Clinton Rips Treasury Secretary Over Outsourcing Comments

AP/Newsday ^ | 3.30.2004 | Devlin Barrett

[meenie]

Vee haf dumkophs een der New York.

[binger]

[Gunslingr3]

I don't know how life is in your little bubble, but in most of our lives, having a job to feed our families is not a "destructive" idea

Then find out what your neighbor wants done, and stop trying to prevent from trading goods and services with other people who offer him better deals and allow him to increase his standard of living. It's not John Kerry or George Bush's job to find something for you to do, or limit me to just trading with you.

[Ciexyz]

This is the second time in weeks that a high level Bush official has spoken positively of outsourcing. Enough already! It's just giving ammo to the Democrats who then misuse those statements to rile up desperate and frightened people.

[Maria S]

"Excuse me but wasnt Clinton always pushing for a Global economy? Didnt he sign NAFTA and GATT? Is Hillary denying that outsourcing started under the Clintons?"

Thanks! You said it a lot better than I could have. It continues to amaze me how the Clintons and liberals want us to co-partner with the UN, be buddies with every terrorist country, and just generally embrace the world...then turn around and whine because we've "lost" jobs due to outsourcing!

[fight_truth_decay]

Hillary Clinton on Free Trade

Globalization should not substitute for humanization
As with any sweeping change in history, there are those who are great proponents of globalization, [and] there are others who are great opponents. The real challenge is not to engage in an argument, but to try better to understand the forces that are at work and to harness those forces on behalf of society. To ensure that globalization, however one defines it, is never a substitute for humanization, never a force for marginalization, and not an enemy of the values that have long shaped our society.
Source: Remarks at The Sorbonne, Paris, France Jun 17, 1999


Hillary Clinton on China

Supports MFN for China, despite concerns over human rights
Clinton supported most favored nation trade status despite concerns about China’s human rights record. “We have to use our our moral and material strengths in ways that serve our evolving interests,” she said. “We have to ask ourselves what hope does the global market hold for the tens of millions of victims of child labor, or for the 100 million street children without homes or families whom I’ve seen everywhere from Brazil to Mongolia who are being left to fend for themselves.”
Source: Dean Murphy, NY Times Oct 20, 2000

Voted NO on extending free trade to Andean nations.
HR3009 Fast Track Trade Authority bill: To extend the Andean Trade Preference Act, to grant additional trade benefits under that Act, and for other purposes. Vote to pass a bill that would enlarge duty-free status to particular products from Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador, renew the president's fast-track authority and reauthorize and increase a program to make accessible retraining and relocation assistance to U.S. workers hurt by trade agreements. It would also approve a five-year extension of Generalized System of Preferences and produce a refundable 70 percent tax credit for health insurance costs for displaced workers.
Bill HR.3009 ; vote number 2002-130 on May 23, 2002

Voted YES on granting normal trade relations status to Vietnam.
Vote to grant annual normal trade relations status to Vietnam. The resolution would allow Vietnamese imports to receive the same tariffs as those of other U.S. trading partners.
Bill HJRES51 ; vote number 2001-291 on Oct 3, 2001

Voted YES on removing common goods from national security export rules.
Vote to provide the president the authority to control the export of sensitive dual-use items for national security purposes. The bill would eliminate restrictions on the export of technology that is readily available in foreign markets.
Bill S149 ; vote number 2001-275 on Sep 6, 2001


Bill Clinton on Free Trade


US must not disentangle itself from the world
The global economy is giving more of our own people and millions around the world the chance to work and live and raise their families with dignity. But the expansion of trade hasn’t fully closed the gap between those of us who live on the cutting edge of the global economy and the billions around the world who live on the knife’s edge of survival. This global gap requires more than compassion. It requires action. Global poverty is a powder keg that could be ignited by our indifference.
Thomas Jefferson warned of entangling alliances. But in our times, America cannot and must not disentangle itself from the world. If we want the world to embody our shared values, then we must assume a shared responsibility.

We must embrace boldly and resolutely our duty to lead, to stand with our allies in word and deed and to put a human face on the global economy so that expanded trade benefits all peoples in all nations, lifting lives and hopes all across the world.

Source: President Clinton’s farewell address Jan 18, 2001

On balance, trade creates jobs
The globalization of the world economy has had profound effects on work, on workers, and on wages. Open markets mean products come into America that are made by people who work for wages Americans can’t live on. This can cost some American workers their jobs and keep others from getting a raise.
But, overall, trade has brought vast benefits to most Americans. Jobs in exporting companies on average pay considerably higher wages than jobs in companies that sell only within the US.

Source: Between Hope and History, by Bill Clinton, p. 33-34 Jan 1, 1996

Support NAFTA & GATT: build bridges, not walls
We don’t need to build walls, we need to build bridges. We don’t need protection, we need opportunity. But in a world of stiff competition we also need more than free trade. We need fair trade with fair rules.
That’s why I fought for NAFTA, which effectively opened Mexico’s and Canada’s markets to American products, and for GATT, which is helping to level the playing field for American companies abroad.

