South Carolina moldmakers like what they hear from Gingrich

An AMBA member group attended the Real Jobs Summit with Newt Gingrich on May 5, which had keeping manufacturing in the U.S. as its top priority.

Newt Gingrich, former speaker of the House of Representatives, brought his Real Jobs Summit to Greenville, SC on May 5. A group from the American Mold Builders Assn. attended to participate in this summit, which drew about 500 attendees interested in promoting manufacturing in the USA, saving existing jobs, and creating new jobs in manufacturing.

Steve Rotman, president of Ameritech Die & Mold (Mooresville, NC) and Ameritech Die & Mold South (Ormond Beach, FL), was in attendance along with Scott Phipps of United Tool & Mold in Easley, SC. “This is a really strong movement led by Speaker Newt Gingrich,” commented Rotman. “I was able to attend the event in Greenville, and Scott Phipps and I participated in a Small Business Roundtable where owners of businesses met with Speaker Gingrich. I have been able to meet quite a few politicians while visiting DC in the last couple of years, but I have never seen the ability to answer so many questions from different fields, and not feel like I was being patronized.

“Gingrich spoke from the heart with conviction, and it was very refreshing, to say the least. He stated that he wasn’t there to represent Republican or Democrat, just the American Constitution.”

Gingrich founded American Solutions in 2007 as a tri-partisan, grass-roots political action group dedicated to finding real solutions to real problems facing America. It currently has 1.5 million members.

South Carolina has the nation’s highest unemployment at 12.2% and has lost 15,000 jobs in the past year. The Real Jobs tour has stopped in five cities promoting job creation solutions that lawmakers can use right now to help put people back to work.

After the Summit, the Carolinas Chapter of the AMBA held a meeting with Robbie Earnhardt of Superior Tooling (Wake Forest, NC), David Meyers of Carson Tool & Mold (Kennesaw, GA), David Bowers III of JMMS Inc. (Easley, SC), Keith Fox and Dave Harper from Ameritech, and Mark Krajniak of Alliance Carolina Tool & Mold Corp. (Arden, NC).

Among the issues discussed at the Roundtable, Rotman noted that Gingrich is against a VAT (value-added tax), because “it will only feed the government.” The tax money lost as companies take manufacturing offshore and produce goods there to export here was also discussed.

“Gingrich was asked some really difficult questions, but had answers and solutions that were well thought-out,” said Rotman. “I was impressed. His motto—2+2=4—is for: honesty; cutting taxes for businesses, which leads to job growth; more American energy, which leads to lower prices; and more competition between schools, which leads to better education. We’re not looking at the root of the problems. We’ve got to get back to being problem solvers, but first understanding what caused the problem in the first place. It was very refreshing to hear him.” —Clare Goldsberry