posted on March 30, 2004 07:15:11 PM new
Tuesday, March 30, 2004
By Liza Porteus
John Kerry is hard at work bashing President Bush for his administration's support of outsourcing — or sending jobs overseas — but a new poll released Tuesday shows that high-tech companies who have outsourced 104,000 jobs are planning to create 317,000 new American jobs by 2008.
A study by the Information Technology Association of America shows that while 3 percent of U.S.-based jobs were lost as a result of outsourcing, that's fewer than the number lost in the dot-com meltdown of 2000. The money saved also helped companies hire 90,000 new workers in 2003.
"There is no doubt that the slow creation of jobs during this recovery is a hot political topic," ITAA President Harris Miller said in a Web chat Tuesday. "It is easier to blame factors such as offshoring — where you can point your finger at someone or some country — than to blame general economic notions such as 'business cycle' or 'telecom bust.'
"It is hard for a television station to show a picture of an economic cycle. It is easy to show a picture of a Filipino or Indian or Irish IT worker. So I expect that unless we see a quick, dramatic drop in unemployment, which no one is projecting, than the offshoring issue will be a major topic between the parties right through November and beyond," Miller added.
"Outsourcing" has become part of the presidential campaign lexicon this season as the parties argue over the lackluster job growth during Bush's term in office.
The manufacturing sector started sending work abroad in the 1980s but now, an increasing number of white-collar, high-tech sector positions, manufacturing jobs and telephone call centers are offshore — primarily in India and China.
"You'll clearly hear Iraq mentioned in a lot of political ads this year, but references to India may be a close second — all because 'outsourcing' has become a key buzz word in the national debate about jobs in this country," said Erik Potholm, partner at Stevens Reed Curcio and Potholm, a Republican media consulting firm.
"Candidates and campaigns better develop messages and responses to the 'outsourcing' question because voters have big, big concerns about it, especially in key battleground states. And the issue isn't going away anytime soon."
Voters are definitely tuned in to the jobs issue. The latest Fox News poll found that by a 50-27 percent matchup, voters think Bush would do a better job of protecting the nation from terrorist attacks than Kerry. But Kerry is seen by 48 percent as the candidate better able to protect and create jobs in the United States than Bush, who polled higher among 31 percent of those surveyed.
"I think that they're beginning to understand more as they're beginning to see more news about outsourcing and I think there's a lot of sensitivity now about job loss," said Cassandra Butts, senior vice president and coordinator for economic policy at the Center for American Progress.
"It's obviously just a component of the job loss issue but it's a component that's getting a lot more attention."
Kerry, a four-term Democratic senator from Massachusetts, consistently reminds voters that more than 2 million jobs have been lost during Bush's White House tenure. He promises to keep more jobs at home by taxing offshore businesses of U.S. corporations to cover other parts of his tax-reform plan.
"This administration thinks outsourcing is just dandy … I don't think it makes sense, George Bush does," Kerry said in a campaign speech Tuesday. "And when I'm president, we will take away any incentive for Americans to pay for the loss of their own jobs."
Kerry even has a name for corporations that send work overseas while still taking advantage of U.S. tax benefits: Benedict Arnold corporations.
The Bush-Cheney campaign, meanwhile, is painting Kerry's views on outsourcing as isolationist and argues that keeping markets open is key to keeping America competitive.
"I think it would be absolutely wrong for America to be so pessimistic about our ability to compete that we become economic isolationists," Bush said Tuesday. "I believe this nation can compete anywhere, anytime, anyplace so long as the rules are fair."
"It's one aspect of trade, and there can't be any doubt about the fact that trade makes the economy stronger," Treasury Secretary John Snow added Monday. "You can outsource a lot of activities and get them done just as well at a lower cost. If we can keep the American economy strong and growing and expanding, we'll create lots of jobs."
One economic analyst said that the number of IT jobs lost to outsourcing is greater than in other industries, and is really responsible for only a small fraction of the jobs lost in the last three years.
"There's a tendency to blame offshore outsourcing for all of our labor problems in the U.S. economy today," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist for Global Insight, which conducted the ITAA study. But "we think it's a very small share, it's most pronounced in this [IT] industry … in terms of overall job loss, it really is tiny," he added, saying it may be as little as 2 to 5 percent
According to a DiamondCluster International survey released on Friday, of 182 companies, 86 percent plan to increase the use of offshore outsourcing firms, giving Kerry ample ammunition to continue hammering away at Bush.