In all, since 1992 we have negotiated more than 200 trade agreements-21 with Japan alone.

Source: Between Hope and History, by Bill Clinton, p. 34-35 Jan 1, 1996

Spur reforms via PNTR and China in WTO
After 13 years of negotiations, the Administration concluded a landmark agreement for China’s entry into the World Trade Organization. China agreed to grant the U.S. significant new access to its rapidly growing market of over one billion people, while we have agreed simply to maintain the market access policies we already apply to China by granting it permanent Normal Trade Relations. The U.S.-China agreement slashes Chinese tariffs on American goods; opens China’s markets to American services, and contains safeguards against unfair trading practices. China’s membership in the WTO will spur economic reforms in China, open China to information and ideas from around the world, and strengthen the rule of law in China.
The Administration [also] secured commitments from Asian Pacific nations to eliminate barriers to open trade in the region by 2020 for developing countries and 2010 for industrialized countries. Over the next two years, 15 sectors will be identified for tariff reductions.

Source: WhiteHouse.gov web site Jul 2, 2000

[bvw]

I get the WSJ delivered every day. I'm refering, iirc, to Friday's Journal. They also had a great article on Tiger Wood's collar -- and what is done in China for Tiger's collar could have well have been done here and just as quick or quicker -- if we hadn't have defuncted our mills.

[raybbr]

Velleicht bedeuten Sie "Dummkopfs"?

[dinok]

"It's not John Kerry or George Bush's job to find something for you to do, or limit me to just trading with you."

I said no such thing. What I did say was that saying "jobs going overseas is a good thing" during a political year is stupid and political suicide. You realy need to pay attention. I think they have some drugs for adult ADD.

[Victoria Delsoul]

"I don't know what reality the Bush administration is living in," said Clinton. "But it's certainly not the reality I represent, from one end of New York to the other."

She got that right.

[kenth]

Whether one agrees with outsourcing or not, the perception held by the average American is that it is a bad thing. Having Snow or Mankiw flippantly brush aside concerns of people who are struggling does not make the President look compassionate. Just as he is trying to appear compassionate by seemingly wanting America to sacrifice for everyone but Americans. The democrats will have a field day with this sort of thing.

[gatorgriz]

The Queen, a legend in her own mind, well, she's been imbibing in her dirty bathwater for far to long... Besotted in her own self made world...

Unable to find her own ass (it's bigger than Rhode Island) with a road map and step by step directions to her bung hole.

What does it take to remove the Clinton stain from the shorts of humanity?

[Dubya]

Automotive supplier Johnson Controls said it will cut 885 jobs at
plants in Holland, Mich., and Glasgow, Ky., as it transfers the
production of sun visors to Mexico.

[Alberta's Child]

Good point. LOL!

[Lael]

What the H*LL is Hillary talking about???

Didn't she bring TATA Consulting Services to Buffalo??

Outsourcing INC.!!!!!

[Fee]

Snow went to an ivy league school, had very good grades, connected and successful, yet he cannot understand that it is dumb to say outsourcing is good in an election year. Gee I came from a state school and had a C average and I can understand that. WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH THE GOP????!!!! Moaning and groaning. In thru the nose and out thru the mouth. I think I am okay now.

[henderson field]

"Didn't Clinton sign NAFTA and GATT?"
Yes, but that was then and this is now.
The plain truth is it was Congress. Congress put the bill in front of Bill. So Clinton is slightly responsible and Bush is not too responsible except that he likes the Global Economy. Unfortunately, this is an entirely new phenomenon. America was built on de-facto protectionism and until recent legislation very few of our products came from overseas (think '50s when most imports were high-end, in small numbers -- Leica cameras, Omega watches, Porsches, Jaguars, etc.) The Global Economy is not going to work. While that is being discovered, a lot of Americans will be hurt.

[chimera]

Whether one agrees with outsourcing or not, the perception held by the average American is that it is a bad thing. Having Snow or Mankiw flippantly brush aside concerns of people who are struggling does not make the President look compassionate.

Exactly right, and just the thing that I and others have been saying, only you said it better. No matter what the merits of outsourcing are or are not, and no matter what opinion you may have on those, the perception among average voters is that it can cause them harm via loss of their jobs. In a volatile election year, with so much at stake, you don't send people out to say things that will cost you votes. If they insist on doing that, you fire them because they are either too stupid to help your campaign, or they may be plants for the opposition. If you can't bring yourself to fire them, then literally lock them away somewhere until after they can't hurt you anymore, or at least tell them to STFU.

Bush and the Republicans are going to have a tough enough time in this election without having their own people cut them off at the knees. It's a fundamental axiom of political strategy that you don't play into your opponent's hands by giving them a bigger club to beat you with (or, in this case, beating yourself over the head with the same club).

[presidio9]

I just hope that all the poor misguided protectionists here take comfort in the fact that their champion, the esteemed junior senator from the great state of NY is standing shoulder to shoulder with them.

[el_texicano]

"The old battle-ax wouldn't know reality if it came up to her, introduced itself and proceeded to kick her in the ass!"

And THAT would be one massive ass to kick too...