Our nation faces a painful economic transition. We have suffered a net loss of 2.8 million manufacturing jobs in the last four years. Those were jobs with decent wages and benefits.

The economic growth we have seen hasn't reached the paychecks of the vast majority of American workers. Wages have barely budged, while health care costs and energy costs have risen brutally.

Our nation can prosper in a ruthless world economy and the prosperity can reach every American worker, not just the top executives. But America's workers, researchers and small businesses need a practical partner in their government.

Here's where we should start:

1. We need to stop giving jobs away in foolish trade deals. I voted against CAFTA and other trade treaties that lack real, enforceable protections for American workers.

   But that's not enough--we're kidding ourselves if we think our economic future is low-skilled jobs in labor-intensive industries. Our future won't be like our past.

2. Our future depends on having the most skilled workforce in the world, and that requires a commitment both to formal education and to on-the-job training.
   
   

Miller's concern for the common man has led him to take a leadership role in unraveling and finding remedies for the subprime mortgage crisis. He lists as a key accomplishment House passage of an anti-predatory lending bill modeled after a much-praised North Carolina law. He also is working to provide help to homeowners facing foreclosure. (Editorial, The News & Record, 5/3/08)

I share the increasing frustration that millions of Americans feel with our situation in Iraq--the contrived reasons given for invading and the lack of any realistic plan for the aftermath of our invasion, and with the Bush Administration's failure to state clearly what has to happen for our military to come home.

The Administration has said simply that we should stay the course, but has not declared our port of destination. It is hard to believe there is a course, that we are not simply drifting rudderless.

Our military forces have served admirably. Through no fault of our troops, most Iraqis now see them as an occupying army.

Many Iraqis believe that the United States intends to occupy Iraq on a long-term basis and dominate the elected Iraqi government, rather than to respect that government as the legitimate government of a fully sovereign nation.

Iraqis' suspicions about our intentions undermine the legitimacy of the Iraqi government, and fuel the insurgency that continues unabated.

If our presence in Iraq is truly not for Iraq's oil or for a permanent staging area for military operations in that part of the world, we need to say so. We need to state clearly that we do not intend a long-term occupation of Iraq and that Iraqis will decide their own future.