Billy Thompson, USW District 8 Director spoke at the West Virginia State Capitol on March 4, 2009, about the importance of "Buy American" and creating jobs. Here is his speech, as prepared for delivery:

Greetings to all of you here today.

History will record this day in Charleston, West Virginia as a day when the Citizens and their Representatives stood up for our nation, stood up for West Virginia, stood up for our domestic workplaces, stood up for working families and showed why Unions are critical to democracy in America.

We come together today to insist that the taxpayers money - OUR money -be spent to create jobs here.

For those of us at ground zero in this economic crisis, we don’t need a degree from a fancy school to know this is right.  This is just common sense.

For those who think this is complicated, we’ll give you the blue-collar ABCs of how it works: If you put the stimulus money into American-made goods and services Americans will be employed. When Americans are employed, they spend money on things. When we start spending money on things again, our economy will get back on track.

Here’s another common sense fact: Our nation doesn’t have $800 billion dollars for the stimulus. So we are going to borrow it from other nations. It makes absolutely no sense to take that borrowed money, run it through our Federal, State and Local governments and then hand it right back to those other nations by purchasing offshore. “Buy American” is necessary to make the Stimulus, stimulate!

We have some pretty bold politicians in our nation. For the past eight years they insisted on policies and laws
that have run our economy into a deep mucky ditch. We have the biggest national debt ever. We have the biggest trade deficit ever. We have a broken credit system. We have a broken banking system. We have a devastated housing market, and we’re losing jobs at a historic rate.

The people that did this are lecturing us on how to spend our money!

The people that did this are claiming they are concerned about us taxpayers.

The people that did this are saying the new direction is wrong.

Now if you look closely at who puts money into these people’s campaigns, you might find the real reason they are concerned. Toyota doesn’t want us to Buy American Wal-Mart doesn’t want us to Buy American.
The software companies of India do not want us to Buy American. The Chinese industrial companies don’t want us to Buy American. These global interests make political contributions to keep the floodgates open
They’re cracking the whip on their Congressional servants. They’ve been picking America clean and they don’t want it to end.

Now about this point in this speech every reporter here is going to headline this: Steelworker Director demands protectionism. Yep, they’ll pull out the dirty “P” word. But ladies and gentlemen of the media
let me try help you get beyond the trigger words. Let me offer some economic common sense
let me try reality instead of misdirection.

I will stand here and boldly proclaim that “Buy American” is in the best interest of every global titan and financier that has a brain in their heads. Now I’m not saying they do, mind you…Think about what the flight attendant tells you when the oxygen masks drop in a plane: "SAVE YOURSELF FIRST so you will be able to save others."

Our American economy is the largest in the world - a $14 Trillion dollar consumer-driven market. It feeds America and everyone else. No other economy on the globe even comes close. Right now our economy is crippled. If we don’t give average people some extra cash, they can’t consume, and our economy stays flat or worse. That means were screwed, and so are our trading partners.

As the farmers say, you don’t eat your seed corn. But if we do get the American people back into jobs, if we do get some money back in American pockets, if we do get Americans spending again, then we will buy, and we’ll buy globally again. Everybody wins.

Just like the airline flight attendant said, "Save yourself so you can help others." No Ivy League degree needed to figure that one out.

I want to take a moment to address some nonsense that’s out there. They say if we “Buy American” we will spark a trade war that will cost more jobs than we generate. Two numbers are important to understand how wrong this is: First, is that $14 Trillion dollar economy. Second, is the 90 million in Infrastructure money in the Stimulus Bill. Let’s think about this. The $14 Trillion has no Buy American clauses on it.  Every American is free to choose where they buy products from. Will our trading partners really going to start a trade war with us over directing this relatively small amount to our own rescue?

Let’s also get real about the nature of our trading partners. A news article recently said that America was the last “trade virgin” in the world. What they meant was that every other nation is directing their stimulus money inward And that doesn’t account for all the “real protectionism” they practice every day. I’m talking about the way they manipulate their currencies. The laws that shield their domestic products from competition. The subsidies they provide their exporters. The illegal dumping of products into our markets. I’m ready to have a showdown at high noon. Trading partners, show me your trade protections, and I’ll show you ours. Let’s see who has a claim after that.

America got in trouble leaving our economy to the dumbest, smart people we have. It’s time for us to realize this stuff isn’t rocket science. “Buy American” makes sense and is simply right for everyone.

I want to close my remarks with a concern and a warning. Just because those other folks are wrong, doesn’t mean they won’t prevail. Those that shipped our jobs out of America fought hard to strip the Buy American clause out of the stimulus.

Common Americans defeated them and kept the “Buy American” provisions in the stimulus. But the quick-buck gang has a plan to steal it away from us. They intend to go to where that money is actually spent and try to use all kinds of waivers and back room maneuvers to frustrate the will of the people. The West Virginia Legislature and Governor Manchin and all states and governors across this nation are being asked to pass these “Buy American” Resolutions.

I am deeply appreciative of the support our elected leaders have shown here in West Virginia. The United Steelworkers and our friends in the Alliance for American Manufacturing are working tirelessly to pass these resolutions in every governmental level in America. Every State, Every County, Every Town, Everywhere.

We’re not stopping at resolutions. We are going to become a force of working family Auditors. Yep, you heard me right. We are going to audit them for once. We are going to be the watchers of the Buy American laws.

We’re going to insist everything is out in the open. We’re going to check out every purchase. We’re going to look at every waiver request. We’re going to our domestic employers and have them put in bids. We’re going to demand that this law works for working Americans. Greed, we got our eye on you!

I want to thank the organizers of this rally. I want to thank the media that’s here. I want to thank the domestic employers that are here. I want to thank our elected representatives for their patriotic actions. But most of all I want to thank each citizen who is here today. This is what it’s about. Getting involved, getting our voices heard. Getting our nation back on track.

With all deference to our employer partners and elected friends, the very last thing I will ask you to consider, is where would we be without our unions? Who would be leading this? Who would be organizing this? Who would insist that we follow through?

As a proud American, as a proud union man, as a humble believer in democracy, I thank you all.