Thousands of federal jobs may go abroad, U.S. says

Statesman ^ | 9/11/03 | Marilyn Geewax

[Seajay]

Yeah - not to worry - the Prez is appointing an Undersecretary of Labor for manufacturing - all will be well!
No child left behind! Smite the Wogs!

Watch "FOXS NEWS" for the latest on Laci ....

Aint it kewl!

[Revolting cat!]

Oh great! Some Defense Department contracts for weaponry could be picked up by highly motivated and already trained workforces in Gaza Strip and in North Korea.

[azhenfud]

We should demand no employment be allowed for anyone who doesn't file and/or pay taxes in the United States and totally bar non-citizens.

[sgtbono2002]

I am all for Privatising as long as the jobs stay in America, Outsourcing these jobs to foreigners is Bull Crap. and President Bush better wake up and smell the Roses.

[azhenfud]

All your missiles are belong from China.

[DoughtyOne]

Let me say this in as plain a way as I can for the leadership of the republican party. Take a good look at California. You may not realize it, but you're facing an open revolt from your base. Bush, Rove, RNC leadership, you folks may think you can get away with anything. I'm here to tell you that you can't.

If breaking this nation up and parceling it off is the only way to keep at least some of it sacrosanct, then perhaps it's time to face that reality and get on with it.

Some of us are out here in California trying to protect your rear guard, and you're sitting back there trying to figure out how to increase that 2.6 million loss of jobs to 5.0 million.

What drugs are you sons-of-bi_ches on back there anyway?

[af_vet_rr]

While I do support the concept of "privatization," does anyone else get the feeling that there's something really wrong when the government contracts it's jobs out to foreign workers?

Why not? The Department of Defense is buying some of its goods from China and the like, might as well farm everything out.

This bothers the hell out of me. I can understand a private company (although I may not like). To think that foreign companies in other countries could end up doing some of the federal government's work makes me sick. I don't even want to think about them doing any kind of data processing with our data.

[Ohioan]

You understate.

This is almost beyond belief.

Of course, many of the jobs being exported should simply be eliminated. We need to trim Government, not turn it over to foreigners.

William Flax Return Of The Gods Web Site

[BlazingArizona]

WASHINGTON -- President Bush's push to outsource hundreds of thousands of federal jobs could end up shifting some high-tech employment to foreign workers, administration and industry officials said Thursday.

Let's outsource as many federal jobs as we can to EUROPE. That means they won't get done. The US economy, let alone the rest of the world, will benefit.

[harpseal]

Maybe we can outsource the Congress and any top executives in the administreation who thus send American jobs offshore. This could cost GWB big time. I am all for using American private contractors where they can be used but American citizenship and location should be a requirement for any of these jobs.

Ping

On or off let me know

[aMorePerfectUnion]

... since when has the gov't cared about saving money for the taxpayers? This ISN'T the American Way!!!!!!!!!

[steve-b]

Outsource the jobs that involve bureaucrats enforcing stupid regulations to France. Then the stupid regulations would become dead letters, as the enforcers would surrender at the first show of resistance.

Seriously, though, this is a stupid idea both politically and on its merits. As someone pointed out earlier, there are some jobs that should simply be abolished, but outsourcing government functions to foreigners is absurd on its face.

[harpseal]

Bush had better adopt the following if he does not wish to be a one term President.

Acknowledgement RDB3 who helped hammer out this plan.

In no particular order of importance.

1. Get rid of government subsidies for offshore investment of US companies. OPIC is the first such program which should go but support of World Bank programs that subsidize the outflow of Capital would be another.

2. Use tariffs on those nations which are engaged in unfair trade practices such as currency manipulation (China and India for example), those nations which refuse to open their markets to US products (China for example with its 50% tariffs on US consumer goods and non tariff barriers), those nations that subsidize competition to American Industry (airbus for example) and those nations which have slave conditions for their workers.

3. Use tariffs and other means to prevent the relocation of jobs offshore that are essential to the national defense. If necessary take control of the company seeking to export vital technology or industry by means of eminent domain (No I do not like this last option and I will only defend its use as an absolute last resort like say in the case of rare earth magnets essential to smart bomb technology). Provide a hardened, widely distributed infrastructure to supply all that is needed for our military units and civil defense that can be continued to be deployed in the event of any military attack.

4. An immediate end to guest worker programs. If people wish to come to the USA to work and make a life let them immigrate according to the rules.

5 Provide economic development zones where the corporate income tax is zero for operations within these zones. In order to operate in this zone a company must agree to only purchase American components if available and employ only American citizens or legal immigrants in these operations. These economic development zones shall be eventually be expanded to include every bit of every state once the benefits are shown I would like them to be totally implemented immediately but I realize that may be overreaching. It must be stated for clarification that simply being in the geographic area of the zones does will not subject any company to any new mandatory regulation. Everything is voluntary for getting the exclusion from corporate taxation. The profit attributable to direct imports is subject to the same rules that exist everywhere else in this nation for corporate taxation. Only free from such taxation is the profit attributable to American content and any American improvement. In short no new mandatory regulation will be a part of this. It is my opinion that there will not be a lack of companies seeking this tax relief. And no the regulation implied is absolutely minimal in order to get this through.

