Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn is preparing to release a video via social media discussing the state’s economy and spoke with The Tennessee Star this week to discuss both the pressures it endures as well as its bright spots compared with other regions.
In the one-minute spot, which shows the senator touring a Clarksville-area manufacturing plant, she discusses the ongoing inflation challenge to producers as they attempt to provide affordable goods to Tennesseans.
“Our manufacturing sector has really been hit hard,” she said in the video. “All of the inputs that go into manufacturing — the cost of energy, the cost of diesel — all of that is affecting the price and, like most manufacturers, they are going to have to raise prices of their products so that they still have a little bit of a profit margin because the cost of those inputs and that energy is making it very difficult for manufacturers to make ends meet. What we have to remember is this: Government needs to realize they don’t create jobs; it’s the private sector that does that.”
The senator said it is up to legislators like her to create an environment conducive to private-sector flourishing. And she said the Volunteer State exemplified such an environment.
Recent data suggest as much. While a report earlier this month from the University of Tennessee’s Haslam College of Business anticipates America’s gross domestic product will contract by 0.2 percent in 2023, Tennessee’s economy is expected to grow by 0.7 percent. While no payroll growth is anticipated nationwide next year, Tennessee’s job market is expected to expand by one percent, a decent level considering the projected national recession.
Blackburn ascribes much of the state’s success to its advanced manufacturing sector, which employs about 153,000 people. She credits Tennessee’s community colleges and other educational institutions with “doing a really solid job” in preparing youth to enter the workforce. Since 2016, 36,000 state residents have gone through training programs for work in this area.
“We have this skilled workforce, well-trained,” she said. “We have a business-friendly environment. For employers, that is a recipe for job growth and expansion, and it is serving Tennessee citizens well.”
Many free-enterprise advocates regularly observe that business-friendly environment. Tennessee ranks 4th-best in the Cato Institute’s Freedom in the 50 States Index, 14th-best among states in the Tax Foundation’s 2023 State Business Tax Climate Index, and 11th-best in R Street’s Insurance Regulation Report Card. Its population growth rate since 2010 is a robust 10.7 percent.
Blackburn has worked to amplify her state’s success by advancing legislation to expand the manufacture of semiconductor chips and other innovative products. She has also worked on regulatory reform in various industries. She said one of the best signifiers of Tennessee’s success in this area has been increases in employment at such automobile manufacturers as Ford and General Motors.
She said challenges that persist for many businesses are the need to maintain sufficiently large workforces and to obtain product components during the supply-chain crisis.
“As we move forward in ’23, you’re going to see me continue to work with the state to make certain that we have this proper business environment,” she said. “We’ve got 360,000 that are employed in manufacturing [and are] addressing the supply chain issues, working to keep taxes low, working to make certain we have that business environment growing in our state, working to get inflation under control.”
To rein in inflation, which reached a 40-year high this year, she urges lawmakers to join her call to freeze federal spending levels, new hires, and salary increases.
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Bradley Vasoli is a reporter at The Tennessee Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Marsha Blackburn” by Marsha Blackburn.
