"the hill newspaper" has a preview of this white house summit meeting as it's being called. looking at the future of u.s. economy and manufacturing. among those invited to the media executives from google, sisko, facebook, dow chemical and they have been invited to blair house to discuss reform. saying cash held by companies is at its highest levels in 50 years. and this is a look at what's being called the next economy. thanks very much for being with us. caller: i'm happy to. host: i want to begin looking at the economy. but let's focus on this publication and some of the inclusions that you and your colleagues take with regard to manufacturing. are we on an upswing? are we still dealing with the rust belt snarea? what's happening? guest: we're dealing with a lot of things, and it's different in different parts of the country. manufacturing has been improving in the last few months. but that is improving slowly. i think one of the big take aways that we keep coming back to again and again and again is just the importance of how manufacturing is changing. that we're not going to make a low end, cheap commodity manufacturing like t-shirts anymore. american manufacturing has a future that's pretty much tied to advanced manufacturing, and invasion. can we make things that literally can't be made anywhere else? host: bruce stokes went to puttler, pennsylvania, an area known for its still making capability. what's been changing there? guest: i think the big thing that's been changing across pennsylvania, across this country is this idea the american dream is for the worker who grew up believing he could go to a factory without a college degree, provide for his family. provide a middle class life style. we're finding more and more across pennsylvania, across ohio, where i used to work, that's a harder and harder dream for most americans to see. host: one of the obvious conclusions from the piece is the importance of education in training the work force. the importance of community colleges, to feed into those manufacturing jobs. and one sentence from what you're calling bruce stokes wrote is that to come pet in an increasingly competitive world, even traditional manufactures must operate on the technical frontier. can you elaborate on that point? guest: yes, actually that's a great point. we had an event down in raleigh, north carolina where we were talking about that. some manufactures down there. the point of that is americans, you can't expect that even if you're a traditional manufacturer, that you can keep using your old processes. what's going to make us competitive is to do things cheaper, better, faster. one of the panelists was telling me the great story about way back in the day between the fords and toyota. for years and years ford did not change the way it made the taurus and had the same amount of time to manufacture taurus and the same amount of money and man hours that it took to do that while a toyota corollo was doing the same thing. the camry rocketted ahead. continuing even as the taurus fell off the map. host: first of all you point out that over 11 million people now make things in the united states. the lowest number since world war ii. however, the u.s. still hosts the mightiest manufacturing economy producing 21% of all goods used globally compared to japan. a distant second at 13% and china ranking third at 12% chfments may surprise a number of people. guest: this is what's maddening. they have a very strong industry. their output is enormous. like you said, the problem for the worker is the reason we've done so well is in part because we've done such a great job of getting people out of the manufacturing sector. they're the biggest cost. and so, these invasions -- but the actual jobs we have, it's a paradox for the american factory worker. host: i want to bring it back to your piece called go tell it to the mountain. no one heralded the tax cut agreement between president obama and congressional republicans as an economic savior. but plenty say it is one thing that could accelerate the lummering return. elaborate if you will. >> what we do in the piece, which i think is very important here is kind of take -- [inaudible] we're not great but we're getting a little bit better. that's why we call it a lumbering. i know a lot of people got thrown by the last unemployment, but we are growing a little bit. things are coming back. corporate america is ready to start investing again, maybe start hiring again at a much bigger pace. but the sense among economists that they could still use a little bit more juice, particularly on the consumers side. you still have companies who just aren't sure how strong their sales are going to be next year. so you could provide a big demand boost which would create an upward cycle, and get some growth that is strong enough that it really creates jobs. right now we're on track for growth, somewhere between two and a half and three points of product next year. that's probably not strong enough to really add a lot of jobs. and so, what we're looking at is maybe there would be, if the deal goes through and it has a lot of things that would increase demand. you could bump that, and that's where you start creating jobs. host: jim, thank you very much for getting up early on this sunday and sharing with the audience. thanks very much. guest: thank you. host: and our questions specifically with regard to manufacturing, what's next in the manufacturing sector? and could this help pull us out of the current recession? jerry is joining us from columbus, ohio on our line from independents. good morning, welcome to "washington journal." caller: good morning, steve. i think this problem is that these jobs have been shipped overseas. today the average worker has no more purchasing power than he had 40 years ago, and that's a fact. i wish you folks on c-span would focus on that. not only that, look, i was born in the 1920's, i'm an old bone. i never was in the yunel, but the problem today is that only 8% of the private sector is unionized, but 70% of the workers would like to be. there's a problem i wish c-span would address. what do i care? i'm in my 80's, steve. but we're not addressing the thing. and these corporations are sitting on hundreds of billions of dollars, and they're not investing it. and one other thing if i may -- host: sure. caller: the american society of civil engineers, which my brother in law is a civil engineer. he's my age, we went to school together. but, they estimated two and a half years ago that it would take $10 trillion to spend on the infrastructure. and i know you know what the infrastructure is, bridges, roads, overpasses. over the next five years to bring the infrastructure rating of the united states to a d minus. and steve, please see if you can't address that to where's that money going to come from? nobody wants to spend more taxes. my brother and i give 10% of our social security if everybody would sacrifice to the same way. but thank you very much steve, you do a great job. caller: $2 trillion, that is the figure that remains on the sidelines by u.s. businesses. one of the reasons why on wednesday at blair house the president will be hosting a summit with a number of business leaders. also the hill story pointing out that the u.s. chamber of commerce is supporting the president's initiative to keep the bush era tax cuts at its current level for the next two years. you can read more online by going to thehill.com. charlie is joining us, fort wayne, republican line. