Barack Obama was a newly-elected senator when he spoke with John David in 2005 about jobs, economic changes and the changes manufacturing workers face in the U.S.
Mr. Obama spoke one-on-one with WQAD News 8 reporter John David in Springfield, Illinois. The interview was part of a News 8 special report concerning the closure of the Maytag manufacturing plant in Galesburg, Illinois.
The interview also happened within weeks of Obama becoming a U.S. Senator.
Senator Obama reinforced his view on the need for a change in tax structure – specifically, he said the U.S. needed to stop giving tax breaks to companies moving work overseas.
He also said he saw significant implications in a shift from being an economy based on manufacturing to being an economy based more on services.
Obama said each individual manufacturing job also helped produce a number of other jobs, and that he thought that was not as true in a service economy. He said he thought service industries also did not provide opportunities for workers to move up through the ranks the way those opportunities were available in manufacturing.