President Barack Obama's State of the Union address last week included the obligatory references to creating jobs. Concurrent with his annual statement was a lengthy study by the Milken Institute, commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers.

The "Jobs for America" report provided a prescription for the nation's beleaguered manufacturing sector based on tax policies, loosening export restrictions and making massive investments in energy, highways and bridges and other large projects. Combined, the initiatives would create more than 11 million jobs over the next decade, authors of the study concluded.

By and large, the business of making things has taken a back seat in Washington, where policymakers are preoccupied with cleaning up messes in banking and on Wall Street, debating what to do about health-care reform, and pontificating on what some consider punitive measures regarding bankers and executive compensation.

Granted, the government-engineered rescues of General Motors and Chrysler indicate the administration's awareness of the importance of manufacturing and its constituents. So did Mr. Obama's appointment last fall of Ron Bloom as the nation's manufacturing czar, although Mr. Bloom's long service as financial adviser to the United Steelworkers union unsettled some in the target audience.

Offsetting those gestures is the fact that the taxpayer money invested in the unionized auto industry pales in comparison to the capital employed to resuscitate debilitated banks and insurer AIG. Moreover, the priority Mr. Obama has placed on health-care reform and curbing greenhouse gas emissions left many manufacturers questioning the depth of his understanding of their needs.

"He views manufacturing largely as an afterthought," says Alan Tonelson of the U.S. Business and Industry Council.

Mr. Tonelson, who works for an organization that supports the interests of family-owned or closely held businesses, said that when it comes to manufacturing, the president has done "virtually nothing aside from putting a very leaky Band-Aid on GM and Chrysler."

Against the backdrop comes the Milken Institute's NAM-backed, 10-year plan, recommending:

• Reducing the corporate income tax rate to that of other developed countries, thereby creating 2.1 million direct and indirect jobs and providing a $375 billion nudge to the economy;

• Increasing the research and development tax credit 25 percent, boosting the gross domestic product by $206 billion and generating 500,000 jobs;

• Loosening restrictions on high-value exports, juicing GDP by $64 billion and creating 340,000 jobs;

• Investing $425 billion in various forms of energy -- including clean coal and solar -- infrastructure and other projects, generating nearly 11 million jobs and $1.4 trillion in GDP growth.

"If Congress follows this road map, we will get America working again and we will make our nation stronger as a competitor in the global marketplace," says NAM President John Engler.

Lack of consensus is a way of life in the nation's capital these days, so it's not surprising that some take exception to some portions of the blueprint offered by the nation's largest manufacturers.

Tax policies do not address what Mr. Tonelson and University of Maryland economist Peter Morici believe is the largest single cause of U.S. manufacturing's malaise: China's policy of manipulating its currency in order to promote exports at the expense of U.S. producers.

"You cannot fix manufacturing without fixing the currency issue. Everything else is small potatoes," says Dr. Morici, former chief economist for the U.S. International Trade Commission.

"Until we fix that," he adds, "we're not getting out of the woods."

Mr. Tonelson described China's currency policies as "a brazen subsidy by a cutthroat competitor." While Candidate Obama promised to address them -- including, Mr. Tonelson says, during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh -- President Obama has done nothing to resolve the problem through legislation. Neither has the Democratic-controlled Congress, he says.

"They have been no more supportive of this measure than the Bush White House, which is flabbergasting," Mr. Tonelson says.

He believes that NAM's tax and infrastructure proposals would be helpful, but only if trade policies were changed first. Mr. Tonelson also recommended instituting strong Buy American requirements for federal spending, a proposal that in the past has elicited howls of protest both here and abroad.

U.S. manufacturers and workers are looking for signs that the Obama administration will follow through on a proposal for revitalizing American manufacturing released by the White House last month. But based on the sketchy initiatives in President Obama's State of the Union address, Dr. Morici believes manufacturers can write off the next three years.

"It's going to take another president. We saw that last night," he said Thursday. "The Ivy League economists who advised Bush and now Obama don't come from places that make things."

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