But one Republican analyst said the president's economic message is stronger than Kerry's, and poll numbers are already beginning to reflect a shift toward recognizing that.
"[Bush's] message was essentially not getting out at all … now the polls are beginning to turn differently," said Republican strategist James Lake. "I think the continuation of this campaign will see this president and the campaign aggressively get the message out about the economy and the tremendous job the president is doing on terrorism and I think it's those things that are going to make
'We have dispatched Dr. David Kay...to search for the bio-warfare agents we believe hidden in Senator Kerry's forehead. If Senator Kerry has used botox as part of a wrinkle enrichment program, he is in violation of UN Resolution 752. Upon receiving Dr. Kay's report, the weapons of mass destruction that Senator Kerry so adamantly insists do not exist...may well be above his very nose.'" --Dick Cheney when asked whether John Kerry has had Botox treaments
posted on March 31, 2004 04:15:24 AM new
2008 is 4 years away. Think those who are out of work in the manufacturing arena can wait 4 years to get a job they don't qualify for? It's different if a company IN the US outsources to another company IN the US. Let Mexico, India and all the other countries create their own jobs and leave ours alone.
You can sugar-coat it all you want, but the facts remain the same. We've lost more valuable manufacturing jobs since Bush took office than with any other president.
On the lighter side, since parts of Ohio are one of the hardest hit areas, I can say that Cleveland does smell a bit better. But, I'd rather have the smell of the manufacturing plants than have thousands upon thousands of men and women barely surviving.
posted on March 31, 2004 07:26:01 AM new
The quinessential American product, the Radio Flyer wagon, willnolonger bemadein America. I saw on the news last night that the company has moved the manufacture of this item to China. And this after Chicago bent over backwards keep them a couple of years ago. Another 88 Americans out of work. Yes, only a drop in the bucket. "Only" 88 people. But it all adds up.
I don't think it's "isolationist" to want to keep jobs in this country. Nor is it reasonable to believe that everyone wants or is qualified for more "higher" jobs.
******
Censorship, like charity, should begin at home; but unlike charity, it should end there --Clare Booth Luce
posted on March 31, 2004 07:57:28 AM new
bunnicula, I saw that last night also. American Flyer has been in the US for 87 years I think they said. Disney is thinking of relocating its animation to India and have closed the studios in Florida.
Levis, American Flyer and Mickey Mouse all going to third world countries and some think that there is nothing wrong with this. President Bush keeps insisting this will be good for the US but I remember a few years ago when he gave his speech and stood in front of all of those cartons with Made in China stamped on them and they had to cover the writing.
But even the American Flag went to China years ago. People want to fly it but they don't even want to pay a decent price for it either. There is no pride left anymore and "Made in USA" will no longer be found on any products.
China is turning into an economic powerhouse with the help of the US and people are lining up to buy the inferior products pumped out of there. That's why Walmart is so successful, buyers in North America can't get enough of the Made in China goods. They are bringing up their kids to buy Walmart and dollar store crap and no one seems to be concerned about quality goods nowadays.
posted on March 31, 2004 08:37:38 AM new
Even if out sourcing is over blown, there are still 3 million jobs "missing" under Bush. It is the worst job loss record since Hoover and the last Republican Depression.
posted on March 31, 2004 08:10:52 PM new
taken from MSNBC First Read - today, Mar.31.
At the same time Kerry checks into the hospital, the campaign hosts a conference call with former Clinton Labor Secretary Robert Reich "to discuss George W. Bush's broken promises and failed policies on the economy." We wonder whether anyone will ask Reich about his December 29, 2003 Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he debunked outsourcing as costing lots of jobs: "Most job losses over the last three years haven't been due to American jobs 'moving' anywhere. They've resulted from an unusually long jobs recession that, hopefully, is coming to an end... It's true that U.S. manufacturing employment has been dropping for many years, but that's not primarily due to foreigners taking these jobs. Factory jobs are vanishing all over the world.
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But, I'd rather have the smell of the manufacturing plants than have thousands upon thousands of men and women barely surviving.
