[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 10, 2004)]
[House]
[Page H421]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  2030
              OUTSOURCING AMERICAN JOBS IS BAD FOR AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Beauprez). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Ryan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RYAN of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, when President Bush campaigned for his 
election in 2000, he was very persuasive, and he is a very persuasive 
President, and he persuaded the American people that he was a 
compassionate conservative and most of us thought he would be. Then he 
used his persuasion techniques to convince the American people that 
Saddam Hussein, a bum dictator in the Middle East who was busy writing 
novels, not worried about weapons of mass destruction, was an imminent 
threat to the United States of America.
  But today, Mr. Speaker, the President is trying to use his persuasion 
techniques on an issue that will be very difficult. President Bush is 
now saying that outsourcing United States jobs is good for the United 
States of America. This takes the cake. Many of these articles have 
been cited here tonight: L.A. Times, ``Bush Supports Shift in Jobs 
Overseas''; Seattle Times, ``Sending Jobs Overseas Helps the United 
States''; Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 1 hour from my district in 
Youngstown, Ohio, ``Bush Economic Report Praises Outsourcing Jobs''; 
Orlando Sentinel, ``Bush Says Sending Jobs Abroad Can Be Beneficial.''
  Mr. Speaker, give me a break. This President said in his State of the 
Union address, ``Much of our job growth will be found in high-skilled 
fields like health care.'' President Bush's economic adviser said, ``We 
will outsource jobs to lower-wage countries as a way to help control 
the upward spiral of health care costs in the United States of 
America.''
  How can we believe for one second that losing United States jobs, 
losing high-wage, high-paying manufacturing jobs, medical jobs, science 
jobs in the United States of America is somehow good for this country?
  Mr. Speaker, I ask the President to please be straight with the 
American people. In Ohio, we have an unemployment rate of almost 6 
percent; 264,000 jobs have been lost in the State of Ohio. On Labor 
Day, the President came to Ohio. He passed up Youngstown and he passed 
up Toledo and he passed up Steubenville and Akron, and he passed up 
Lima, and he went to Richfield, one of the wealthiest suburbs in Ohio 
for Labor Day. He passed up all of the cities that have seen 
manufacturing erode and all of the manufacturing jobs shipped overseas, 
and now he is trying to convince us that losing all of these jobs is 
good.
  Mr. President, look in the eyes, as I have to do every weekend when I 
go home, and as many Members of Congress have to do when they go home, 
look in the eyes of these workers and tell them that their losing their 
job is somehow good for the United States, them losing their job is 
somehow patriotic.
  When we talked about all of these free trade agreements, and I 
remember hearing it during NAFTA and the debates during the 1990s, and 
now the President wants to pass the Central American Free Trade 
Agreement all the way down to South America, the promise always was 
that we were going to invest money into education, we were going to 
invest into the American people. As we have to compete globally, we 
have to invest. And now we have a President who has done nothing on 
Pell grants, nothing on No Child Left Behind, underfunded by billions 
of dollars, putting more regulations on our young people and our 
teachers, school boards and superintendents, not making the proper 
investment. Mr. President, be straight with the American people.
  We cannot believe, and we will not believe, and I look forward to the 
President and this administration trying to convince the American 
people that losing jobs in the United States of America is good. This 
is going to be a great election year where we have one candidate saying 
that outsourcing of United States jobs is a good thing, and another 
candidate that is saying outsourcing of American jobs is a bad thing.
  Mr. Speaker, I am going to make a big claim here tonight. I am going 
to say that I believe the American people will side with the candidate 
that says keeping jobs here in the United States is what is best for 
America.

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