Plain Dealer – Kudos to Alan Tonelson for underscoring how important manufacturing is to our economic recovery (Opinion, Sunday). For too many years, the federal government showed an indifference to manufacturing — contributing to the closure of more than 40,000 manufacturing facilities in the past decade. We're one of the only industrialized countries without a national manufacturing policy, and we're paying the price for it.

President Barack Obama is starting to reverse eight years of policies that shipped good-paying jobs overseas and shuttered our manufacturing facilities. But it's not enough. We need to help manufacturers access credit so they can expand operations and hire new workers. We need to reverse unfair trade policies and promote exports. And we need to help manufacturers retool so they can produce the components we'll need to address 21st-century energy and national security challenges.

As President Obama fights for Main Street, he should promote the industry that helped build our middle class.

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