Trying to revitalize the industries of the last century is a dead end.

Funding basic research into nano technologies and new non fossil fuel resources -- technologies that could be licensed for profit world wide is the only solution.

And our Neanderthal Republican and Democrat parties are just appealing to the lowest common denominator. Soup in every pot bullshit as usual.

Check the World Bank datasets and do some calculations then you might get a clue of what is really happening here and in the world -- factor inflation into the GDI of the time periods you are arguing;

Adjusted for inflation
2004-2008 -7% USA GDI
2008-2011 -4% USA GDI

We are losing less ground today

The loss is less but that is not growing and moving forward.

You cannot buy jobs -- it's make work - a stopgap. You need disruptive innovation to create demand and to achieve that you need to spend money on basic research and get lucky. Not and easy task but we have done this over and over in the nation's history. Trying to do what we were doing ten years ago is not going to create a future, only failure and bellyaching.