President Obama’s new treasury secretary, Jacob Lew, visited north Atlanta Thursday to underscore the importance of advanced manufacturing jobs. He also took questions on a variety of fiscal issues.
Lew toured Siemens Industry’s Alpharetta location. The 400-acre site is where the company makes component parts for the heavy machinery used in industries like coal mining and mass transit. For instance, the motor controls for Atlanta’s new streetcars were made on site.
It was Lew’s first trip as treasury secretary after being sworn in last month.
“It was very important to me to come to a facility that brings together the objectives of creating jobs – advanced technology jobs – and to improving our use of energy and the environmental consequences.”
Lew spoke of a manufacturing renaissance in the U.S. and said jobs like the ones at Siemens’ Alpharetta facility exist because of investment in other areas.
”There are advantages here in terms of the sources of new workers from the institutions of education, the infrastructure.”
Lew said advanced manufacturing jobs will fuel the nation’s economic recovery, as long as some obstacles are cleared. He said he wants to see real corporate tax reform and a long-term deal on the budget.
“We need to from Washington stop creating uncertainty because of the decision-making process that makes it difficult to know whether we’re going to have crisis after crisis.”
Over the last two weeks, President Obama has reached out to Republicans to try and find common ground on a budget deal. Lew said those efforts have been productive.
“One of the interesting things to come out of these conversations is how few of them were aware of some of the policies that the president had put on the table, things in the areas of entitlements, for example.”
Following the trip to metro Atlanta, Lew is due in Beijing early next week for talks with officials in China’s new government.
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