Obama to businesses: Bring jobs home

[babylonsister]

Obama to businesses: Bring jobs home

By Caren Bohan and Jeff Mason

WASHINGTON | Sat Jan 7, 2012 6:04am EST



WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama kicked off an effort to encourage businesses to keep jobs at home instead of outsourcing them overseas, as he rolled out a new election-year theme on Saturday aimed at courting middle-class voters.

In his weekly radio and video address, Obama previewed an event he will hold next week with business executives to highlight the advantages of investing in the United States.

"We'll hear from business leaders who are bringing jobs back home and see how we can help other businesses follow their lead," Obama said.

The White House forum on "Insourcing American Jobs" will be held on Wednesday. Executives from more than a dozen companies will attend, including padlock maker Master Lock, furniture company Lincolnton Furniture, software application developer GalaxE Solutions, and chemicals company DuPont.

The emphasis on keeping U.S. jobs at home is in line with a populist economic message championed by Obama that could play well with union workers, whose support the Democratic president will need to win re-election in November.

more...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/07/us-obama-us-jobs-idUSTRE80608B20120107

[onehandle]

1. Employment for Americans is a national emergency.

I suggest an Executive Order to penalize un-American corporate activities.

[jody]

2. Jody to Obama. Tell 99% to stop buying cheap products manufactured overseas. n/t

[Zalatix]

4. Zalatix to Jody... almost nothing is made here anymore. What ya gonna buy?

[jody]

6. Who takes the risk of a manufacturer moving production back to the US if the cost of products will

be higher than cheap products produced overseas?

Obama just approved buying Super Tucano planes produced in Brazil and excluded the AT-6 produced by Beech in the US.

Perhaps Obama could set a good example by buying Beech's AT-6.

[Zalatix]

8. Who takes the risk if our whole economy goes under because of unemployment?

[jody]

11. See the issues are beyond Zalatix and Jody but Obama can invite the best brains in the world to

Camp David and create a strategy for healing our dying economy.

If Obama or whomever else sits in the Oval Office can't succeed with those resources, then we are just driftwood on an economic tsunami.

[Zalatix]

14. Obama can't solve this. It takes the whole country. Besides,

we have too many well-paid rich free traders who keep obstructing Obama.

[jody]

16. How can the whole country solve this? Please provide a few more details about how We the People can

bring manufacturing jobs back to the US.

Do you propose laws that limit imports?

[Zalatix]

23. Force politicians to speak their views on free trade and vote out those who agree with it.

Make it into a litmus test.

No recent poll on outsourcing shows majority support for outsourcing. In fact they show a huge majority opposition to it. This country is a powder keg of opposition to free trade, just waiting for some shot heard 'round the world to drive voters to throw out pro-outsourcing politicians. In fact in 2010 anti-outsourcing politicians won their elections disproportionately.

Surround Obama with a veto-proof majority of anti-offshoring politicians and it matters little what his views are.

Also, statewide initiatives that forbid state projects to be outsourced overseas, are another step. Statewide initiatives to protect government projects is not the ultimate solution, but it is a giant wakeup call to politicians and even other nations. It's a significantly large door that we can slam in their faces.

[pampango]

35. The "powder keg of opposition to free trade" is largely on the right. Check the polls.

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1795/poll-free-trade-agreements-jobs-wages-economic-growth-china-japan-canada

Teabaggers (63/24), republicans (54/28) and independents (46/37) already say that free trade agreements are bad for the country. You only have to work on fellow Democrats who still think it is good for the country by 40% to 35%.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

19. Obstructionism caused him to support Free Trade Agreements with South Korea, Columbia, and Panama?

Or maybe he didn't submit such Free Trade Agreements to Congress?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tim-robertson/obamas-free-trade-sleight_b_993403.html

[Fumesucker]

3. He's going to put Jeffy Immelt on that stat... n/t

[treestar]

34. Are you claiming he's lying?

Or maybe he is capable of thinking for himself? Jeffrey Immelt would possibly have ideas about how to keep jobs here. Who is to say he doesn't?

[Fumesucker]

36. Immelt's bonus in 2010 was infinitely more than GE paid in taxes that year..

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/general-electric-paid-federal-taxes-2010/story?id=13224558#.TwuHo4Zj25k

1/0 = Infinity..

[treestar]

38. But can he figure out how to keep the jobs here?

That is the only question.

