WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- The loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States has become a key issue in this year's presidential election. The most often repeated Democratic talking point claims that 3 million jobs have been lost since President Bush took office in January 2001. A December 2003 report prepared for the Manufacturing Institute of the National Association of Manufacturers suggests a key factor in the exodus is the external overhead that makes American companies unable to compete with many other nations.