Braley to push tax changes to help Iowa manufacturing

CEDAR RAPIDS - A tour of a Cedar Rapids manufacturer provided the backdrop for U.S. Senate candidate Bruce Braley to call for a national manufacturing strategy and tax changes he said will reinvigorate America's manufacturing base.

'Iowa has always been a state that builds things,” the 1st District congressman said after touring Mestek Machinery in southwest Cedar Rapids Wednesday morning. 'If we're going to be competitive in a global economy, the United States needs to be a country that manufactures things.”

It was and can be, Braley said after seeing the metal forming equipment Mestek builds for, among other things, making ductwork.

'I happen to believe that America's best manufacturing days still could be ahead of us,” Braley said. 'In 2000, the United States was out-manufacturing China three-to-one. Since that time, we have a $7 trillion manufacturing deficit in terms of what we are putting out and what we are importing.”

A key to strengthening America's manufacturing base is making the research and development tax credit permanent because that is one incentive that 'we know creates a lot of growth and innovation, helps us to get from the point where a great idea is formulated to how you scale it up to production and successful manufacturing,” Braley said.

He also called for changes to 'start rewarding companies that keep jobs here in the United States and quit rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas by eliminating tax credits that give them the incentive to do that.”

He contrasted that with his opponent, Republican state Sen. Joni Ernst, who he said has signed a pledge 'that mandates companies who ship jobs overseas get to keep their tax breaks.”

He defended that attack on Ernst even though it has been discredited by PolitiFact.com, Factcheck.org and the Associated Press.

His claim refers to the Taxpayer Protection Pledge from the Grover Norquist's anti-tax group. Lawmakers who sign it pledge to fight tax increases. Ernst signed it in 2013.

Braley and his allies say by signing, Ernst pledged to protect the tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. PolitiFact called that a stretch and rated the claim false. The pledge does not take positions on specific issues, such as protecting the tax break for companies that ship jobs overseas. It doesn't address jobs or changing the tax code.

Braley called is an 'important distinction” between him and Ernst.

'The words came right out of her mouth” when she was asked specifically whether she would take action to eliminate those tax credits, Braley said.

Pledges, like the one Ernst signed, 'make it very difficult to bring people together to pass comprehensive tax policy that's going to benefit America,” he said.