Accepting The Lowest Bid, Part 1
by pessimist
There has been a lot of attention focussed on Richard Clarke's testimony about how George Warmonger Bush failed to defend the nation against terror when there were clear and numerous warnings. This is as it should be, and if there really were justice in the world, the entire Bush (mis)Administration would already be lined up against the wall.
But this isn't the only traitorous act the Bush Leaguers have been committing in the face of clear and numerous warnings. Last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell was gallivanting about South Asia in an effort to reassure our allies there that they can continue their activities - stealing our jobs and adversely affecting our national economic security - with impunity.
In India, Powell defends U.S. jobs policies
Secretary of State Colin Powell, encountering the other side of a tempestuous debate in the United States, sought to assure Indians that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country. At times, Powell sounded almost as if he were participating in the presidential campaign in the United States. "Outsourcing is a natural effect of the global economic system and the rise of the Internet and broadband communications," Powell said. "You're not going to eliminate outsourcing. But at the same time, when you outsource jobs, it becomes a political issue in anybody's country."In February, Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, stirred a political outcry when he called the outsourcing of jobs a long-term benefit for the economy. While Powell said on Tuesday that "it is the reality of 21st century economics that these kinds of dislocations will take place," he was quick to add that the Bush administration would work to train people for new jobs.
The White House endorsed Powell's comments.
I think somebody in Washington needs to find new jobs.
Just last month, it was reported that only the government created any new jobs - the private sector remained essentially steady. Since there are no new jobs being created, where is the incentive to train anyone for a new job? In addition, with all of the cuts that used to benefit the bottom 99% being eliminated by BushCo so that their investment in the top 1% remains unaffected, who is going to pay for this training? Those who need it can't, and those who can won't. Welcome to the end result of the Reagan Revolution.
I give Colin Powell a point or two for noticing that outsourcing hurts:
Outsourcing is inevitable, says Colin Powell
Powell said outsourcing invariably did result in loss of jobs and "we have to do a good job in the US of creating opportunities to provide more jobs so that those who have lost jobs have opportunities in the future."
"But all is not bleak!" would be the response from the Oval Office if I was to bother them for a response:
Powell said the issue of outsourcing was discussed during his intensive parleys with Sinha. "While we have outsourced some job positions to India, there are opportunities for Americans as well to service Indian needs and we hope India understands the need for reforms so that we can have more opportunities here," he said.
I am SO reassured, especially in light of this news:
Powell urges India to open its markets
Seeking to cut costs, companies from the United States and other Western countries have hired about 170,000 workers in India for jobs such as payroll accounting, telemarketing and customer support services. The figure is expected to reach 1.1 million by 2008, industry groups say.
Are we outraged yet? SOMEONE is:
Colin Powell Reassures India That Bush Will Keep Outsourcing US Jobs
It is so reassuring that American universities teach the programming languages and other high-tech education required for the jobs referred to by the Secretary of State to the Indians , only to benefit India. Do we grant the Indians scholarships and student loans, too? That would make even more sense. Posted by: Phillip Vincent at March 20, 2004 06:13 PM
It used to be that one country taking another's resources was an act of war. Now, it is an act of good business practice. Just what are our Elected Representatives doing about this?
Secretary says more trade won't halt job outsourcing
Outsourcing has become a subject of debate in the United States ahead of November’s presidential elections. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers have said they would seek to limit the practice, and the U.S. Senate has passed a bill — awaiting presidential approval — that would prohibit government contractors from shifting work overseas.
Yeah - THIS too shall pass - NOT!
India and other developing countries oppose such curbs, saying Washington should not preach free trade and then try to block the global flow of jobs. Washington counters that Americans would find it easier to stomach the loss of jobs to India if New Delhi helped to generate jobs by liberalizing trade. Last week, Powell said the U.S. market remains more open to Indian firms and their products than the Indian market to U.S. trade and investment. On Tuesday, he said the United States should focus on services it can provide to other countries. “We should focus on those and make sure we are training our young people for those kinds of jobs,” he said.
