Sanders campaign finds fodder with Clinton’s TV appearance in India on outsourcing

[Attorney in Texas]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by Goblinmonger (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: Washington Post

Appearing on Indian station NDTV during her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton was asked during a town hall-style public affairs program for her thoughts on outsourcing from the United States to India.

“Well, you know, it’s been going on for many years now,” Clinton said on the program, “and it’s part of our economic relationship with India, and I think there are advantages with it that have certainly benefited many parts of our country, and there are disadvantages that go to the need to, you know, improve the job skills of our own people and create a better economic environment, so it’s, like anything, it’s, you know, got pluses and minuses.”... Sanders’s campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said he’s convinced Clinton’s comments will not play well in Michigan “when so many communities like Detroit and Flint have been hurt so badly by outsourcing.”

“Secretary Clinton should explain to the people of Michigan how they have benefited from outsourcing of their manufacturing jobs,” Weaver said.... At a news conference in Lansing earlier this week, Sanders made the case that he has consistently opposed “disastrous” trade deals, starting with the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s, that Clinton supported during her tenures as first lady, a senator from New York and secretary of state.

Sanders has also been critical of the length of time it took for Clinton to reach her current opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership, a pending pact championed by President Obama that Sanders opposed from the outset.... Weaver also argued that Clinton’s comments in India differed from what she has said about outsourcing during appearances in the United States. The campaign pointed to a 2004 statement during his Senate tenure in which she says: “I do not think outsourcing American Jobs is a new kind of trade . . . and I certainly do not believe it is a good thing.” ... She {Clinton} said that Americans who have lost manufacturing jobs are fearful because they “don’t feel like they have any other job possibilities.”

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/03/04/sanders-campaign-finds-fodder-with-clintons-tv-appearance-in-india-on-outsourcing/

---

WOW!

[me b zola]

1. Outsourcing draws yet another sharp contrast between Sanders & Clinton

I will be voting for the candidate who stands with the American worker, Senator Sanders.

[Vote2016]

2. kick & rec #5

[Plucketeer]

3. Kickin' and

Wreckin' the inevitable's inevitability.

[abelenkpe]

4. K&R

[Arizona Roadrunner]

5. Why you don't hear much about it

In the area of the country where I live, we have whole apartment complexes full of these H-1b contract workers. They not only replace existing job holders (American) but their spouses can now work in this country. The reason you don't hear much about it is that people have to sign a none disparagement agreement as part of their severance package. They even have to train their replacements!!!!

People like Trump want H-2b (increased from 66,000 to 250,000 in last budget agreement) for his golf courses and resorts. His explanation is BS for why he only hired 17 of 300 applicants.

[AlbertCat]

11. we have whole apartment complexes full of these H-1b contract workers.

It sure seems easier to get a job over here than it is for us to get jobs "over there" (like in Europe)

I suppose tho' it depends on what job. When I was thinking about working in wardrobe in film as a cutter/draper in England, the British crew who was over here working on "Last of the Mohicans" told me I would have to prove I could do something no one in England could do.

[appalachiablue]

22. Rec the post

K & R OP

[FailureToCommunicate]

6. K & R

[LongTomH]

7. A definite K&R! I've called Hillary "The Senator for India" during her term in the Senate.

She made frequent trips to India to reassure Tata and other Indian companies that "outsourcing will continue" -- her own words!!

Edited to add: I've commented on this before - Note the link is from an Asian news source:

Hillary Clinton made it apparent where she stood on outsourcing during her India visit, in an attempt perhaps to clear the Indian misgivings received during the Kerry campaign. "There is no way to legislate against reality. Outsourcing will continue," she told an audience of Indian big-wigs. She pointed out that there were 3 billion people who feel left behind and are trying to attack the modern world in the hope of turning the clock back on globalization. "It is not far-fetched to imagine ... if the Indian miracle would be the one of choice of those who feel left behind," said Hillary.

Hillary has been at the forefront in defending free trade and outsourcing. During the height of the anti-outsourcing backlash in the US last year, she faced considerable flak for defending Indian software giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for opening a center in Buffalo, New York. "We are not against all outsourcing; we are not in favor of putting up fences," Hillary said firmly, despite inevitably invoking the ire of the anti-free trade brigade.

