To promote American jobs and domestic manufacturing by encouraging government leaders to buy local and buy American when purchasing goods and services.
Dear Fellow Local Officials:
As Mayors, Municipal Leaders and City Managers, we understand what it means to keep things Made in America—jobs for our citizens on Main Street. We must stand together and take action to get the biggest bang possible for our tax dollars.
Imagine how many American jobs would be saved and created if we collectively decided that all municipal purchases be Made in America.
Why Mayors and Local Officials Should Care:
We all know that America is a proud nation of innovators, a nation of producers. And when there is a level playing field, we can and we do compete with the best of the best.
But lately, our manufacturing heritage has been compromised by greed, unfair legislation and short-sighted trade agreements that favor importing foreign commodities, while our American goods are outsourced to the lowest bidder overseas.
The most rapid loss of manufacturing jobs has taken place in the past ten years – between 1999 and 2009 the manufacturing workforce fell by 31 percent or 5.5 million jobs. By purchasing goods and services locally and in America we are ensuring that jobs will stay in our communities and help prevent future job loss. (See Chart Below.)
What Can We Do?
We need to demonstrate that buying American, buying locally and supporting the revitalization of the manufacturing base in our country is the only way to move forward.
That’s why we’re asking elected leaders from across our country to join me in an exciting new locally-driven coalition called “Mayors for America.”
Our mission is to bring jobs back to our citizens. We have an opportunity to leverage our existing municipal expenditures to create an economic multiplier of billions of dollars in economic spinoff, creating millions of American jobs along the way.
Join Us for the Event Kickoff in Washington, D.C.
We need your leadership. We need your ideas. We need you! Join us, Tuesday, June 12, 2012, in Washington D.C., as we launch Mayors for America. We all have tools at our disposal, and working together, we can rebuild our country into the Land of Opportunity we once knew, into the America our future generations deserve.
Let’s unleash the Power of Patriotic Purchasing!