Bush Distances Himself from Aide on Exporting Jobs

Reuters ^ | February 12, 2004 | Adam Entous

[Deliberator]

HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) - Under pressure from fellow Republicans, President Bush distanced himself on Thursday from one of his top economic advisers who said the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to workers overseas may benefit the economy.

"The (economic) numbers are good. But I don't worry about numbers, I worry about people," Bush told students and teachers at a high school in Pennsylvania -- a pivotal state in this year's election and one of the hardest hit by factory job losses during his presidency.

Without mentioning by name the chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, Gregory Mankiw, Bush said he was concerned "there are people looking for work because jobs have gone overseas" and vowed to "act to make sure there are more jobs at home" by keeping taxes low and by retraining displaced workers. Bush offered no new initiatives to curb outsourcing and aides said he opposed restrictions on free trade.

With political concern about unemployment heating up ahead of the November presidential election, critics have seized on Mankiw's characterization of "outsourcing" by U.S. companies as "something that we should realize is probably a plus for the economy in the long run."

Democrats said his comments and the council's annual report were evidence that the Bush White House is insensitive to the plight of out-of-work Americans.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle predicted Mankiw would quit.

But Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York said, "This is the economic report of the president and not the economic report of Mr. Mankiw ... We cannot allow our Republican friends to shift the blame and the burden to Mr. Mankiw."

Senate Democrats said they would propose new protections for workers whose employers send their jobs overseas. Their proposal would require that outsourcing companies disclose their plans to their employees and to the Labor Department.

On Wednesday House Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois joined the bipartisan chorus of criticism from the U.S. Congress and the campaign trail, saying of Mankiw: "His theory fails a basic test of real economics."

The White House has rebuffed any suggestion that Mankiw resign. "That's kind of laughable," spokesman Scott McClellan said, adding: "Our economic team is doing a great job."

U.S. Commerce Secretary Don Evans defended the comments, telling CNBC: "What he praised was free trade and open trade. Every president since Herbert Hoover (1929-33) has said that free and open trade - as long as it's fair trade - is good for our economy."

At issue is the practice of a growing number of U.S. companies to move all or a portion of their operations to places like Mexico, India and China, where labor costs are lower and goods can be produced more cheaply, in order to improve corporate profits.

Nearly 2.8 million factory jobs have been lost since Bush took office and the issue looms large ahead of November's vote, where victory in rust-belt states like Pennsylvania could be key.

Underscoring its political importance to Bush's re-election, Thursday's visit was his 25th to Pennsylvania as president. He narrowly lost the state in the 2000 election, and analysts say he may have hurt his chances of winning it this year when he scrapped U.S. tariffs on steel imports in December to avert a trade war with Europe.

© Reuters 2004. All Rights Reserved.

[Joe Hadenuf]

It's your own damn problem, it's not government's job to worry about your job!

""Really Mr.President? What about that government bureaucracy OSHA...ever hear of them?""

""Try starting a business Mr. President without the overbearing threats from ADA (your daddy's other baby), EPA (Nixon's baby), IRS, OSHA to name only a few of YOUR federal bureaucracies standing in the way of "free trade".""

"Don't preach to me about "free trade" Mr. President untill you've addressed all of YOUR bureaucracies standing in the way."

"Quit waffling Mr. Bush! (There, did I do that right?)"

"No. You got it ass backwards. Government IS the problem and THAT is how it IS the government's responsibility."

__________________________________________________________

Excellent. Your post KOd those that think government is somehow innocent in this mess.

[Joe Hadenuf]

Rove and Bush BETTER get all their people together in ONE room and come up with a DECENT postion on ALL issues

This is getting PATHETIC

It went beyond pathetic some months ago.

[oceanview]

I don't want to mow a lawn because Carly Fiorina needs a new Gulfstream. If I have to mow a lawn because of some economic downdraft that sinks all boats, because of my own incompetence, because of some national or industrial economic dislocation, I'll mow it.

But that's not what is happening. It is perfectly legitimate to complain about actions of our own government.

[kittymyrib]

With Bush losing 7 points in the polls every two weeks, they'd better come up with some answers FAST or Ter-ray-za can start measuring the upstairs bedroom in the White House for new curtains.

[ElCapitanAmerica]

You're an engineer? Your days and mine are counted, good luck driving those trucks. Driving trucks is honest work, but to be quite honest, with the training you have is a total waste of resources.

