Obama Wants To Punish Outsourcers

Since the Republicans regained power about three decades ago they have given corporations the "keys to the kingdom". They have done this by giving subsidies and tax cuts, removing regulations (including those that protected consumers), suppressing unions,
and blocking efforts to raise wages. But perhaps the most unscrupulous and damaging (to this country) thing they did was to encourage corporations to send American jobs to foreign countries. They even went so far as to give tax breaks to corporations that outsourced American jobs (and it has put millions of Americans out of work).

This is still going on, but President Obama has decided that it's time to stop it -- at least the government help these outsourcers have been receiving. The president has announced he will be proposing legislation that will reward corporations that bring jobs back to this country with new tax breaks, and punish companies that don't by removing the tax breaks they have been getting for their outsourcing. In other words, he's going to make it more expensive to outsource jobs and cheaper to create jobs in this country.

This kind of effort has been badly needed for years now. It simply makes no sense to reward companies for sending American jobs to other countries. Of course, the proposal will need to be approved by Congress -- and we can be assured the Republicans and blue dogs will fight it tooth-and-nail. In fact, with the Republicans in control of the House of Representatives it is doubtful that the proposal can be passed.

It's still smart of the president to bring it up at this time. The Republicans have already been embarrassed by their effort to stop the payroll tax break for working Americans (and they could still face further embarrassment on that). Now he's putting them in the position of having to vote in favor of outsourcing American jobs. They'll either have to go along with the president's plan, or explain why they didn't to the voters in the upcoming election (and that will be hard since a huge majority of Americans opposes outsourcing of jobs).

It looks like the president is finally learning how to play political hardball, and I'm loving it. He either gets what he wants to help Americans, or he gets a bunch of new Democrats in Congress next November. It's a win for the president (and the American people) either way.

(Note -- the above cartoon is from Fellowship of the Minds.)