Hoyer upbeat Cantor reviewing Dem manufacturing bills

“That doesn’t mean we’ve done anything yet, but I got a positive response that he wanted to review them, and I look forward to talking to him when we get back in September.”

{mosads}In what has become a perennial campaign, Hoyer on Thursday characterized the Democrats’ economic wish list as a nonpartisan remedy to the nation’s lingering unemployment crisis. 

The package features four central tenets: adopting a national manufacturing strategy, promoting exports, incentivizing manufacturers to bring jobs back to the United States and training workers for the modern economy. 

Within that framework, there are almost 50 individual proposals, including bills as varied as those ending tax deductions for companies that outsource, strengthening the enforcement of current trade laws and requiring the federal government to purchase only American flags that have been made in the U.S. 

“It is a unifying agenda,” Hoyer said, “not an ideologically dividing agenda.”

Still, the package, which features increased federal spending on infrastructure projects and new grant programs, does illustrate the stark differences between each party’s approach to addressing the fragile economic recovery.

Democrats believe government has an active role in pulling the country out of the jobs crisis, while Republicans think Washington should just get out of the way and let private industry fuel the recovery. 

Both sides claim their strategy to be the more effective one, leaving party leaders often talking past each other in the name of debate.

Hoyer himself acknowledged the divide on Thursday.

“If Mr. Cantor were here, he’d say, ‘No, no, we have a regulatory bill on the floor; that’s about creating jobs,'” he said. 

“I think he and I would agree that we need to have oversight of regulations to make sure they’re consistent with making it in America and growing our economy,” Hoyer added. 

“Having said that, we don’t think that’s going to do anything in the short term to accomplish that objective. It’s a message bill; we need to get to substance.”

Cantor’s office did not respond Thursday to requests for comment.