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Bush Team Calls Outsourcing Positive Trade Policy
Appalled union leaders and politicians had swift reactions this week to comments by a top Bush administration economic adviser praising the outsourcing of American jobs overseas as good trade policy.
"The remarks by Greg Mankiw are outrageous, and a real blow to millions of working families who are facing the worst job outlook in decades," CWA President Morton Bahr said.
In releasing the annual Economic Report of the President on Feb. 9, Mankiw said the 600,000 manufacturing, information technology and customer service jobs expected to be lost each year to India and other low-wage countries is a "new and positive chapter in world trade liberalization."
He said further that "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade. More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing."
"Tell that to the 6,000 Sprint Corp. customer service workers who just learned their jobs are headed overseas," Bahr said. "And why? Because the Sprint employees in the United States aren't working for $2 a day."
Bahr said Mankiw showed no concern for the 10 million Americans who are unemployed, the millions who are underemployed - working two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet - and millions more who have grown so discouraged by the futile search for work that they've stopped looking.
"They've delivered a double blow to America's workers, 3 million jobs destroyed on their watch, and now they want to export more of our jobs overseas," Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said. "What in the world are they thinking?"
Even some Republicans are angry. The Washington Post reported that Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) said Republicans from industrial states are furious. He called for Mankiw to resign as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
While the Bush team boasts of an economic rebound, Bahr said the facts tell a wholly different story: The administration predicted that 1.7 million new jobs would be created in 2003; instead, 53,000 jobs were lost.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Mankiw's "point of view is not only completely insensitive to the pain that millions of unemployed workers and their families are suffering, it is also just plain dangerous for our nation's future."
"The remarks by Greg Mankiw are outrageous, and a real blow to millions of working families who are facing the worst job outlook in decades," CWA President Morton Bahr said.
In releasing the annual Economic Report of the President on Feb. 9, Mankiw said the 600,000 manufacturing, information technology and customer service jobs expected to be lost each year to India and other low-wage countries is a "new and positive chapter in world trade liberalization."
He said further that "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade. More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And that's a good thing."
"Tell that to the 6,000 Sprint Corp. customer service workers who just learned their jobs are headed overseas," Bahr said. "And why? Because the Sprint employees in the United States aren't working for $2 a day."
Bahr said Mankiw showed no concern for the 10 million Americans who are unemployed, the millions who are underemployed - working two or three part-time jobs to make ends meet - and millions more who have grown so discouraged by the futile search for work that they've stopped looking.
"They've delivered a double blow to America's workers, 3 million jobs destroyed on their watch, and now they want to export more of our jobs overseas," Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said. "What in the world are they thinking?"
Even some Republicans are angry. The Washington Post reported that Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) said Republicans from industrial states are furious. He called for Mankiw to resign as chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers.
While the Bush team boasts of an economic rebound, Bahr said the facts tell a wholly different story: The administration predicted that 1.7 million new jobs would be created in 2003; instead, 53,000 jobs were lost.
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said Mankiw's "point of view is not only completely insensitive to the pain that millions of unemployed workers and their families are suffering, it is also just plain dangerous for our nation's future."