The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Working to Ensure Yinzers can Make It In America

By House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer

September 23, 2022

Pittsburgh has always been a city of builders and makers. From the Empire State Building to the Grand Coulee Dam, Pittsburgh’s steelworkers produced the building blocks for the greatest civil-engineering projects in our history.

Without that steel and the workers who produced it, America never could have become the “great arsenal of democracy” that liberated the world from tyranny. Neither could we have built the export-economy whose goods have made our nation more prosperous than any other in the world.

Pittsburgh engineers and innovators today are building robotics and other advanced technologies that are fueling twenty-first century manufacturing innovation. I’ll never forget my visit in 2018 to Carnegie Mellon’s robotics campus with Rep. Mike Doyle and to one of this city’s technology incubators where entrepreneurs are turning ideas into world-changing, American-made products.

Health care researchers here are at the forefront of innovation as well, making medical devices and discovering new treatments and cures that save and improve lives while helping to make care more affordable and accessible.

Yinzers made America; they deserve a Congress that can deliver opportunities for them to Make It In America.

That’s why it’s ironic that House Republicans, who have become the party of dismantling progress, have chosen to hold an event near Pittsburgh to unveil their radical agenda. Instead of offering ideas or policies to help entrepreneurs, innovators and workers build, they are doubling down on their support for Donald Trump’s MAGA extremism and the insurrectionists who tried to destroy our democracy on Jan. 6, 2021.

They want to unravel the promise of Medicare and Social Security for the middle class in order to pay for tax cuts for the extremely wealthy and large corporations. Moreover, they want to deny women the right to make their own health care decisions and even to have procedures necessary to save their own lives. They never miss an opportunity to bully the least powerful in our country, spread outlandish conspiracy theories, or suppress Americans’ right to vote.

Inspired by those who’ve worked hard to build Pittsburgh and build America over generations, House Democrats have spent the past two years helping to rebuild our economy from the pandemic – and built it back stronger for our businesses and workers. Democrats know that America’s success this century depends on the same kind of innovation and work ethic the Steel City has always embodied.

That’s why we’ve made our country, families, and communities stronger by launching the American Rescue Plan that put shots in arms and money in pockets, launching the fastest recovery in our history and creating nearly 10 million jobs. It’s why we invested in rebuilding and expanding America’s roads, railways, and bridges — like the Fern Hollow Bridge that collapsed here in January and is already being reconstructed — and creating millions of new high-wage union jobs in the process.

It’s why we took action to make our supply chains more resilient and promote the kind of innovation and skills training that helps our workers compete with China and other countries to win the future. Furthermore, that’s the reason why we worked so hard to enact major legislation last month that lowers health-care, prescription-drug, and energy costs for Americans while addressing the climate crisis by investing in American-made clean-energy technologies like many being pioneered here in Pittsburgh.

Democrats’ vision sees government creating the ideal conditions for American businesses to grow, American workers to succeed, and American families to secure a place in a strong middle class. That’s how we’ve approached governing over the past two years since President Biden took office and Democrats won full control of Congress.

In so many ways, control of Congress and the White House has enabled Democrats to achieve much of the popular Make It In America plan I launched in 2010, which is designed to help American workers and businesses compete and succeed in the twenty-first century. In developing and promoting that plan, I visited communities across America, including Pittsburgh. To date, Congress has enacted twenty-three Make It In America bills.

As President Biden tweeted earlier this month, “‘Make It In America’ is no longer just a slogan” but an “economic plan where it is a reality.” We’re seeing that everywhere in Pittsburgh, where we are rebuilding our infrastructure with American steel and American workers, thanks to Democrats’ successful economic policies.

House Republicans may be unveiling their platform today outside Pittsburgh, but Yinzers won’t be fooled. Neither will other Americans across our country, who can plainly see the difference between those using empty promises to cover up extremism and those building bridges of opportunity to ensure that all of our people can Make It In America.