Watch out for those splashes coming from all those shots across our bows!
Powell asks India to open its markets
The shift of information technology jobs to overseas locations such as India and China has raised the hackles among trade unions and on Capitol Hill, and outsourcing has become a hot-button topic among U.S. presidential candidates. Legislators have proposed a number of bills to stem what they see as a threat to the U.S. economy. Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., for instance, last month introduced the U.S. Workers Protection Act, which would ban offshore outsourcing in several areas of government work.Powell said that outsourcing was an inevitable offshoot of capabilities that the Internet and broadband technologies have made available to companies.
"That gives you the kind of outsourcing that we have seen here. We have also seen outsourcing of jobs in the U.S. to Mexico, China and to other parts of the world" as the global economy develops, Powell said. "At the same time, we hope there will be trading opportunities in other parts of the world, so that the U.S. can offset the losses."
How? Through lower prices at Wal-Mart?? Nice to know that you feel our pain. You should ask yourself Colin: Is Your Job Going Offshore? Maybe then you would understand why the following facts are not pleasant to most of us:
• Labor groups asked the Bush administration yesterday to investigate whether to impose steep duties on Chinese goods because of alleged workers' rights abuses they said have caused massive U.S. job losses. John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, the United States' largest labor organization, said Chinese companies are able to pay their workers 47 to 86 percent less than they should because of routine workers' rights violations.
This certainly is beginning to be a local issue, as this article shows:
Cohen Calls on Gregg to Reject Powell’s Comments on Outsourcing Jobs to India
State Sen. Burt Cohen called on Judd Gregg to reject Secretary of State Colin Powell's promise of continued support for the outsourcing of American jobs to India. Speaking to Indian leaders and college students in New Delhi , Powell assured them that the Bush Administration would stop any effort to halt the flow of these jobs."Judd Gregg owes it to the people of New Hampshire to reject Colin Powell’s view that the outsourcing of American jobs to India is sound economic policy,” said Cohen. “Judd Gregg thinks that we all shouldn’t overreact to the outsourcing of American jobs, but it’s time he showed New Hampshire ’s middle class the respect they deserve by standing up for their jobs." Last week Gregg opposed a budget amendment that included an extension of Trade Adjustment Assistance, which helps laid-off workers with retraining and health care costs, to service sector workers. The measure Gregg opposed also included eliminating tax advantages for companies that move factories overseas.
This issue is beginning to raise a stink that even the White House can't ignore:
India, US spat on outsourcing grows
The hue and cry raised in United States over job loses has made the Bush administration take a serious note about plugging an economic hole. Outsourcing of jobs has also snowballed into a major issue for the upcoming U.S. presidential elections. United States Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told Senate's Finance Committee last week "isolating America from the world is not the answer. We need to open markets for American companies to compete in the world economy, so we can create new jobs and build economic strength at home."
Note that it's American companies, and not american workers, that concerns Zoellick so!
"When we work with the world effectively, America is economically stronger. Ninety-five percent of the world's customers live outside our borders, and we need to open those markets for our manufacturers, our farmers and ranchers, and our service companies."The exact number of job loses due to outsourcing is not known since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics does not break down jobs lost overseas. The job-loss estimate that is cited most frequently comes from a 2002 report by Forrester Research, which projected that 3.3 million U.S. jobs would be shipped offshore by 2015. Indo Asian News Service quoted Gartner Inc., another research firm, as saying that 500,000 information technology jobs may go offshore by the end of this year.
State legislators in Missouri and Kansas have joined the campaign against outsourcing U.S. tech jobs by sponsoring legislation to stem the tide. The legislators have brought bills that would require the states to do certain kinds of business only with contractors that perform the work within the United States. "We got a wake-up call last year," said Sen. Joan Bray, a St. Louis Democrat and sponsor of one bill in Missouri. "When we found out the Department of Social Services had contracted with a company that moved its call center to India, we didn't like the idea that we were paying good Missouri tax dollars to employ people overseas." Some 80 bills with anti-outsourcing goals are pending in at least 30 states across the United States.
