Posted on 01/28/2010 10:28:06 AM PST by Cheap_Hessian
Washington, Jan 28 (IANS) US President Barack Obama has revived the bugaboo of outsourcing by vowing to slash tax breaks to American firms that move jobs abroad and to help those who create employment within the country.
'Job creation would be the country's number-one focus in 2010,' Obama said, pushing for a new jobs bill in his first State of the Union address to a joint session of the Congress Wednesday even as he acknowledged the step would not compensate for the seven million jobs lost over the last two years.
'To encourage ... businesses to stay within our borders, it is time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America,' he said.
'Now, the House has passed a jobs bill that includes some of these steps. As the first order of business this year, I urge the Senate to do the same, and I know they will,' he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at in.news.yahoo.com ...
First, the DemocRATs force businesses to move operations overseas because of corporate taxes, then they penalize them for doing it. What a way to run a ship aground.
So instead of just moving the jobs overseas, companies are now further pushed to move their entire operations offshore.
Brilliant!
/sarc
‘To encourage ... businesses to stay within our borders, it is time to finally slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas, and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs right here in the United States of America,’ he said.
I want to know the details. But, this could be the only thing I’ve found so far, on which I agree with Obama.
Let us not forget, the free traders told us offshore outsourcing would free Americans for better jobs. Then, the free traders told us that we didn’t have a strong enough manufacturing base to pull us out of recession.
Brilliant.
That way they have zero incentive to leave ANY jobs in the U.S.
” ... What a way to run a ship aground.”
To be fair, when Bush was president, and the Republicans controlled Congress, offshore outsourcing was all the rage. I don’t think Democrats are the only ones to blame here.
But, the Dems definately will stand in the way of making a business friendly environment here in the US.
Considering GM is one of the biggest offenders of this new little rule how will you handle that situation Obama?
Whatever the reason, this dolt proves every day why he is unfit to be POTUS.
In my 30 years in this country, I have never seen a President less committed to the truth, to his oath of office, and to the safety & well-being of our country.
I will bet my last dollar that in the obama household there is a lot of “if you don’t do this I won’t love you” sentiment from one family member to another. You can see it in everything that he, and his admin propose; “do this, or you won’t get our love”
I suggest you look at “Forbes CEO Compensation” for 5/3/07, 4/30/08 and 4/22/09. There you will see some of the astronomical salaries some CEOs have been getting. I have long thought that one reason to send jobs overseas was so that top brass could super pay themselves. While having enough surplus to keep the stockholders off their backs. You look, you decide.
Obama Creates Green Energy Jobs…Overseas
http://investigativereportingworkshop.org/investigations/wind-energy-funds-going-overseas/
How about "all of the above"?
probably another special union-only exemption...
How will this tax change diminish out-sourcing?
I don’t buy the “tax cuts to companies that move jobs overseas” mantra. As if the purpose of the tax cuts was from the express purpose of moving them. How about tax cuts for companies that don’t move their whole operations overseas? MA gave tax breaks for Fidelity and Raytheon, our two largest employers. They were going to move lock, stock and barrel to NC.
**Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas**
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/07/AR2009050704336.html
“More significantly, it raises fundamental questions about the purpose of bailing out these big companies. If GM is going to do more of its production overseas, then why exactly are we saving GM?”
**U.S. stimulus buoys U.K. factory’s workers**
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2009/10/29/3438812-us-stimulus-buoys-uk-factorys-workers
more hype from Obama-”King of Hype & Hope”.
Heeeeelp! Heeeeelp! Someone wake me! I’m stuck in a nightmare!
“How will this tax change diminish out-sourcing?”
That’s what I said, I want details. I don’t claim it’s easy to do, but trying to encourage businesses to employ in the US is better than watching the jobs go away and say nothing can be done. That approach didn’t work out too well for Spain.
2010 Index of Economic Freedom:
http://www.heritage.org/Index/Ranking.aspx
Were I a bigshot CEO, I’d view this as a threat and move my HQ to Hong Kong for 3 years.
Frickin’ Canada outranks us...
Your government’s crushing taxation, plus its avowed intent to punish wealth production (Cap and Trade), plus its coddling of toxic unions are the main factors that hobble American industry today.
Even though America has relatively excellent infrastructure, political stability and legal protection of property, your industry bluechips are actively encouraged to shoot themselves in the foot.
Ask yourself: did free trade destroy GM - or was it the unions?
