Marathon Pundit: Roskam hosts Exports Mean Jobs Forum for Chicago-area business leaders, joined by McCarthy and Dold

Rep. Peter Roskam (R-IL)

It's not very often that someone gets the opportunity to see three sitting congressmen speak outside of Washington, so I leaped at the opportunity to attend the Exports Mean Jobs Forum at the Illinois Institute of Technology's downtown Chicago campus this morning. Later Tom Downey, senior vice president of communications for Boeing, also addressed the conference.

The event's host, Chief House Deputy Whip Peter Roskam (R-IL), a graduate of IIT's Kent College of Law, was the first to speak. He praised the long-overdue passage of free trade acts with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea.

Marathon Pundit and McCarthy

"With ninety-five percent of the world's consumers living outside of the United States," the Wheaton Republican said, "these job-creating pacts are a victory for American business and the Chicago economy."

Illinois' struggling economy is export-driven and can certainly use this boost.

Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the House Majority Whip, spoke of a friend and businessman that lived in his neighborhood who attended an export conference in his Central Valley district. It was where this job creator learned that our embassies "are all conduits for American products being sold overseas." As for McCarthy's friend, "He moved to a much nicer neighborhood." Exports did that, McCarthy said.

Bob Dold (R-IL)

The Californian introduced Bob Dold (R-IL), a House freshman who, like McCarthy, is a onetime small businessman. Democrats and Republicans agree, Dold told us, jobs and the economy are the number one issue in America. The free trade agreements will add anywhere from 250,000 jobs---that's the White House estimate--up to 380,000, which is what the US Chamber of Commerce says will be added. In Dold's Chicago North Shore District, he explained, "There over 620 manufacturers representing over 84,000 jobs--and 50,000 of those jobs rely upon exports." And those positions are needed. "In Illinois," Dold lamented, "we've lost over 750,000 manufacturing jobs over the last decade--we have to turn that around."

Tom Downey of Boeing

Chicago-based Boeing is a company, because of the overreach of the radicalized National Labor Relations Board, which has been a constant subject of posts on this blog. It is certainly export based. Boeing's Downey related that his firm's "very first airplane sale in the very early part of the last century was exported." Of international sales he said, "It's in our blood." Boeing's newest passenger plane, the Dreamliner 787--the factory where Boeing wants to build most of them is the one that has been targeted by the NLRB--is currently being flown by just one carrier--All Nippon Airways of Japan.

Of course there is nothing wrong with domestic sales. Early in his talk, McCarthy--who still is blessed with the mind of a businessman--suggested that everyone in attendance exchange business cards.

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