Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

["Wolfe, Joanna" <joanna.wolfe AT oup.com>]

let's outsource Bush!

Joanna

> ----------
> From:         Dan Smith
> Reply To:     Internetworkers:
> http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/
> Sent:         Tuesday, February 10, 2004 6:29 PM
> To:   InterNetWorkers
> Subject:      [internetworkers] [Fwd: Bush Supports Shift of Jobs
> Overseas]
> 
> <<File: ATT164334.txt>>
> I thought this was worth a forward.  Now we know the Bush is really
> talking from both sides of his mouth about jobs.  He is SO concerned
> about jobs, his economic report to Congress endorses shipping jobs
> overseas.   From today's LA Times.
> 
> The complete article can be viewed at:
> http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/politics/whitehouse/la-na-bu
> shecon10feb10,1,5131610.story?coll=la-news-politics-white_house 
> 
> 
> -------------------
> Bush Supports Shift of Jobs Overseas 
> --------------------
> 
> The loss of work to other countries, while painful in the short
> term, will enrich the economy eventually, his report to Congress
> says.
> 
> By Warren Vieth and Edwin Chen
> Times Staff Writers
> 
> February 10 2004
> 
> WASHINGTON - The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar
> work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that
> will
> enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain
> and dislocation, the Bush administration said Monday.
> 
> 
> The embrace of foreign outsourcing, an accelerating trend that has
> contributed to U.S. job losses in recent years and has become an
> issue
> in the 2004 elections, is contained in the president's annual report
> to
> Congress on the health of the economy.
> 
>  "Outsourcing is just a
> new way of doing international trade," said N. Gregory Mankiw,
> chairman
> of Bush's Council of Economic Advisors, which prepared the report.
> "More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's
> a
> good thing."
> 
>  The report, which predicts that the nation will
> reverse a three-year employment slide by creating 2.6 million jobs
> in
> 2004, is part of a weeklong effort by the administration to
> highlight
> signs that the recovery is picking up speed. Bush's economic
> stewardship has become a central issue in the presidential campaign,
> and the White House is eager to demonstrate that his policies are
> producing results.
> 
>  In his message to Congress on Monday, Bush
> said the economy "is strong and getting stronger," thanks in part to
> his tax cuts and other economic programs. He said the nation had
> survived a stock market meltdown, recession, terrorist attacks,
> corporate scandals and war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and was finally
> beginning to enjoy "a mounting prosperity that will reach every
> corner
> of America."
> 
>  The president repeated that message during an
> afternoon discussion about the economy at SRC Automotive, an
> engine-rebuilding plant in Springfield, Mo., where he lashed out at
> lawmakers who oppose making his tax cuts permanent.
> 
>  "When they
> say, 'We're going to repeal Bush's tax cuts,' that means they're
> going
> to raise your taxes, and that's wrong. And that's bad economics," he
> said.
> 
>  Democrats who want Bush's job were quick to challenge his claims.
> 
> 
> Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the front-runner for the
> Democratic presidential nomination, supports a rollback of Bush's
> tax
> cuts for the wealthiest Americans and backs the creation of tax
> incentives for companies that keep jobs in the United States.
> However,
> he supported the North American Free Trade Agreement, which many
> union
> members say is responsible for the migration of U.S. jobs,
> particularly
> in the auto industry, to Mexico.
> 
>  Campaigning Monday in Roanoke, Va., Kerry questioned the
> credibility of the administration's job-creation forecast.
> 
> 
> "I've got a feeling this report was prepared by the same people who
> brought us the intelligence on Iraq," Kerry said. "I don't think we
> need a new report about jobs in America. I think we need a new
> president who's going to create jobs in America and put Americans
> back
> to work." 
> 
>  In an evening appearance at George Mason University
> in Fairfax, Va., Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina mocked the Bush
> administration's economic report. 
> 
>  Edwards, who also supports