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i would say the economy is only bound to get worse with the democrats wanting to raise taxes on people who make over $250,000, which is going to sock it to a lot of small business. and they don't know about this health care, what it's all going to be about. and you see that all the people who were pushing to get this health care is getting exceptions from the government. i say it's going to get a lot worse. guest: thank you very much. let me go back to the piece in the journal. as we look at the u.s. economy and particular manufacturing, he writes that most economists say that the agreement, this tax agreement would give consumer demand a jolt, largely through a payroll tax cut. and extended unemployment benefits. jane is joining us from springfield, ohio. democrats line, good morning jane. caller: good morning. president obama has been, sense before he was elected, promoting a green energy manufacturing. a whole new industry of manufacturing jobs in the green energy. and for some reason we're not allowed to spend money to develop that manufacturing industry. it makes me wonder if republicans don't want it back in the united states. that would have created millions and millions and millions of manufacturing jobs building that. and, more permanent jobs to maintain them. and they're stopping it. everything he tries to do, to create manufacturing in the united states is totally blocked. and it's not just democrats that want manufacturing jobs. everybody from every party wants manufacturing jobs back in the united states. host: jane,ing things for the call. bob has this comment from twitter page. you can join the conversation online. mark is joining us from new york. our focus this morning, the economy and manufacturing. what's next, good morning, mark. caller: good morning. nice to be with you. with the manufacturing, we have so many manufacturing jobs going overseas that most of them, all of the lower paying, lower skilled jobs. and for years they've been pushing higher education skills, go to school, we'll put you to school. but there are people that just aren't ready to go to school. in their teens and their early 20's. i didn't wake up until i was about 28. by that time, by the time the kids reach 28 now, they're lost in life. there are no manufacturing, there is no manufacturing base where a low skilled worker with get a job. host: one of the points we talked with jim is that these work ers who move into manufacturing sector have got to have training and technology, computer, software in order to operate the equipment. caller: that's what i was just saying. they don't have this training because they -- they're kids. some kids are just not ready to learn at an early age. they don't wake up until their 20 and find out they can't get a job. host: so how do we address that mark? caller: how do we address that? we get companies to stay in the united states. you have to get some of the companies that moved out of the states to come back. if it's done by tax equaling the wages that they're not paying their overseas workers, compared to ours? that might be something. but like with england, england has a tax system where it's an end user tax. they don't tax anything until somebody buys it. and if it comes here, the companies over there aren't paying any tax at all! and we pay our tax on it. host: so you think a value added tax would work in the u.s.? caller: i spent two and a half years in england. i don't like the added value tax. host: this is from our twitter page -- ron bronstein writing about this, he says overall the u.s. still imports minnesota than exports. and the list of products formerly made in america remain daunting. opinion point shows that the public is increasingly sour on free trade, but the familiar narratives of decline and retreat before a tide of low cost imports doesn't cap sure the full ledger of america's place in the global economy. more cities are benefiting that rising tide of foreign sales than most americans recognize often in their cities themselves. access the already central to the prosperity in many places where protectionism is often a winning political argument. next is dave joining us from michigan. good morning, dave. caller: good morning. the united states already has a successful model, and that's the time period between 1945 and 1975. if you look at that period of time, what did we have? we had common sense trade. in other words we had trade tariffs. we also had financial regulations in place. we had a strong middle class that was growing. all we need to do is look at that period of time and emulate it. there has been a systemic dismanhattanning of these regulations in the trade tariffs that have led us to where we are today. but we have a sufficient model. and i do blame the republicans, reagannomics and the trickle down for bringing us where we are today. host: thanks for the call. nearly nine hours on the senate floor with an independent from vermont. he caucuses with the democrats. the story in "the new york times." twitter sensation in the senate. a marathon riff against the obama's administration to continue to tax policies of george w. bush stired twitter users to a roar of over eight plause hours, putting his name atop the social networks trending topics by friday night. it garnered even more attention then when he was elected. and considered the first senator to identify himself as a socialist. you can watch the speech available on our website, as is all of our programming. ivan joining us from ohio. what's next for the u.s. economy, particularly manufacturing, ivan? caller: good morning. see, i'm on social security. i think if they would give people more than $250, we would go out and spend money. and the economy would get better. host: that's your point? caller: yeah. host: ok, thanks for the call. kim has a story also in "the new york times." a race to capture a bounty from shipping. points out that the panama canal connected the atlantic and pacific ocean is undergoing a $5.25 billion expansion. scheduled to be completed in august of 2014. 