Yesterday’s forum at The New America Foundation, “Manufacturing a Better Future for America,” featured a discussion of federal support — the term “bailout” was used — for GM and Chrysler.

The context: Speakers advocated a national industrial policy and more restrictive trade policies to invigorate the U.S. manufacturing sector. We think of the panel as representing the organized labor wing of the Democratic Party.

Asking a question, Bill Frymoyer, director of government relations at the Stewart and Stewart and a former Gephardt aide, hailed what he described as the apparently successful rescue of the domestic auto industry. He elicited this response from Leo Hindery, Managing Partner of Intermedia Partners, chairman of the foundation’s Smart Globalization Initiative, and an influential Democratic activist. Hindery:

The reason the auto recovery worked so well is Ron Bloom largely steered it. And Ron Bloom, for those of you who don’t know, came out of the Steelworkers. He spoke more cogently and capably about the need for a manufacturing policy before a lot of us…and I think he brought a sense of manufacturing policy to that initiative, not strategy but policy.

And this is an issue that Scott [Paul] and I have gone back and forth on: Are what we talking about here, is it a strategy or is it a policy? And we think, Scott and I and Ron, I think, would say, it’s a policy. And when you have a policy, then you save CIT if it needs saving, because it does certain things, you approach GM and Chrysler as he tried to drive the administration, because it would fit under his sense of policy. Strategy is transient. Policy’s the same.

Also commenting was Scott Paul, executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing:

The New America Foundation today hosted a panel discussion entitled “Manufacturing A Better Future For America,” that stressed, logically enough, the compelling need to strengthen U.S. manufacturing. There is a disturbing lack of understanding among political leaders and economists of the critical role manufacturing plays in a modern economy. As Leo Hindery of the New America Foundation noted, a job in manufacturing is worth a lot more than a job in services. It pays more and every manufacturing dollar generates $1.40 in other sectors.

The panelists were clearly concerned about our country’s industrial base and alarmed by the exodus of so much manufacturing to other countries. Yes, we need tax reform, more capital investment, more R&D and more investment in workforce training. But some of the solutions they proposed were troubling, at least to me. If having an “industrial policy” means our government will finally realize how important manufacturing is and do its part to help us compete, I’m for it. If it means having bureaucrats in Washington pick winners and losers, that is a cure worse than the disease.

All of the talk about losing our industrial base is premature. The U.S. is still the world’s largest manufacturing country, by a large margin. Manufacturing contributes $1.6 trillion to our GDP and employs 12 million Americans directly, millions more indirectly. And before we go abandoning our commitment to free trade, we might take note that we enjoy a trade surplus in manufactured goods with free trade nations as we sell $80 billion worth each month.

Still, we have been much too complacent. We must make manufacturing a top national priority. As Akio Morita, the founder of Sony said, “The world power that loses its manufacturing base will cease to be a world power.”

Since below there’s a lengthy post surveying the debate over financial rescues and the auto industry, it’s probably worth noting again NAM statements on the issue.

NAM President John Engler on November 7 issued a statement, “NAM President stresses importance of stable auto industry in economic recovery”

The NAM’s Engler also touched on the auto industry and financing at a conference sponsored Monday by the New America Foundation. His remarks are here.

NAM President and CEO John Engler spoke Monday at a conference sponsored by the New America Foundation, “Roads to Recovery,” organized in anticipation of next week’s stimulating, lameduck session of Congress.

The text of NAM President Engler’s remarks as delivered (lightly edited) is available here. He addresses the current state of the manufacturing economy, the value of a stimulus package, aid to domestic automakers, and the critical importance of infrastructure to U.S. competitiveness.

The Foundation has posted a report on the conference, including audio of the day’s speakers, here.

Michael Lind, a Foundation fellow who oversees its American Infrastructure Initiative, with an emphasis on infrastructure financing, will be a guest this week on the NAM’s radio program, “America’s Business with Mike Hambrick.”