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<h1><b><font size=4 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'><a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-elk/obama-solution-to-stop-ou_b_484413.html"
title=Permalink>Obama Solution to Stop Outsourcing - Stop Counting Jobs
Outsourced (No, Seriously!)</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h1>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:navy'><a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-elk"><span style='text-decoration:
none'><img border=0 width=45 height=45 id="_x0000_i1082"
src="cid:image001.jpg@01CABAE9.FDF3A570" alt="Mike Elk"></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:navy'><a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-elk">Mike Elk</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:navy'>Campaign for <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region>'s
Future<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:navy'>Posted: March 3,
2010 03:06 PM <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:navy'><a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-elk/obama-solution-to-stop-ou_b_484413.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-elk/obama-solution-to-stop-ou_b_484413.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>The numbers are outrageous, sickening even. How can
anyone stand to look at them?<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Since 2000, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> has lost <a
href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_plight_of_american_manufacturing">5.5
million manufacturing jobs</a>, with <a
href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_plight_of_american_manufacturing">2.1
million of those jobs being lost</a> in the last two years alone. Since 2001, <a
href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=the_plight_of_american_manufacturing">over
42,400 factories have closed</a> in the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>, and another 90,000 are considered
at severe risk of closing. The last time so few were employed in manufacturing
was in 1941, before World War II spending pulled that sector out of its Great
Depression slump. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Numbers like these make me want to cry. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>So President Obama has come up with a big and bold
solution to deal with the problem. <strong><b><font face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>He's going to shut down the federal office
that counts how many jobs are being shipped overseas. </span></font></b></strong><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>It's like ignoring a bully that picks on you in
grade school. If we just ignore companies like <a
href="http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2010030902/whirlpool-tells-callers-call-congress-theyre-right">Whirlpool
that take stimulus money </a>and ship jobs overseas--maybe they will stop doing
it. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>That will show those big multinational companies.
Hit them where it really hurts--in their egos. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Seriously, folks, this is what President Obama is
really proposing. From <a
href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/02/AR2010030203433.html"><em><i><font
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>The Washington
Post</span></font></i></em></a>:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Like a scorekeeper for the
world, a tiny unit within the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks globalization's
winners and losers, and the results are not always pretty for the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
Manufacturing jobs here, for example, have fallen faster since 1979 than in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region>
or <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Japan</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
Compensation for those jobs dropped here in 2008 but jumped in <st1:country-region
w:st="on">South Korea</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Australia</st1:place></st1:country-region>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Soon, however, Americans may be spared the
demoralization in these numbers: The White House wants to shutter the unit that
produces them. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>President Obama's budget would eliminate the
International Labor Comparisons office and transfer its 16 economists to expand
the bureau's work tracking inflation and occupational trends. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Remember how as <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region></st1:place> became a quagmire, President
George W. Bush said he wasn't fazed by the news because he didn't read the
newspaper? President Obama looks as if he is taking a similar approach to job
outsourcing. Just ignore the problem and it will go away. You don't miss what
you don't measure.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>It didn't work in our misadventures in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Iraq</st1:place></st1:country-region> and it
certainly won't work in dealing with how to compete in the global economy. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>High-wage countries like <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region>
have figured out a way to compete with <st1:country-region w:st="on">China</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Mexico</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
In 2008, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region> ran<a
href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=germanys_economic_engine"> a
$267-billion trade surplus</a>, while the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region> ran <a
href="http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=germanys_economic_engine">a
$568-billion deficit</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>How did that happen? <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><st1:country-region w:st="on"><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span
lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Germany</span></font></st1:country-region><font
size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Trebuchet MS"'> actually came up with a comprehensive plan to encourage
manufacturing in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Germany</st1:place></st1:country-region>.
Meanwhile, the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">United States</st1:place></st1:country-region>
has proposed to just stop counting how many jobs we are losing. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>If President Obama really wants to deal with this
problem, he would also develop a national manufacturing strategy. This week a
bipartisan group of senators, including Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Carl Levin
(D-Mich.), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Thad Cochran
(R-Miss.), and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), wrote to President Obama this week <a
href="http://brown.senate.gov/newsroom/press_releases/release/?id=BCAACEBA-D5F0-4CEE-96ED-1B183EFEC5D4">asking
him to do just that</a>: <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Indeed, for the last
several decades, administrations have passed up critical opportunities to
formulate a rational and comprehensive manufacturing policy. Continued apathy
will undermine our country's ability to achieve energy independence and place
our military readiness at risk.... <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>Without an adequate commitment of resources and
coordination among every executive branch department, we are afraid that the
tenets of this framework may not be appropriately fulfilled. We would therefore
respectfully request additional information about how the Administration is
putting these strategies to work, including specific goals, detailed initiatives
supporting those goals, and performance measures to help ensure continuous
progress. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'>If President Obama really wants to take a
bipartisan approach to creating jobs, he can do it by creating a national
strategy to grow manufacturing jobs--not by refusing to count the cost of
inaction.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS"'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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<p><b><font size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS";font-weight:bold'>Follow Mike Elk on Twitter: <a
href="http://www.twitter.com/MikeElk">www.twitter.com/MikeElk </a></span></font></b><font
size=2 face="Trebuchet MS"><span lang=EN style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Trebuchet MS"'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<ul type=disc>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
mso-list:l1 level1 lfo3;display:none' typeof="foaf:Agent"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;display:none'><a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/outsourcing/" property="foaf:name"><!-- /entry_body_text --><!-- /entry_body --><!-- single link -->Outsourcing
</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></li>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
mso-list:l1 level1 lfo3;display:none' typeof="foaf:Group"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;display:none'><a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/careers/" property="foaf:name">Careers</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></li>
<li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;
mso-list:l1 level1 lfo3;display:none' typeof="foaf:Person"><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span lang=EN style='font-size:12.0pt;display:none'><a
href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/barack-obama/"
property="foaf:name">Barack Obama</a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></li>
</ul>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
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