> repealing tax cuts for the richest Americans and offering incentives
> to
> corporations that create new jobs in the United States, said it
> would
> come as a "news bulletin" to the American people that the economy
> was
> improving and that the outsourcing of jobs was good for America.
> 
>  "These people," he said of the Bush administration, "what planet do
> they live on? They are so out of touch."
> 
> 
> The president's 411-page report contains a detailed diagnosis of the
> forces the White House says are contributing to America's economic
> slowdown and a wide-ranging defense of the policies Bush has pursued
> to
> combat it.
> 
>  It asserts that the last recession actually began in
> late 2000, before the president took office, instead of March 2001,
> as
> certified by the official recession-dating panel of the National
> Bureau
> of Economic Research.
> 
>  Much of the report repeats the administration's previous economic
> prescriptions.
> 
>  For instance, it says the Bush tax cuts must be made permanent to
> have their full effect on the economy.
> 
> 
> Social Security also must be restructured to let workers put part of
> their retirement funds in private accounts, the report argues. Doing
> so
> could add nearly $5 trillion to the national debt by 2036, the
> president's advisors note, but the additional borrowing would be
> repaid
> 20 years later and the program's long-term health would be more
> secure.
> 
> 
> The report devotes an entire chapter to an issue that has become
> increasingly troublesome for the administration: the loss of 2.8
> million manufacturing jobs since Bush took office, and critics'
> claims
> that his trade policies are partly to blame.
> 
>  His advisors
> acknowledge that international trade and foreign outsourcing have
> contributed to the job slump. But the report argues that
> technological
> progress and rising productivity - the ability to produce more goods
> with fewer workers - have played a bigger role than the flight of
> production to China and other low-wage countries.
> 
>  Although
> trade expansion inevitably hurts some domestic workers, the benefits
> eventually will outweigh the costs as Americans are able to buy
> cheaper
> goods and services and as new jobs are created in growing sectors of
> the economy, the report said.
> 
>  The president's report endorses
> the relatively new phenomenon of outsourcing high-end, white-collar
> work to India and other countries, a trend that has stirred concern
> within such affected occupations as computer programming and medical
> diagnostics.
> 
>  "Maybe we will outsource a few radiologists,"
> Mankiw told reporters. "What does that mean? Well, maybe the next
> generation of doctors will train fewer radiologists and will train
> more
> general practitioners or surgeons.... Maybe we've learned that we
> don't
> have a comparative advantage in radiologists."
> 
>  Government
> should try to salve the short-term disruption by helping displaced
> workers obtain the training they need to enter new fields, such as
> healthcare, Mankiw said, not by erecting protectionist barriers on
> behalf of vulnerable industries or professions. "The market is the
> best
> determinant of where the jobs should be," he said.
> 
>  Bush's quick
> visit to Missouri - his 15th to a state considered a critical
> election
> battleground - was the first of several events this week intended to
> underscore recent economic gains. Although U.S. job creation remains
> relatively sluggish, the nation's unemployment rate fell from 6.4%
> in
> June to 5.6% in January, and the economy grew at the fastest pace in
> 20
> years during the last half of 2003.
> 
>  The format of his visit to
> SRC Automotive - one that he particularly likes - involved several
> employees and local business owners sharing the stage with the
> president to discuss their perspectives on the economy, with Bush
> elaborating on their stories to emphasize particular aspects of his
> economic program.
> 
>  Today, Bush is scheduled to meet with
> economic leaders at the White House. On Thursday, he goes to
> Pennsylvania's capital, Harrisburg - in another swing state that he
> has
> already visited more than two dozen times since becoming president.
> 
>  *
> 
>  
>   _____  
> 
> Vieth reported from Washington and Chen from Springfield. Times
> staff writers Scott Martelle in Norfolk, Va., and Maria L. La Ganga
> in Roanoke, Va., contributed to this report. 
> 
> Visit Latimes.com at http://www.latimes.com
> 
>