6. Scale back unnecessary regulation including the tort system. Institute a cap on punitive damages, limits on class action suits, and limits on liability to the actual percentage of liability with no plaintiff able to collect if said plaintiff was involved in the commission of a felony at the time of the alleged tort or was more than 49% negligent in the alleged tort. Note that the loser in a frivolous lawsuit shall pay the attorney fees of the winner. There are many other regulatory structures that also need to be included that need to be included such as repealing the Family leave mandate, getting rid of OSHA etc.

7. Increase the domestic content in purchases by the Department of defense and give absolute preference in non-domestic content to proven allies of the USA over say the French or Germans. The only reason any content for DOD purchase may come from non US allies is that content is not available elsewhere and is essential.

8. Do not allow expense involved in moving operations overseas to be included in business expenses under the IRS code.

9. Prosecute for perjury anyone who has made a false statement in order to employ an H1B or L1 visa worker. I will be lenient on the actual perjurer if he/she was ordered to make this false statement and he/she provides testimony to aid in the conviction of the person ordering the perjury. Just because a person is a CEO does not give them a pass on criminal behavior.

10. Prosecute anyone who orders the transfer of vital defense technology or funds a R&D project that could be of use to our military overseas except to strong allies of the USA. Make the necessary enhancements to our espionage laws so that continued support or funding of any R&D in a nation whose government has threatened the USA is guilty of espionage. The UK and Australia come to mind as meeting these criteria for being eligible for transfer of technology first. There will be other nations and a gradation of what can be transferred to which specific nation. Under no circumstances may technology be transferred to any nation whose government has threatened the USA within five years without a complete change of government or specific exemption from Congress and the administration.

11. Deport all illegal aliens immediately and take measures that prevent the entry of any more illegal aliens. Fine all companies knowingly employing illegal aliens Criminal sanctions should be imposed on anyone helping an illegal alien stay in the USA in violation of our laws.

12. Decrease the punishing levels of taxation on companies and eliminate the double taxation on corporate dividends. See effects of item 5 for how minimal this will be if item 5 covers the entire USA. Eliminate all IRS provisions that inhibit free use of independent contractors by businesses for example section 1706.

13. Eliminate the minimum wage so that the worker can be paid based on productivity. Overtime compensation will remain the same but instead of 150% of the "wage" the worker would receive 150% of the production pay. If one through 13 are enacted # 14 becomes an irrelevancy as no one will be working for that low a wage.

Now since I started posting this plan another idea has come up that in my opinion is a very good policy that stands on its own. Now I give credit to Jim Gibson and Freeper Ed_in_NJ for coming up with the idea, separately to the best of my knowledge. However I can be corrected on that. The tariff phrasing is from Jim Gibson.

“I suggest that the US Customs Department charge a $1,000-per-container inspection fee on every container entering the United States. This fee would be used to completely fund the cost of inspections. If we assumed that a four-man team could fully inspect two containers a day or about 500 per year, it would require 48,000 inspectors. Allowing for at least 2,000 support personnel, we would need at least 50,000 workers. Because these workers would require high intelligence and skill levels they should earn at least $30 per hour. At 40-hour weeks plus benefits, I estimate the cost per worker to be over $75,000 per year, all paid by the foreign manufacturers. Even so, this would still leave over $2.25 billion to cover all other costs. Any revenue not used would be used to compensate American workers displaced by foreign imports. “

I urge and encourage everyone who agrees with this plan and or the terror tariff idea to communicate this to every politician you can think of.

[ARCADIA]

So how far do we allow it to go before we call it treason?

[dennisw]

Thousands of federal jobs may go abroad, U.S. says...........

We can outsource nuclear weapons developement to China.

[monkeywrench]

Sure, I'll start a list of talking points to help sell this to 'the American people'. How about, 'They're just jobs that the feds don't want to do.'

[MelBelle]

Me Too SamiGirl. Lost my job June 1st to India. I might as well go down to the local grocery store and apply...

[azhenfud]

Well, it appears Sam is taking a $20.00/hr employee from their "position", outsourcing it to a foreigner for $2/hr, and placing the worker on 2/3 of the original pay at +/-$13/hr unemployment benefits which - to the money-blinded economist - appears as a 25% reduction in "expenditure".

Their way to "trim", you think?

[usurper]

I believe this article to be total BS designed to slam Bush. Look here:

President Bush's push to outsource hundreds of thousands of federal jobs COULD end up shifting SOME high-tech employment to foreign workers, administration and industry officials said Thursday.

Harris Miller, president of the trade group Information Technology Association of America, nodded "yes" Thursday when asked whether that move inevitably would mean SOME federal jobs would go to contractors or subcontractors operating over- seas.

Notices the attempted link “hundreds of thousands” vs. well actually only “some” which could mean as few as one.

Actually there are only a few federal occupations which could lend themselves to outsourcing and I can’t think of any that would be appropriate for overseas operations. I guess you could maybe have an Indian operator working a phone and answering calls on a governments help desk but that’s about all I could think of. Actually its not a bad idea at least maybe someone will actually answer the phone for a change.

[dennisw]

Thousands of federal jobs may go abroad, U.S. says...........

Lets outsource congressional staff jobs. You call up your rep or Senator for assistance and you get some Indian or Filipino guy on the horn. Hello... this is Rajid ..... so you need help with your federal small business loan