I don't get why I had to re-sign, but I did just now. Here is that article:
Bush Disagrees With Aide On Flight of Jobs Overseas
'We Need to Act in This Country,' President Says
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 13, 2004; Page A08
HARRISBURG, Pa., Feb. 12 -- President Bush, visiting this industrial state to tout his prescriptions for employment growth, distanced himself from his chief economist, who this week spoke approvingly of jobs moving overseas.
The president, speaking Thursday at a high school here, did not mention the aide by name but expressed his concern about the expatriation of jobs. "There are people looking for work because jobs have gone overseas," he said. "And we need to act in this country. We need to act to make sure there are more jobs at home, and people are more likely to retain a job."
On Monday, N. