Rick Wade in State of Michigan Archives

On Corporations: Last 10 years were good for rich, but not for middle class

The reality is that if you worked on Wall Street or daytraded technology stocks or flipped houses, the last 10 years may have looked pretty good to you. But if you got up every day trying to carve out a living in a factory or a retail store or a restaurant, your life probably wasn't materially better than it was at the turn of the century.

We should have known, even before the recession hit, that something was wrong. But we ignored the warning signals, and by the time President Obama took office, the economy was in free fall. Everyone knows what followed. This administration took some difficult and sometimes unpopular steps.

On Energy & Oil: $8B for new nuclear plants; plus offshore oil & gas drilling

For the first time in three decades, we've greenlighted the construction of new nuclear power plants. A few weeks ago, the president announced $8 billion in loan guarantees for nuclear reactors in Georgia. There will be more to come.

We have opened up areas off the Atlantic seaboard and in the Gulf of Mexico for responsible exploration for oil and gas.

And we continue to push for comprehensive energy legislation that will put a price on carbon and send a signal to every entrepreneur in this country that clean energy can be the profitable kind of energy over the long-term.

On Energy & Oil: Too many clean energy investors sit on the sidelines

On Free Trade: NEI: government-wide export-promotion strategy

And the export part of our portfolio has become even more important of late with the announcement of President Obama's National Export Initiative (NEI), which aims to double American exports over the next five years and support two million jobs here at home.

The NEI represents the first time the US will have a government-wide export-promotion strategy with. The NEI will be primarily focused on:

• improving government trade promotion in all its forms;
• expanding export credit to businesses--especially small and medium-sized ones; and
• Increasing the government's focus on knocking down barriers that prevent U.S. companies from getting free and open access to foreign markets.

On Government Reform: Government doesn't invent but does create business framework

We know very well that lawmakers don't invent. But the government does create the conditions--the framework--in which businesses operate. And that matters. Because just as it is foolish to look to government for all of our answers, it is equally foolish to imagine that government has no productive role to play.

Think for a moment about the federal government building the interstate highway system, which for over half a century has sped the movement of goods across this country and delivered us immeasurable economic benefits. You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone today who didn't think that was a good investment. But back in the 1930s, one prominent critic said, "it would be the first major step toward state socialism under which the federal government would take over private industry.

On Technology: Double the budget for basic scientific research

We may have seen the Internet come of age in Silicon Valley, but it first came to life in the labs of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The folks at Tempur-Pedic have given us mattresses using technology that was first developed by NASA.

President Obama understands that funding this type of basic government and university research, which might be too risky or expensive for the private sector, is vital to our economic future. That is why he has called for doubling the budgets of research agencies such as the National Science Foundation. His 2011 budget increases funding for civilian R&D by $3.7 billion, or nearly 6%. This illustrates his broader approach to setting this country on a path for long-term economic growth. This administration is trying to rebuild the physical and the regulatory infrastructure that private sector businesses need to thrive.