[AzDar]

8. She's a disaster.

[retrowire]

9. Trade Deals that she supports.

Don't support her name brand, take a look at her, the person.

[valerief]

10. Anyone who's been in IT for decades knows HRC is the face of outsourcing to India. nt

[tomm2thumbs]

12. It's okay, that was the Sillary Hillary - she's changed

All that money she took from Wall Street was put towards empathy classes, yoga and love-the-little-people training.

(outsourced, of course)

[SoapBox]

13. Ugh...sickening.

And yet people are supporting her to the end.

No...More...Clintons.

[highprincipleswork]

14. Yeah, thanks for how outsourcing benefits my life.

Do I have to say "sarcasm"?

[EndElectoral]

29. There are portions of our country who have benefitted from outsourcing. Wall Street for instance.

[highprincipleswork]

37. Well, I guess it all depends on whose side your on, doesn't it?

[kristopher]

15. Why didn't you post the direct link to the youtube?

[Attorney in Texas]

24. Because this is LBN and so I focused on the news source (the Washington Post) rather than YouTube.

[Akicita]

16. Why the dichotomy on foreign workers?

I am a diehard Bernie supporter and not at all a Hillary fan, but one issue I am having trouble understanding is the opposition to outsourcing jobs to foreign POC. Shouldn't American companies be lauded for diversifying their workforce by hiring poor foreign POC in their own communities?

Take Nabisco and Carrier Air Conditioners for example. Both companies have announced plans to move some of their manufacturing plants to Mexico and both companies are being slammed for it. But if people in those Mexican towns had to leave their families and communities, make a dangerous trek across the border risking death, robbery, sexual exploitation, arrest and possible deportation but managed to make it and were hired by Nabisco or Carrier at their American plants we would all applaud Nabisco and Carrier for diversifying their workforce by hiring undocumented POC. It would be considered racist to oppose such hiring.

But if Nabisco and Carrier were to give those very same jobs to those very same POC in their own communities where they can stay with their families and not have to face the dangers and hardships of migrating it is considered a horrible thing.

The impact of insourcing workers or outsourcing jobs is the same on the American worker. Harder to find jobs and depressed wages. The rich get much richer and the poor and middle class get poorer.

The same can be said for high tech workers. What's the difference between outsourcing high tech jobs overseas and importing high tech workers through H-1B visas?

It seems we have been conditioned by our puppetmasters to view insourcing POC workers as positive and righteous but outsourcing jobs to those very same POC workers as negative and evil.

I don't get the dichotomy. Can someone please explain?

[yellowcanine]

17. These issues make good sound bite politics but should not be used that way imo.

As you point out, the issues are complex and actually I think Clinton's answer was pretty much what any SOS would say in that situation. I think it is a mistake for the Sanders campaign to make an issue of this. Kind of a Trumpy thing to do, imo.

[Akicita]

20. I am not trying to make political points. I am truly trying to understand

why well meaning Americans think it is righteous to import foreign POC workers, but evil to outsource those very same jobs to those very same POC workers in their home communities.

[kristopher]

18. You are artificially limiting the options.

[Attorney in Texas]

19. "Diversifying their workforce" would probably be more of a fair perspective if safety regulations,

wage thresholds, environmental standards and similar costs of employment were internationalized.

This is not, however, the case.

By outsourcing jobs, companies are not "diversifying their workforce" so much as exploiting workers at inhumanely low wages and without costs of child labor and OSHA-type worker safety regulations and restrictions at plants that are not subject to US environmental regulations.

If exploiting the lower cost of labor and production in third world countries can be justified as "diversifying their workforce," then the US labor force is at an unfair competitive disadvantage (and the same would be true of the labor forces in all industrialized countries that have progressive labor laws and OSHA and environmental regulations). This sort of competitive handicap ultimately results in the exploitative abuse of the third-world country (which gets polluted and suffers from worker mistreatment) and creates a disincentive against US regulation that benefits the public (better environmental regulations, better workplace safety rules, wages that come closer to living wages, etc.).

