Washington Post, “Geithner asserts ‘critical role’ of manufacturing“:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner used a trip to a Pittsburgh metals factory on Wednesday to buff the image of American manufacturing ahead of a key decision on China’s currency policy, showcasing the type of heavy industry that can succeed in the United States despite stiff — and some argue unfair — competition from abroad.

“This is a sector that will play a critical role in helping to spur our economic recovery and contribute to our long-term prosperity,” Geithner said after a day in which he toured a mill where Allegheny Technologies Inc. produces specialty metal plates. He also met with representatives of United Steelworkers and U.S. Steel.

• Treasury News Release, “Secretary Geithner’s Remarks at the United Steelworkers“
• AP via Washington (PA) Post-Observer, “Treasury secretary tours local steel mill“
• Pittsburgh Post Gazette, “Treasury chief boosts policy on banks bailout, China trade“
• Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, “Geithner rallies steelworkers“
• Wall Street Journal, “Geithner Promises More Infrastructure Spending“
• Reuters, “Treasury’s Geithner says US economy slowly on mend”

BTW, on Monday, Allegheny Technologies announced a $5 million one-time, non-cash tax charge because of the new health care law. None of reports mention the charge, bu then Geithner’s trip had many news angles.

Politico, “Barack Obama’s China plan looks like George W. Bush’s.” The story delivers what the headline promises.

Frank Vargo, the NAM’s vice president for international economic affairs, commented on the context of Treasury Secretary Geithner’s trip given the current state of play:

Now more than ever, the two economies need each other,” said one observer from the business community. “The administration recognizes they need to maintain the right posture.”

And with markets already skittish, signs of significant tension between the two countries would have dire consequences for the global economy, said Frank Vargo, vice president for international economic affairs at the National Association of Manufacturers.

“Everybody’s looking at United States and China as really being the two principal players on the global economic scene. So if they start shouting at each other, this is bad for financial markets right now,” he said. “You’ve just got to be careful. It doesn’t mean you change your objectives.”

And from an earlier AP story, “Geithner wields little leverage in China talks“:

(continue reading…)

Front page, Washington Post:

Targets…

Tax dodge…

Crack down…

Major offensive…

Companies that ship jobs overseas…

Moving jobs off our shores…

None of this invidious, populist rhetoric from the President and the Post has anything to do with the reality of taxation of overseas earnings.

For a more restrained, fair-minded analysis of the President’s proposal we turn to the New York Times’ editorial page, a reliably anti-corporate font of left-liberal opinion. From “Tax Salvos“:

The Obama proposals oversimplify the challenge, both technically and politically.

One of the most controversial proposals would delay deductions against overseas profits until those profits are brought back to the United States. In theory, that makes perfect sense, because matching deductions and income in the same year is a fundamental principle of United States tax law.

In practice, applying the matching principle to overseas operations could put American companies at a competitive disadvantage to foreign companies that do not face United States tax laws. It could even impede job creation in the United States — exactly the opposite of what the Obama administration intends. That’s because some of the expenses incurred in generating foreign profits are for support jobs in the United States, like human resources and accounting positions. If companies cannot write off those employment expenses in the year they are incurred, they may move the jobs overseas.

That’s the reality of it.

Now that the Department of Treasury has posted the week’s schedule online, we see that Secretary Geithner is speaking Wednesday morning at the Renaissance Hotel to the Economic Club of Washington on the “Administration’s Ongoing Efforts to Address the Global Recession.”

Says there’s Q&A, so we respectfully suggest a question: “Mr. Secretary, how would a vast new regulatory regime limiting carbon dioxide emissions,  which by its nature will increase energy and manufacturing costs, help global economic recovery? And, although it’s Earth Day, we’d appreciate an answer that doesn’t involve usual and hardly credible overselling of ‘green jobs.’”

Meanwhile, EPA reports via e-mail:

(Washington, DC — April 20, 2009) U.S. EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson is scheduled to lead the U.S. delegation to the Group of Eight Environment Ministers Meeting held this year in Siracusa, Italy. This marks her first international trip as EPA Administrator. Administrator Jackson will represent the United States among Environment Ministers from the Group of Eight (Italy, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Japan, Canada, and Russia) as well as 12 additional Environment Ministers and leaders of international organizations from around the world.

BTW, of all the Cabinet-level agencies, EPA seems to be the most on the ball with its communications shop, meaning news releases, website and other outreaches.

AP reports on yesterday’s Ways & Means Committee hearing, “Obama’s plan to hike taxes meets fierce opposition“:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s call to raise taxes on high earners and greenhouse gas polluters met fierce opposition Tuesday from congressional Republicans and also a few Democrats. “I would never want to adversely affect anything that is charitable or good,” Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, said of Obama’s call to limit high-income taxpayers’ itemized deductions for charitable donations and mortgage interest.

Republicans said the president’s plan to charge fees to industries that spew greenhouse gases amounts to a stealthy tax increase for all Americans that will far exceed the new $400 annual tax cut for workers that he wants to extend beyond 2010.

“The president’s budget increases taxes on every American, and does so during a recession,” said Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on the Ways and Means Committee.

The link from Instapundit, who like other libertarian-leaning bloggers is drawing critical attention to the expanded government, higher taxes and market-rattling proposals from the Obama Administration.

We find other news in the AP story, that is, that the demonization of the energy industry, manufacturers and other wealth-creators has been accepted as the acceptable story line by the mainstream media.

• “high earners and greenhouse gas polluters” — so carbon dioxide IS pollution, according to this shorthand. Did you know you’re a walking, talking greenhouse gas polluter?

• “industries that spew greenhouse gases” – spew. Spew! Granted, it’s an active verb, but emitting carbon dioxide or water vapor in the production of electricity, steel, automobiles, solar panels, posters to carry at a protest– Is that “spewing,” i.e., unrestrained and irresponsible?

If you control the terms of the debate, you control the debate.

Or maybe it’s just reporting that sacrifices accuracy and impartiality in favor of colorful language.

Also, Treasury Secretary Geithner’s testimony from the hearing.

And, more Instapundit:

It was important for Treasury Secretary-designate to flatly state that China is manipulating its currency. Everyone knows China’s currency is being held at an artificially low level, and it is necessary for the United States Government to acknowledge this in order to be able to approach the problem realistically. (See New York Times and WSJ stories.)

The next step is more difficult – how to get China’s currency appreciating again. The currency appreciated 21 percent against the dollar through July 2008 and then went flat as Chinese authorities decided they were concerned about China’s slipping export performance in the slowing world economy. The fact of the matter is that China’s continued currency manipulation is hurting their own economy and making their transition away from export-led growth more difficult. Yuan appreciation can be win-win.

The Treasury Secretary-Designate is properly concerned with China’s currency and as the next step needs to work within established international means to find a solution. During the campaign, then-candidate Obama saw the importance of a change in China’s currency practices and said he would use all the diplomatic avenues available to seek such a change. Certainly the International Monetary Fund can play a stronger role than it has in the past.

Geithner’s statements showed he wants to get China’s currency moving, but without precipitating a new global financial crisis. Global financial stability and further appreciation of China’s currency can and should go hand in hand, but all this needs to be done carefully and in a way calculated to achieve both objectives and contribute to a lessening of global imbalances.

The yuan per dollar graph below shows how China’s currency was moving until July 2008, and then was held flat.