Replies

"Bush never said any such thing."

True enough, actually it was the head of the President's Council of Economic Advisers who said that outsourcing was just another form of trade and good for the economy. Such people rarely make such comments unless they are in fact administration policy.

"Administration policy"? The Bush administration doesn't tell businesses they have to outsource jobs.

Bush is just continuing the free-trade policy from previous administrations and has not decided to adopt Govt control of US businesses dictating and controlling who they can hire where.

If President Bush thinks he can be reelected with that sort of attitude about destroying people's livelihoods good luck to him.

Right. Unemployment is down, productivity is up, the national GDP is up...but Bush is destroying people's livelihoods. Just ask the DU.

Where to start...

1. I never asserted that President Bush has personally told any business that they have to outsource. So to begin with, you are misrepresenting my position. However, the policies of the Bush administration, including tax incentives for overseas investments, high US corporate taxes, failure to contract H1B visa totals in line with unemployment rates and failure to enforce L1 visa duration restrictions have all encouraged businesses to outsource, either overseas or to domestic businesses who employ foreign "temporary" contractors. In light of this, I find it difficult to see how you could assert that promoting the outsourcing of American jobs is anything but administration policy.

2. The Bush administration's acceptance of the precept that labor is just another commodity to be traded is a marked change from the stated positions of previous administrations. If you believe otherwise, please site an instance where any previous administration has stated that outsourcing American jobs is "good for the economy" (a direct quote from the head of the President's Council of Economic Advisers).

3. I hope you are right. I hope things get so good between now and the next election that all of this is irrelevant and guys like us all have jobs. The fact is, where I live in California the Bureau of Labor Statistics says that one in six jobs in the state are candidates for outsourcing. The secure jobs are those in government, education and low paid retail and business services. Most of the people who hold those jobs vote Democratic. The private sector jobs that provide a middle class income, the ones typically held by Republicans, are the ones that are most at risk. Sorry but this kind of insecurity, literally Russian Roulette odds, doesn't bring people out to the polls to vote for the President's reelection.

4. The historical analogy and national security concerns from my previous post remain unaddressed in your reply. Does this mean that we are in general agreement as far as the benefits of sustaining a strong, diverse domestic economy is concerned?