[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 10, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        PRESIDENTIAL SUPPORT FOR OUTSOURCING JOBS IS OUTRAGEOUS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the order of the House of 
January 20, 2004, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Brown) is recognized 
during morning hour debates for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BROWN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, today I picked up a newspaper, picked 
up a Los Angeles Times, and the headline of the Los Angeles Times, I 
believe the second largest daily paper in the Nation, said, ``Bush 
Supports Shift of Jobs Overseas.'' The subheadline was, ``The loss of 
work to other countries, while painful in the short term, will enrich 
our economy eventually,'' the President's report to Congress says.
  Now, I thought maybe that was just an overzealous headline writer, so 
I looked at some other newspapers.
  The Seattle Times headline was, ``Bush Report: Sending Jobs Overseas 
Helps the United States.''
  Then I looked at the Pittsburg Post Gazette: ``Bush Economic Report 
Praises Outsourcing Jobs,'' sending those jobs overseas. The Orlando 
Sentinel in the President's brother's home State: ``Bush Says Sending 
Jobs Abroad Can Be Beneficial.''
  Now, this is a President of the United States who in 3 years has seen 
a job loss of 3 million people. In my home State of Ohio, we have lost 
300,000 jobs. One out of six manufacturing jobs in Ohio has disappeared 
to Mexico, to China, somewhere overseas generally.
  We have seen continued job loss in every State in this country. In 
fact, we have seen manufacturing job loss every single month of the 
Bush administration. And after I read these headlines and I read the 
articles which correspond precisely to the headlines, it makes me think 
maybe that is the Bush plan overall, that we are sending these jobs 
overseas. Maybe that is what he planned. And that does not make any 
sense, that the President of the United States would want to send jobs 
overseas; but this President supported the North American Free Trade 
Agreement running for Governor of Texas. Then he supported as Governor 
of Texas the Permanent Normal Trade Relations, the trade agreement with 
China. He supported Fast Track Trade Promotion Authority. He now 
supports the Central American Free Trade Agreement which will 
hemorrhage more jobs to Latin America. And his office is right now 
negotiating the Free Trade Act of the Americas, which will quadruple 
the size of the North American Free Trade Agreement, causing more 
hemorrhaging of jobs.
  So when the President's head of Council of Economic Advisors, Gregory 
Mankiw, when he prepared this report, he said in this report, 
``Outsourcing is just a way of doing international trade. More things 
are tradeable than were tradeable in the past. And that is a good 
thing.'' He then goes on to claim that, as the gentleman from 
California (Mr. Sherman), who is with me here, points out, that this 
Bush plan will create 2.6 million jobs in 2004.
  It is another promise of job creation, but we have seen manufacturing 
job loss every single month of the Bush administration. And now 
apparently they are saying this outsourcing, this job loss overseas is 
a good thing.
  Now, the most interesting, maybe if not the most important because it 
is not as big as the job loss in manufacturing, but he talks about one 
particular group of people who happen to be radiologists. And I know of 
radiologists in the United States, they are the people that read the x-
rays and the MRIs and all of that, who have said that when they take x-
rays, when they do MRIs, sometimes those x-rays are literally e-mailed 
to India, read by radiologists in India, and then sent back. So 
radiologists are concerned about their work, frankly.
  In his report he said, ``Maybe we will outsource a few radiologists. 
What does that mean? Maybe the next generation of doctors will train 
fewer radiologists and will train more general practitioners or 
surgeons. Maybe we have learned that we do not have a comparative 
advantage in radiologists.''
  Maybe Mr. Mankiw has read too many economics text books when he says 
we do not have a comparative advantage in radiologists.
  But the point, Mr. Speaker, is that this administration has totally 
lost touch with reality, if they can look in the eye a worker in Akron, 
Ohio, in the steel industry or in Lorraine or Cleveland or anywhere in 
this country, look them in the eye and they can say, outsourcing is a 
good thing. Your job going overseas is a good thing because then maybe 
you can get a job at Wal-Mart that pays $7 an hour with health care 
benefits. Or maybe you can get a job somewhere else part-time, or maybe 
you can figure out what is going to happen to your health insurance and 
what is going to happen to your pension.
  The fact is that this administration's answer to everything is more 
tax cuts for the richest people and more trade agreements that 
hemorrhage jobs overseas. We have seen enough job loss in this country 
without the President piling on, without the President, as the L.A. 
Times says, supporting the shift of jobs overseas; without the 
President, as the Seattle Times said, sending jobs overseas helps the 
United States; without the President, as the Pittsburg Post Gazette 
says, his economic report praises outsourcing jobs; or as the Orland 
Sentinel says, sending jobs abroad can be beneficial.
  It does not make sense for our country. It does not make sense for 
workers. It does not make sense for our people.

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