rep. Claudia Tenny and other Upstate Representatives had responded to Trump’s comments. Rep. Reed had not. Checking his Facebook pages and his Twitter account, Rep. Reed has yet to defend his jobs record, nor has he agreed or disagreed with the President’s vision having us migrate west like Steinbeck’s Joad Family did in The Grapes of Wrath.
Even though Gallant responded directly to Trump’s Upstate New York put down, but the other four candidates have spoken earlier about their concerns of the NY23rd job situation:
Eddie Sundquist of Jamestown said that coming back home after college, two years of teaching and law school to practice law said he realized the area “slowly became the land that time forgot.”
“We were promised a lot of different things like the Buffalo Billion trickle down and money at the federal level from our representatives,” he said. “We never received those things. We continue to see people leave and manufacturers and jobs leave. A lot of it made me upset to see that we don’t have a representative to jump into the middle of that and help make this a better place.”–Jamestown Post Standard
Ian Golden, small business owner and another Democratic Congressional Candidate has also talked about jobs:
“My Representative will have occasional photoshoots for media exposure, spins on why tax cuts to the wealthy and deregulation of banks help business in this country, fast tracks for fossil fuel projects with little long-term economic injection, an absence of vision for how to bring living wage jobs back to our communities, connection with the issues that really matter to our farms and vineyards, or the ability to plan for the rapid changes occurring in technology.” –Golden’s website
Candidate Max Della Pia, a retired Air Force Officer from Owego, relate jobs and immigration, and that he:
“understands the necessity for migrant workers to fill vacancies given by local workers. He thinks a program needs to be established to provide that labor pool while also being fair and equitable for the workers as well.”–Ithaca Times
The fifth candidate, John Hertzler, actor and Ulysses Town Councilman, wants to bring manufacturing jobs back from overseas.
“People say the jobs aren’t coming back. In my opinion, that’s B.S. There’s a lot of people that want to do those jobs here in this country and we need to bring them back. It irritates the hell out of me when people give up and sell out. ” Ithaca Times.
I am not certain that President Trump’s view that Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado really do have the need or desire to have thousands of New Yorkers move into their states and take their jobs. It sounds more like an empty success story that Trump likes to uses to misinform his base supporters.
It is important to respond to Trump’s claims. Fight fake news with facts.
