[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 16 (Tuesday, February 10, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Page S769]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       OUTSOURCING AMERICAN JOBS

  Mrs. CLINTON. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Oklahoma.
  I rise today because I could not believe my eyes when I saw this 
headline in the Los Angeles Times today: ``Bush Supports Shift of Jobs 
Overseas.'' If one reads this article, it is clear the concern I feel 
on behalf of my constituents, who are finding their jobs going to other 
countries, is not shared in the White House. In fact, Gregory Mankiw, 
the President's Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, has this to 
say:

       Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade. 
     More things are tradable than were tradable in the past. And 
     that's a good thing.

  I do not think outsourcing American jobs is a new kind of trade. I do 
not think we should be thinking of our people as commodities, and I 
certainly do not believe it is a good thing. If the other end of 
Pennsylvania believes it is a good thing to have companies shift jobs 
from America to the rest of the world, then maybe they do not have a 
clue about what it is going to take to bring jobs back to this country 
and create the kind of economic prosperity that will put our people 
back to work again.
  Of course, this goes hand in hand with the budget the President sent 
up, which cuts investments and workforce training of dislocated 
workers, which underscores the failure to push for stricter standards 
or real enforcement of labor and environmental standards in our trade 
agreements, has no plans to address rising health care costs or legacy 
health and pension costs that are strangling American manufacturing 
companies, and apparently does not care we are now outsourcing 
radiologists and engineers, people we told to go get a good education, 
get that college degree, get that advanced degree; there will always be 
a place for you in the American economy. If this is what the opinion is 
on the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue--``Bush Supports Shift of Jobs 
Overseas''--I certainly hope this body will join to pass a resolution 
repudiating this strategy. This is a strategy for decline. This is a 
strategy for the destruction of the American job market.

  We will be presenting a resolution, a sense of Senate, to stand 
against this philosophy in the White House that turns a blind eye to 
the damage that is being done to the American economy: The loss of 
jobs, the loss of income, the loss of self-confidence and prestige that 
is now sweeping our land.
  I hope both sides of the aisle, Democrats and Republicans, will join 
in a sense-of-the-Senate resolution saying: We don't know what they are 
drinking up there in the White House, we don't know what the Council of 
Economic Advisers is reading, but we in the Senate do not believe 
shifting jobs overseas is a good economic strategy and we want, once 
and for all, to not only repudiate that but to come together with real 
plans and policies that will keep our jobs here and make it possible 
for us to promise the American workforce that this economy will be 
creating opportunities for them and they will not be watching the 
American dream be outsourced as well.
  Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Oklahoma for his kindness in 
letting me express and vent my frustration about this headline and the 
words coming out of the White House at this time.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.
  Mr. INHOFE. Mr. President, I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. REID. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Crapo). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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