[Akicita]

30. So a foreign worker should be uprooted from her/his family and community,

risk being raped, robbed, exploited, or dying of thirst in the desert, because her/his job will have safer work conditions if it is in the USA rather than in their home town. I get it. Then she/he can have their unaccompanied children risk all of the above to join her/him. Makes sense.

And of course no American employer would ever exploit an undocumented immigrant.

[Divernan]

34. You don't get it at all & you're pushing the Clinton Family Foundation disaster capitalism model .

Neither Bernie Sanders nor any of his actual supporters espouses illegal aliens/undocumented immigrants entering this country OR being exploited abroad. You, being such a self-proclaimed supporter of Bernie should know that!

Do, please provide even one single link documenting your outrageous claims.

You appear to strongly endorse outsourcing jobs in the form of the disaster capitalism of the Clinton Family Foundation, as evidenced in Haiti. Collect millions in "donations" (cough-bribes-cough) from corporations, skim a healthy slice off the top for "facilitating", and then work with corporate bloodsuckers to have money spent building corporate infrastructure (industrial parks, roads, harbors, electric generator plants & luxury hotels for visiting corporate bigwigs) in the county to allow said corporations (Wal-Mart has been a beneficiary in Haiti) to exploit the third world labor force for $4.65 a day wages, NO benefits.

Yes, thank god Clinton Foundation "facilitated" a $45 million luxury hotel in Haiti so potential corporate investors cough/boodsuckers looking to take advantage of cheap labor/cough could visit in comfort. Those damned ungrateful, greedy Haitians (do I need a sarcasm emoticon?) expected the Clinton Foundation to direct the "donations" cough/bribes/cough to replace housing destroyed by the earthquake. But that $45 million was used to build a 173 room hotel. That works out to $260,000 per room. Way to go, Clinton Foundation! ! ! Five star all the way for corporate investors & your next glittery gathering in Haiti for photo ops.

Once all of the carnage was assessed, more than 100,000 buildings were damaged or destroyed, hundreds of thousands of people were left without homes and Haiti's government put the death toll at 316,000, according to ABC News.

Five years later, after billions of dollars of aid and donations, many are still living in abject poverty created by the earthquake. NBC News notes that while some $13 billion went to the country, more than "85,000 people still live in crude displacement camps and many more in deplorable conditions."

NBC News does note that while many of the roads destroyed by the earthquake have been repaired and some businesses have been rebuilt, very few people displaced by the massive quake have acquired permanent housing.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2015/01/_5_years_after_massive_earthquake_where_is_haiti_now.html

Two years after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake leveled Haiti's capital, a deal brokered by former President Bill Clinton's charitable foundation will add new lodging for aid workers and other travelers to Port-au-Prince -- in the form of a $45 million hotel.

With only about 500 operable hotel rooms, the city has limited space to house potential investors and other visitors, according to a news release Monday by the future hotel's owner and its operator.

Caribbean cell phone provider Digicel will own the hotel, which will have 173 new rooms and create 175 new jobs. Marriott Hotels and Resorts will operate the hotel upon completion in 2014. Construction is set to begin in 2012.

[Raster]

38. carnivore capitalism

The rich eat whatever they want.

[Skittles]

26. why would you hire foreign workers

when AMERICAN workers have the skills and need the jobs. WHY?

[Raster]

31. There is ultimately ONLY ONE REASON for hiring foreign workers - outsourcing or insourcing:

THEY ARE CHEAPER.

[Skittles]

33. I am asking the Attorney

the MAIN reason people defend outsourcing claiming it "benefits POC" is because they themselves benefit from pimping off American jobs

[Raster]

36. I know you were asking the attorney, and I was NOT answering for him/her.

Just throwing in my three cents: IT. IS. CHEAPER.

That said, throwing in a few more cents, I find any and all outsourcing/insourcing that replaces American workers and American jobs with foreign labor and foreign jobs about as low as you can go.

[Skittles]

40. I KNOW IT IS CHEAPER

the profits go to the PEOPLE WHO DEFEND THIS SHIT

[Raster]

42. I could not agree more.

[Akicita]

43. America has apparently made the decision that any and all foreign workers who can make it across our

border either by crossing illegally or overstaying their visas are deserving of our American jobs(the Trumpsters and Cruzers still oppose it). My point is that once we have made the decisions that foreign workers deserve our jobs, especially POC, wouldn't it be much more humane to send the American jobs to the POC foreign workers in their own communities rather than forcing them to be uprooted and go through the travails and dangers of traveling to the USA illegally for those very same jobs?

