Outsourcing and the 21st-Century Economy

[FreakinDJ]

Outsourcing and the 21st-Century Economy

By CRAIG BARRETT AND JAMES P. MOORE JR.

It's campaign season, so "outsourcing" is being used as a four-letter word. The practice of hiring workers overseas to handle certain functions of American corporations is, according to some politicians, a major cause of our ongoing economic woes.

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) has slammed her opponent, Carly Fiorina, for outsourcing jobs when she served as CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland has attacked his Republican opponent, John Kasich, for serving on the board of a company that outsources. And other politicians from Pennsylvania to Oregon have tried to use the issue to stir up voter dissatisfaction with the economy.

The Democratic leadership in the Senate has also used outsourcing as a political football. This week, three days before the projected close of the 111th Congress, Democrats brought a bill to the floor that would penalize companies that outsource. The Creating American Jobs and Ending Offshoring Act was intended to provide a payroll tax holiday to companies that shift overseas jobs back to the United States. It would also have limited the use of tax deferrals that allow U.S. companies to postpone paying taxes on foreign income until after the funds are transferred to the U.S.

The bill never received an up-or-down vote, as it failed to receive the 60 votes necessary for cloture. But merely by bringing it up, Senate Democrats showed their preference for campaign-season symbolism over serious recognition of why companies choose to outsource.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882404575520232436064498.html

Sure they use the word "Outsourcing" when they want your vote - but when time comes to actually do some thing about it they turn tail and run to their corporate masters

[OHdem10]

1. The Free Traders in Both Parties have doomed this country.

Yes it is a Republican issue but watch votes and name
the Democrats who vote for all these trade policies.

Part of the reason we lost Ohio, the Republicans here
used Bill Clinton as the poster child for free trade.

[OlympicBrian]

2. This is THE single most important jobs/deficit/economic issue

Because of a tax loophole, there is a self-reinforcing loop which leads companies to invest in jobs overseas. As a result, we lose jobs, and our tax base is eroded, and we generate less revenues, etc. etc.

And then there is the "multiplier effect" on the local small-business community for the many US jobs lost to offshoring.

TOO MUCH TALK...TOO LITTLE ACTION.

Get on top of this one folks, the sooner the better!

[OlympicBrian]

3. Background article on offshoring...

Post-Recession Job Recovery Hampered by Offshoring
...
(1) US Tax write-downs which allow companies to move operations overseas, while gaining tax benefit from shuttered US operations. That's right, everyone gets to pay for that factory shipped to China.
...
(3) US Tax loopholes which allow corporations to permanently postpone repatriation of profits gained overseas, that leads them to both avoid paying US corporate income taxes, and to re-invest in overseas operations instead of in the US (which means no new US jobs
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x9646348

[OlympicBrian]

4. Having trouble seeing full text since not WSJ subscriber :-( nt

[OlympicBrian]

5. kick

[OlympicBrian]

6. kick