Obama discusses insourcing, merging federal business agencies in weekly address [View all]

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Obama discusses insourcing, merging federal business agencies in weekly address

by Susan Gardner

You’ve heard of outsourcing – well, this is insourcing. And in this make or break moment for the middle class and those working to get into the middle class, that’s exactly the kind of commitment to country that we need.

President Barack Obama packed a couple of ideas into his weekly address this morning, discussing both his "insourcing" initiative to give tax breaks to businesses that bring jobs back to America and his proposal to merge six federal agencies to streamline government interaction with business.

He discussed his meeting with American CEO's this past week and the incentives (and disincentives) he plans to push in order to get overseas business operations to relocate back home.

I told those CEOs what I’ll tell any business leader: ask yourself what you can do to bring more jobs back to the country that made your success possible. And I’ll make sure you’ve got a government that does everything in its power to help you succeed.

That’s why, in the next few weeks, I will put forward new tax proposals that reward companies that choose to do the right thing by bringing jobs home and investing in America – and eliminate tax breaks for companies that move jobs overseas.

He also carefully laid out the case for his seeking authority from Congress to merge agencies and cut down on bureaucracy—a move that will place the obstructionist Republicans in Congress in a tight spot as aim to deny the president any victory in an election year at the same time they're campaigning against "bloated" government:

I asked Congress to reinstate the authority that past presidents have had to streamline and reform the Executive Branch. This is the same sort of authority that every business owner has to make sure that his or her company keeps pace with the times. It’s the same authority that presidents had for over 50 years – up until Ronald Reagan. And let me be clear: I will only use this authority for reforms that result in more efficiency, better service, and a leaner government.

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/01/14/1054546/-Obama-discusses-insourcing,-merging-federal-business-agencies-in-weekly-address