Obama plans drive to halt outsourcing
Outsourcing is shaping up to be a hot topic in the 2012 United States presidential race, with incumbent Barack Obama making moves to slight his Republican counterpart (whoever he/she may be).
Obama pledged Saturday to make the federal government more domestic business friendly, promising to soon release a new tax code that would provide incentives for companies to bring jobs back into the U.S.
Obama also said that tax breaks will be eliminated for companies that do not follow his plan on ‘insourcing.’
The president displayed a handful of common consumer goods at his weekly address, including a pair of boots, socks and a candle – all manufactured in the United States – to drive his point across.
“I’ll make sure you’ve got a government that does everything in its power to help you succeed,” Obama said.
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Details were vague in Obama’s outsourcing announcement, but the move appears to be a swipe at corporate America and possible 2012 opponent Mitt Romney, the governor of Massachusetts who oversaw the outsourcing of thousands of jobs in his work with the private sector.
While the move is undoubtedly a good sign for U.S. business, the supply chain implications of such a move would be vast. For starters, insourcing jobs from foreign countries would require corporations to pay significantly higher wages to workers, wages that companies are certainly going to balk at initially.
It’s likely the GOP will point out these flaws in Obama’s plan in the coming days. But one thing is clear: outsourcing is going to be a point of major discussion in the 2012 U.S. presidential election.