[ProSense]

5. Clip

[abelenkpe]

7. You want companies to stop offshoring work and hire Americans?

Pass single payer health care and create tax incentives for companies that hire Americans. The entertainment industry has been opening studios in other countries and reducing their US staff in order to take advantage of tax incentives provided by other countries and to lower the cost of workers because every other country has national healthcare that doesn't burden companies with healthcare costs. We cannot compete with Canada, the UK, New Zealand, etc where tax incentives encourage hiring and the government has sensible affordable healthcare programs.

[Zalatix]

9. It's not health care costs or taxes. It's WAGES.

Wage differences are a far bigger issue, mathematically, than anything you mentioned.

[Fumesucker]

10. If that is so then why is German manufacturing doing so well?

Despite the fact that German workers make more than Americans on average?

[Zalatix]

15. Not sure. Maybe it's because Germany is ripping off Europe, and perhaps the world?

http://blogs.reuters.com/macroscope/2011/11/07/euro-zone-crisis-its-germanys-fault/

[abelenkpe]

17. The owner of our studio

Says it's not wages at all. It's tax incentives and healthcare costs. He is a big supporter of single payer. Company is very upfront about costs and books with all employees and has illustrated over and over for the past ten years why it is not wages but tax incentives and healthcare costs. Great company to work for btw. Owners whole mission is to create a great place to work. Love it!

[Zalatix]

22. Compare your wages against those in China. It's like 8 to 1.

Does health care costs and taxes lower the cost of business in another country by 8 fold?

I can see this being an excuse to outsource to Canada, but China's 8 to 1 wage advantage dwarfs EVERYTHING.

[abelenkpe]

27. Did you read my post?

We're losing jobs in entertainment to studios in Canada, the UK, and New Zealand. Not China. Wages in those countries are not significantly lower than here in the US.

[Zalatix]

28. Funny you should say that.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/us-cheap-labor_n_1189428.html

[abelenkpe]

29. Great.

Different industry and Caterpillar is notorious for this kind of stuff anyway. Not that it's OK. It's not. We need global unions to combat global corporations.

[Zalatix]

30. Mark my words. The Caterpillar example will be joined by many others

As America's currency continues to decline and our debt soars, you will start to see a LOT of companies threatening Canadian workers with outsourcing to America.

The Canadian dollar has surpassed the US dollar before.

Remember, I told ya so!

[abelenkpe]

31. OK

I'll remember.

Everyone is trying to devalue their currency though. Right now the dollar is up. We'll have currency wars for sure.

[Sirveri]

25. You're right, those CEO's are taking way too much wealth out of the system.

Needs to be stopped. Reign in CEO compensation.

[99Forever]

12. Bingo, we have a winner. n/t

[treestar]

33. That's true, possible a good argument to use on

people who are so afraid a single payer system leads directly to communism. Nobody is against a better job market.

That's a great argument for single payer.

[DCKit]

13. Tax breaks for those who actually create permanent jobs...

and draconian taxes for those to make (and often keep) their profits overseas.

[bvar22]

18. That sounds do familiar.

Wasn't that part of Obama Campaign 2008?



You will know them by their WORKS,
not by their excuses.
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[AnotherMcIntosh]

20. Well, if it worked in 2008, ...

Some people want to be fooled twice. They are going to have that opportunity.

[Tarheel_Dem]

21. Returning jobs to the country that made your success possible, would be the patriotic thing to do.

[B Calm]

24. Stop making these right wing free trade deals

then!

[spedtr90]

26. Here comes the tax repatriation holiday

Hate to be negative, but it will end up on the table sooner or later, and once it's on the table Obama and Democrats tend to fill the Republicans' plates. And the possibility of corporate money in an election year is too tempting.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/11/09/365380/mccain-tax-break-corporate-jets-yachts/

[treestar]

32. Good setup

Since Mittens likely has some history of outsourcing and a claim that being CEO of a corporation is "executive experience."

[sarcasmo]

37. Run on this platform.

Bring jobs home, great bumper sticker.

[ddeclue]

39. or he will do WHAT exactly to make them...

a lot less talk and a lot more action is what I need from Obama if he wants my vote.

[Hotler]

40. Too little too late Mr. President.

If you really want to do some good you will throw the Wall St. crooks in prison. We all know that won't happen cause the banksters own your ass.
Flame away people.