[wordpix]

41. our nation is built on exploitation of the poor and the environment

all you really need to know.

[Divernan]

46. What ARE you talking about?

The choice is NOT between importing workers throughH-1B visas or outsourcing jobs. The decision is whether to pay U.S. workers living wages and benefits. I know so many cases of U.S. high tech workers and engineers ordered to train their foreign H-1B visa holder replacements; or being sent overseas just long enough to train workers there.

Here's what should be done. Train American workers. Did you know that 20 of the homeless are U.S. veterans? There's a great potential work force, given some training.

Neither Nabisco nor Carrier are relocating plants to Mexico out of the goodness of their corporate hearts, or any concern for poor POC. Believe me, there are plenty of American citizens, including many POC available to work in those factories in the United States, without the need to import labor.

Case in point. My home, Pittsburgh was home to Nabisco's oldest plant, built in 1919, which the company walked away from 16 years ago. The 350 employees there were not offered a chance to relocate. They can take their Mexican manufactured, rainbow flavored Oreos and shove them where the sun don't shine. The same for the iconic Pennsylvania company, Hershey's Chocolate, which has also moved a large part of its operations to Mexico.

COMPANY NEWS; NABISCO HOLDINGS PLANS TO CLOSE PITTSBURGH FACTORY
Published: August 12, 1998

The Nabisco Holdings Corporation said yesterday that it would close its Pittsburgh cracker factory, dismissing 350 workers, as the company seeks to cut costs to pay for more advertising. Nabisco, which makes Oreo cookies and Ritz crackers, said it would close the factory, its oldest, by Nov. 20.
The factory makes Ritz, Wheat Thins, Better Cheddars and Swiss Cheese crackers, as well as Ritz Bits and Twigs snacks. Nabisco previously said it would cut 3,100 jobs, resulting in about $100 million in annual savings.

[Betty Karlson]

21. This should be used mercilessly.

[antigop]

23. HRC: "Outsourcing will continue"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/07/AR2007090702780.html

When Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to New Delhi to meet with Indian business leaders in 2005, she offered a blunt assessment of the loss of American jobs across the Pacific. "There is no way to legislate against reality," she declared. "Outsourcing will continue. . . . We are not against all outsourcing; we are not in favor of putting up fences."

So which outsourcing IS she against? And who is "we"? The DLC/Third Way/Corporate Dems?

[EndElectoral]

28. There's that old "No, we can't" It's the reality now and nothing can change it.

[Skittles]

25. HOW does pimping off our jobs benefit THE AMERICAN PEOPLE?

EXACTLY HOW?

[EndElectoral]

27. Who let out that transcript/video from India? Now she's going to have to evolve...again.

[JDPriestly]

32. K&T. Cheap labor: export jobs; import H1-B visa workers.

Corporations exported their pollution and workers' compensation liability along with our industrial jobs. That's what some of it was about.

China -- an environmental nightmare?

India -- also an environmental nightmare.

The corporations? Free from the EPA and OSHA.

That has to change.

[Sunlei]

35. Huge industry with Americans love of so cheap to make, 'very high profit'- clothing.

Though many of our beloved jeans are made by American 'slave wage' prisoners.

[wordpix]

44. during the Academy Awards, I was wondering how much labor went into

sewing on all the glitter on those dresses. While the actresses making $1 million per movie and more were glorifying themselves, behind the scenes are seamstresses who no doubt make a pittance. Hollywood, which is usually good on (some) issues, should get on board with this one and NOT wear slave or near-slave wage dresses.

[wordpix]

39. woot! Go Bernie! Looking forward to Sat. night

[sus453]

45. I'm a complete supporter of Bernie, but

I think this is a bit of a weak one. She's in India speaking to an Indian audience as Secretary of State (I am horrified by her actions during the hubris of that tenure - Honduras, Iran, Israel, Libya) trying to be polite to her audience. She did mention the problems this program has created.

Just saying . . .

[Goblinmonger]

47. Locking

Please feel free to repost this in GDP.

Thanks.