Posted on 10/30/2004 9:45:59 AM PDT by AM2000
Senators Tom Daschle and John Kerry, Governor Jim McGreevey, and many others in the Democratic Party have created hysteria on the issue of outsourcing. Most legislation to ban or restrict outsourcing in state legislatures or Congress have been introduced by Democrats. Yet, many Indian Americans know the outsourcing issue is one that has been created by Democrats for political gain at their expense.
The economy has added 1.9 million jobs in 13 consecutive months, 49 states have added jobs in 2004, the unemployment rate has dropped in 45 states and nearly 140 million Americans are working, an all-time high. Our economy in late 2003 registered the strongest economic growth in nearly 20 years.
Indian Americans know outsourcing is being used by Senator Kerry and Democrats as a way to score political points with labour unions and they resent this because they know John Kerry has previously voted in favour of free trade agreements.
President Bush is doing everything possible to respect the rights of all Americans and keep our nation safe from the terrorists who are trying to attack us. When Congress passed the Patriot Act, it required the Justice Department to investigate whether the law resulted in civil rights abuses. Of the more than 3,500 complaints received, not one was found to have had anything to do with a substantive provision of the Act.
Under Attorney General John Ashcroft's leadership, the Justice Department has aggressively pursued the perpetrators of bias-motivated crimes.
During the first two years of the Bush Administration, the Civil Rights Division at the Justice Department charged 316 defendants with criminal civil rights violations and successfully prosecuted 243.
The Civil Rights Division aggressively cracked down on "9/11 backlash" crimes -- crimes committed against individuals perceived to be of Arab, South Asian or Muslim descent.
Working with the FBI and the US Attorneys' offices, the Civil Rights Division has investigated over 500 allegations of such bias-motivated crimes and assisted local prosecutors in initiating an additional 125 prosecutions. President Bush also became the first president ever to ban racial profiling on the federal level.
President Bush is a strong supporter of small businesses. The Small Business Administration (SBA) increased its government contracts to small businesses by 23 percent, from $53 billion in 2002 to the historic level of nearly $66 billion in 2003.
Also, contracts to minority owned businesses under the 8(a) programme nearly doubled from $4.4 billion in 2002 to more than $10 billion in 2003.
Under President Bush's leadership, US-India relations have strengthened. Historic joint military exercises have taken place. Bilateral trade is increasing every year.
After President Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met, a number of well-respected Indian journalists and former government officials noted that India had much to gain by another Bush presidency. After a successful meeting between President Bush and Prime Minister Singh in September 2004, India and the US signed a joint statement, which noted, "bilateral relations had never been as close as they were at present," and Prime Minister Singh told President Bush, "under your distinguished leadership, our two countries' relations have grown in diverse ways, but I do believe that the best is yet to come".
President George W. Bush has shown a real commitment to Indian Americans. President Bush has named 15 Americans of Indian origin to full-time political appointments, the highest in any administration ever, 13 of which have been secured by second-generation Indian Americans.
In fact, President Bush appointed more Indian Americans in three-and-a-half years than President Clinton did in eight years!
For the first time ever, two Indian Americans, Karan Bhatia and Bobby Jindal, were nominated and confirmed by the Senate as Assistant Secretaries, on Dec 9, 2003 and May 25, 2001, respectively.
Jindal served nearly two years in this capacity, and Bhatia continues to serve.
Indian Americans know Republicans are working hard and reaching out to them. They know President Bush is actively appointing qualified Indian Americans to meaningful positions in his administration.
They know Republicans are providing families and small businesses tax relief, advocating medical malpractice reform, and promoting stronger family and moral values. Indian Americans have seen the growing ties between their community and the Republican Party.
They have also seen Democrats take them for granted, ignore them on a national scale and only recognize their existence a few weeks before the election.
On Nov 2, I respectfully request Indian Americans to carefully consider the track records of President Bush and Senator Kerry when it comes to US-India ties and who truly supports the Indian American community.
(The writer is co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans. The article has been made possible by the Washington-based Indian American Centre for Political Awareness (IACPA).
--Indo-Asian News Service
Kerry is Osama's man, Bush is mine.
I could have sworn that said "American Indians." Cognitive dissonance ...
That said, I can't think why Indian Americans would vote for Kerry. If they wanted to live in an ethnically and religiously-balkanized country with an economy choked by bureaucracy and corruption, wouldn't they have stayed in India?
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