WITHOUT FANFARE MULTI-NATIONALS AGAIN BLOCK BILL TO STOP OFFSHORING
Astounding only in the lack of press coverage it received, a bill that would have kept an Obama campaign promise, a pledge to begin to end the tax code's incentives to outsource American jobs "failed" when Democrats failed to muster the 60 votes necessary to block debate on the awkwardly named "Create American Jobs and End Offshoring Act by a 53-45 vote.
The bill would have taken away some of the tax incentives multi-national corporations receive for relocating American jobs overseas and create a new tax credit for corporations who bring jobs now overseas back to the United States.
Termed "an election year stunt" by Republicans such as Orrin Hatch and Mitch McConnell, the bill, the debate surrounding it and the vote received almost no press attention, in spite of the fact that it may well have been the most important bill related to jobs presented in the Congress this year. Indeed if it was an "election year stunt," the poor coverage it received almost guarantees that it will be one of the least effective "stunts" ever conceived.
The lack of coverage, particularly in the run-up to the bills introduction in the Senate, virtually guaranteed that the voices of lobbyists for the multi-nationals including the US Chamber of Commerce and the increasingly inaccurately named National Association of Manufacturers would be heard far more loudly than that of the citizenry.
The reason that Republicans might fear that the bill was such a "stunt" is self evident. At a time when over 8 million US jobs have been lost to outsourcing over the past few years, opposition to a bill aimed to stopping outsourcing seems like the political equivalent of coming out against motherhood and apple pie.
Indeed Republicans attempting to explain their votes have resorted to arguments that seem positively surrealistic. While some made the argument that the measure would have give foreign concerns, whose governments continued to encourage outsourcing (though no examples of such policies were given), would enjoy a competitive advantage over US based firms if the tax code were to suddenly discourage outsourcing, the arguments of others would likely not resonate with unemployed, underemployed or otherwise dislocated members of the rapidly vanishing middle class.
One Republican argued that passage of the measure would cause multi-nationals to relocate their corporate headquarters overseas, rather than just their manufacturing jobs. While the image of highly paid CEOs being forced to move to polluted Chinese cities seems one of the more unlikely of outcomes, middle and lower class Americans might actually secretly smile at such a thought. That outcome, Republicans argued, might end up causing the bill to result in a net job loss if the bill were passed.
That argument, of course, displayed a poor mathematical acumen at best or an extreme disingenuousness at worst. No doubt the Republicans were mightily relieved at the lack of coverage the vote received.
Comments
Bernie Sanders says 6 million manufacturing jobs were lost during the Bush years alone and that we ought to boycott manufacturers sending US jobs overseas.
Why did the Democrats wait until the end of the session to introduce this bill? If they wanted to actually pass it, why didn't Obama go on TV and talk about it beforehand? Easy, they didn't actually want to pass it, just be able to use it ad-infinitum during the campaign to distract from the failure of their agenda.
If the Teabagger is right and the Democrats did introduce the bill without the intention of actually passing it, that speaks to the need for a viable party on the left to hold the Democrats feet to the fire. If that's the case a big Democratic loss might just cause progressives to realize that forever hitching their wagon to the Democratic bandwagon is a recipe for a cycle of disappointment followed by big losses.
What total nonsense. Ask any party that has been out of power if it was a good idea to throw an election. What an idiot.
I find this amazing that folks would be for the GOP when they block a bill that could bring back jobs to the american workers,, This blocking really shows the color of the republicans that they have little interest in the american people,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/28/AR201009...
More proof that the GOP hates Americas working class
Hate is too strong a word. Holds them in contempt, yes. Is indifferent to them, yes. Hate usually has an element of fear attached and the GOP believes correctly that they can put it over on the stupid masses over and over again. Raygun proved that.
I agree ! But that could mean that people who are for the Rethugs are people who
don't work for others
This bill would kneecap US multinationals compared with their foreign rivals. US tax policy already puts US multinationals at a disadvantage to the multinationals in other countries. This proposal will only make it worse.
Sorry...Apple, Nike, and Intel. It looks like you are going the way of Zenith and RCA.
Sounds like an oxymoron to talk about "US multinationals." Multinationals have no national loyalty. When is the last time you saw a merchant ship not registered in Liberia that was really owned by a "US" multinational.
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