In addition, truck driving is not going to help America sustain it's economic and political dominance over the world

Hey, we all can work selling cars or washing windows, the question is, do we want highly educated people doing these jobs? I'm all for hard work, but there's just something totally stupid about what you just suggested.

In the meantime, let me whine and act with my votes, while you just wait for your job to go away. I'm not going to sit around here and take up the ass, because the president takes my vote for granted. He's going to have to earn it, and I don't see that happening again. I want my country to continue to be at the top, and our people to continue to innovate the technologies that make this a better world, not picking tomatoes in the field. Which BTW, thanks to the guest worker program is not an option to 99% of the people here.

[oceanview]

that's just it, the college education system is eventually going to collapse. what kinds of jobs are we creating: bellhops, retail, the people who mark your receipt with a magic marker when you leave home depot, UPS and FedEx delivery people, waiters, cooks, people at the desk in a hotel, auto mechanics, home health care aides, etc. How many of these need a college education? What exactly will people be going to college for? Can everyone be a lawyer, a teacher, a doctor, etc. why go into massive debt going to college?

[ElCapitanAmerica]

I drew a cartoon about this, I figured pretty soon we all have to find something else to earn a living at :-)

[B4Ranch]

"One thing you will never see me do is sit around like an infant and complain about "all those people who aren't doing enough" to keep me employed."

You got the 'attitude' for success! Good luck to you from the bottom of my heart.

[Alberta's Child]

I'm an engineer by training, and that's what I do for a living -- but I've always gone out of my way to see to it that I maintain an interest in a wide array of areas in which I could work if my job ever disappeared.

An engineer may seem "overtrained" to be a truck driver, but perhaps not for an accountant, a logistics expert, a real estate consultant, a banker, etc.

[Alberta's Child]

Thank you, kindly!

Believe me -- I know exactly what it feels like to be living on the edge of financial ruin, and I learned that there are really only two ways to react to that kind of situation: you either let it drag you down, or you learn from it and swear that you will never let it drag you down.

[ElCapitanAmerica]

Accounting is going offshore, banking ... goodness gracious! That's what the world needs more bankers!

Real estate, now that's a place to make money, just wait until the housing market blows up, shouldn't take too long. Once our wages go down to India levels just imagine what's going to happen to that market.

All the jobs that you listed BTW are not going to keep us at the top of the economic and technological food chain.

BTW, I have a Masters degree, plenty of education, plus I can draw a bit (well you can disagree from my crude editorial cartoon above) so I think I'm fortunate to be able to move to other things. But I love what I do, and I think I can contribute more to society with what I do, so I'll "whine" all I want to the politicians that facilitate jobs being offshored and inshored here by irresponsible VISA policies.

[Alberta's Child]

This may sound grossly unsympathetic of me, but I've always approached my career with the following thought in my mind:

The day my job can be done by someone in a Third World country, it's time to change careers. Because once that happens, either that country ain't a "Third World country" anymore, or I'm no better than an uneducated, ignorant peasant.

[B4Ranch]

It's almost like watching someone walk who has fallen on ice before. Carefully, every step is premediated and the result is almost always succes along the chosen path.

If an electrical engineer was to drive a semi for a year or two, I could almost guarantee that they would have a solid six ideas of what could be done to improve the truck, the cab, the trailer.

The same goes with a design engineer who actually lived in the truck as our owner operators and long distance drivers frequently do.

[TheEaglehasLanded]

Visiting states that are loosing jobs on your watch and then having the guy who writes your economic outlook say hey folks Shipping your manufacturing jobs to China is good for you. I bet the local liberal media is hammering him on this one.

As Homer Simpson would say DOOOOOOOO

[ElCapitanAmerica]

> The day my job can be done by someone in a Third World country, it's time to change careers. Because once that happens, either that country ain't a "Third World country" anymore, or I'm no better than an uneducated, ignorant peasant.

Any job that requires thinking and not physical presence can be done overseas. As for "no better than uneducated, ignorant peasant", gee, I saw a lot of these peasants in my masters programs, many of them where getting their Phds at my local STATE university.

Ignorant peasants with Phds taking your jobs away, meanwhile, you're going to be driving trucks.

Yeah, that sounds like a winning combination for the future of the nation. Might as well tell everybody in engineering to quit and start practicing mowing lawns.