100 years to the day after it was opened. in what was long considered a speed bump, the canal is too small to accommodate a class of super ships that came back on the scene. and came into heavy use, when china became a powerful export ore. mike is joining us from hyde park, new york. good morning. welcome to "washington journal." actually, we'll go to janet next in minnesota. good morning to you janet. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, please. caller: yes, i'm calling to say i think what that guy was trying to say earlier is that it's not that the children, what did he call open up like he said early until they're 20's or something? i think it's more like -- it's like me. i had trouble learning in school and the only way i could learn was like to be showed how to do something. it was difficult for me to learn from books because i couldn't -- i kept mixing up words and also, what do you call it? couldn't keep stuff in my mind long enough to pass like the exams in stuff. so, i'm thinking that's what he's talking about. some kids just have learn differently and i think they have to be shown what to do. because i can do anything if you show me how to do it. and that's how i learn. host: that's one of the points from the national journal. in order to compete in the global market place, it's not the task we often saw in the 40's or 50's or 60's, but the ability to operate equipment that makes us myrrh productive than other countries. caller: so i think they're going to have no other choice because of these type of people, but to bring some type of manufacturing back to the united states. i just think they have to for people that can't learn otherwise. host: when you can ship those jobs overseas at a lower cost? companies do that. caller: well, we're the united states and i don't think that's appropriate that they be doing that. host: ok. thank you very much for that call. inside one of the key players in shaping u.s. tragedy in afghanistan remains hospital today, richard holbrook is in a hospital in washington, d.c. he is in intensive care. only blocks away, senior national security advisors meeting yesterday to assess a major internal assessment. the president will review on monday with release to the public scheduled later in the week. he collapsed on friday after the state department. family and members of the state department staff remained at the hospital awaiting word on his condition. in a statement the president said he had spoken to holbrooke's wife and told her he was praying for him. richard holbrooke suffered an operation in a tear in the aorta. it bends and moves down through the chest in the abdomen. surgical tear is possible, writes the washington post, however serious complications can arise from interruptions in the blood flow. richard holbrooke remains in critical condition at george washington university hospital here in washington, d.c. bob is joining us from mountain home, arkansas. good morning, welcome. caller: yes, sir, thank you for taking my call. host: certainly. caller: i'm a manufacturer, and my frustration level is extremely high now. host: what do you produce, bob? caller: we're in the car business actually. we manufacture car parts, actually bodies and chasies for hot rod cars. it's extremely hard to find employees with a good work ethic. you can't base your company on one or two employees. but i have more people interested in collecting unemployment insurance than working. host: how many employees do you have? caller: i have 12. but i have an employee who doesn't show up for a week, still able to collect unemployment. and i had to deal -- we dealt with all those issues. when i deal with the government, it's a hindrance. i feel like the government's an enemy. an unemployment's not free. my rates have gone up this year. incredittable. i'm paid until i catch up. i'm paying 6.9% of my pal roll to unemployment until that balance is caught up again. it's the condition if governments, if it makes you not want to manufacture. host: bob, thanks for the call. thanks for sharing your story with us. caller: thank you. host: we're talking about u.s. manufacturing, and the economy, what's next. the cover story from this publication is called the next economy. it's a joint project with the national journal. and atlantic magazine. back to the future, is there a second act for u.s. manufacturing? gary duncan has this comment on our twitter page saying 1945 to 1975 is a flawed model. it took decades for countries to rebuild after the destruction of world war ii. and they had to use u.s. products. next is belinda from corning, new york or on line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i just heard the gentleman talking about unemployment and feeling that his employees want to stay on unemployment rather than going back to work? well, my husband was on unemployment and he was applying to positions, and he has a masters degree. but we were finding that the jobs that he was applying for when he put down how much he needed to make in order for us to keep our home, you know, he would never be recalled to come back for a second interview, or it just took a long time to get a job. finally the factory here started hiring. and the factory actually was making a lot more than what he can make with a masters degree outside of the factory. so now he's working for the factory. and which, thank god. but we never, you know we struggled and we didn't want to stay on unemployment. plus we have a child with a disability and when my attention -- i only work part time and i have to a lot of times take off from work to deal with his disability. but we don't receive any disability checks or anything like that, you know? he just gets medicaid to help us with the expenses and stuff. i see that -- my question is that if we -- we tend to buy a lot of stuff that's outside the united states, and it doesn't seem like a fair trade. and i just feel like i would be willing to pay a little bit more if it was made in the u.s.a. i'm trying to find stuff that's made in the u.s.a. to help, you know, promote our pride and our country. and i just feel like it's unfair that so many of these jobs are being shipped out when people need a fair wage to live on. host