David Shaffer, president of the Public Policy Institute, an Albany-based think tank, has warned that attempts by American lawmakers to introduce restrictive curbs on companies keen on outsourcing to countries like India could have a retributive effective in the long term. "It's all a cover-up, frankly. They don't want you to realize that New York's problem isn't China or India. It's Albany. With its government-imposed high cost of doing business, New York state has lagged behind the nation's job growth for decades. In the current recession, we've (New York) lost jobs 1.7 times faster than the nation as a whole," Shaffer said in an article published New York Post. "Fact is, we need to imitate India, not whine about it," Shaffer said.
Let's send your job to India and see who whines then, Bozo! Even though this is becoming an issue with American voters, where does the White House stand on this?
POWELL ADMITS BUSH SUPPORTS OUTSOURCING
Last month President Bush strongly endorsed the loss of U.S. jobs to foreign labor markets [CBSNews.com], personally signing a report that touted overseas outsourcing [ABCNews.com] despite more than 8 million Americans being out of work [Bureau of Labor Statistics]. After the public reacted with outrage, [CNN], with the president reassuring America that he is concerned [WhiteHouse.gov] about "people looking for work because jobs have gone overseas" and saying that "we need to act to make sure there are more jobs at home." However, as the controversy subsides, the president is apparently endorsing outsourcing once again.Specifically, the president has deployed Secretary of State Colin Powell to India [New York Times] "to assure Indians that the Bush administration would not try to halt the outsourcing of high-technology jobs to their country." The admission came despite a new study showing that up to 14 million American jobs could be lost to outsourcing [Miami Herald] in the coming years. Instead of endorsing congressional action [BBC News] to prevent such a tide of lost jobs,"the White House endorsed Mr. Powell's comments" that outsourcing is just "a natural effect" that cannot be stemmed.
The president's support for outsourcing is less puzzling when considering who is funding his campaign. As an earlier Daily Mislead report showed, the president's campaign pocketed more than $440,000 and his party more than $3.6 million from the companies that are most exploiting outsourcing to ship U.S. jobs overseas.
What do members of the public think of this?
no_hypocrisy (840 posts) Thu Mar-18-04 10:39 AM1. Waiting for the punchline: tax incentives for corps. that outsource.
We will make our citizens pay too much money for taxes or they will go to jail. Then we will take their money and give multiconglomerates a lot of money to take away the jobs of American citizens to another country. And we will still make the job-challenged masses pay the same amount of taxes next year. The upside? We will not raise income taxes next year.
Ryan10 (11 posts)
Thu Mar-18-04 12:09 PM2. Where is the outrage?
Powell is reassuring the Indians regarding job security when this administration doesn't give a rodent's rectum about Americans losing jobs.
Let's install Bush as Prime Minister of India!!!RoadRunner (764 posts)
Thu Mar-18-04 04:36 PM3. HI Ryan10, Welcome to DU!!
Glad'ya found us!
New Mexico. We're not new. We're not Mexico.Your Highness (68 posts)
Thu Mar-18-04 09:26 PM4. AHHHHHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am SO mad I could spit fire! The arrogance of this administration. These bastards must GO!
LibertyorDeath (1000+ posts)
Wed Mar-24-04 01:53 AM5. Kick
brokensymmetry (779 posts)
Wed Mar-24-04 10:40 AM6. Amazing.
We've got to keep hammering this. Pocketbook issues are the key to November, IMO. True individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made. (FDR)
Mulkum (13 posts)
Fri Mar-26-04 04:42 AM7. Daddy and Bothers Bush are doing it
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&a...
Please add any comments to the end of the third seciton ... Thanks!