Sen. Mark Warner talks about his America Recruits Act of 2010.
I used to be governor and as a former business guy, I remember recruiting companies to Virginia. I could compete against North Carolina or against California, but I couldn't compete against Korea or China or Ireland, whose government put a ton of money in [to attract those jobs]. I put forward a proposal that says let's jump-start, up to $10,000 per job, to supplement local and state economic development efforts so that we can drive more foreign direct investment here in America.Warner adds an interesting note about the states' budget situations and the economic "stimulus" program:
Listen, as a former governor, I know what it means when you've gotta actually balance your budget, something unfortunately we don't do here in Washington. Yeah, a lot of the states are in enormous fiscal crisis. And what's a little bit ironic is some of the very governors who complain most about some of the stimulus spending, without that stimulus spending their states' budgets would even be in worse shape. I was down in Richmond the other day and I had some of my Republican legislators say, "Hey Mark, you know, we're gonna still keep bashing you for this federal spending, but keep sending that money down to Richmond because we need it." So, it's a little bit of...both sides have got a little bit of hypocrisy on their hands.