Also: was it free trade that has forced General Electric to run up colossal, unpayable debts - or is it because the GE board know that Uncle Sugar will support them no matter how badly they screw up?
If Obama does what he threatens to do, American industries and consumers will be crushed. Then it really will be the Great Depression - in color.
I’ve heard a lot about these tax breaks for companies with workers overseas; what are these tax breaks? What taxes do you not have to pay if you earn money overseas? Because I have an overseas company and I don’t see any special tax breaks...
Or is this more empty rhetoric from our President in his quest to strengthen the class warfare between the productive and the slothful?
Boston firm shifts ‘green jobs’ to China
No jobs go overseas - only the money confiscated from the productive, through conduits at the UN and direct Foreign Aid.
Obama thinks government creates jobs!
HeeHeeHeeHeeHee!
I guess they are going to have to start with AIG.
Exactly my point, this doofus has no real understanding of business or the economy and has committed communists as advisers.
Leon Trotsky would have a seat at his table if he was still alive, and some of his role models make Trotsky look like a pansy now.
As a fairtax person, I believe that the tax policies that caused the rush to move jobs overseas go back much farther. As such, if we had the fairtax, there would be no incentive to set up operations outside of the US other than to exploit a new market. Maybe manufacturing will come back.
The stupidity of this guy should be banned as it is appears to be a perpetual motion machine.
I have always wondered the same thing. What exactly are these special tax breaks? I suspect there are none.
What will Jeff Immelt of GE say? They outsourced to India a whole bunch.
The reality is companies don’t move overseas because of cheaper labor, or “tax breaks”; IF they move overseas it’s because the cost of doing business overall is cheaper. If you’re Caterpillar and selling backhoes to China or Singapore it’s simply cheaper to build them there, rather than here and pay for shipping and the import duties. If you build overseas you can be competitive with the overseas vendors (like Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Hitachi, etc). Making a 20% better backhoe but having a 50% higher cost because of shipping and duties means death in the marketplace.
The number one reason jobs in manufacturing have decreased is productivity increases; this is also why standards of living increase. You need fewer hours to do a given job, create a given unit of wealth. Meaning you can work less, or create more wealth in the same time, or a little of both. If you want to bring jobs back, outlaw robots. Of course, expect to see car prices explode, and quality suffer.
A tremendous amount of jobs have disappeared from the world - they have been replaced by robotics and automation. On a car, you don’t have two people lifting and placing windshields, you have a robot with suction cups. You don’t have 12 tack-welders applying sheet metal skins, you have a half-dozen robots with a single production engineer overseeing them.
We no longer need tens of millions of manufacturing jobs; we need hundreds of thousands of production engineers overseeing robotics and automated lines. The nature of manufacturing has changed permanently, those jobs will never come back. They have not relocated, they have simply been replaced by a robot.
But it makes a great foundation for class warfare, and a way to justify your own special tax breaks to your own pet (Government Owned) companies, doesn’t it?
So you’re saying we still have the ame manufacturing capability, we just do it with less labor. My best friend at a steel mill in Gary would love to hear me say that.
In the case of steel (an industry I'm very aware of, I use hundreds of tons of low carbon steel annually), the US simply priced itself out of the market via the GM model - union retirements and benefits so high that the steel companies simply could not compete. In that case, the jobs weren't outsourced, they were killed by the unions - by the rank and file workers themselves.
The few US steel mills that are still going strong are those that have either broken the union, or have somehow managed to replace the team of 12 on the crucible with automated systems meaning a team of two overseeing the process. The end result is higher quality, higher consistency, and lower cost.
But in general, we need a lot fewer workers to do the same work accomplished 40 years ago. You no longer need hundreds of thousands of people building cars, you can do it with tens of thousands. Unfortunately the UAW doesn't think so and so forces legacy positions, and makes it financially untenable to eliminate jobs. So we lose all jobs over time as companies die, rather than lose a few jobs and keep the company and the rest of the employees strong.
Thanks, that was the best explanation I’ve ever had on the subject.
As a former transformer coil winder, I was non-union in a union shop until I was forced to join else my car repair bills were going to build up. I went out of my way to antagonize the union coil winders and union management. I put out coils at nearly 3 times the quota, even after they had me moved to the slowest machine in the room and would cut the wire in my barrel before I came on shift. I became very adept at soldering and shellacing. Then when the union trainer refused to train new hires, I said, “I’ll do it!” (15 cents per hour more). The union hated me at H. K. Porter, and was probably glad to see me leave when I completed night school, got my degree, and got a better job.
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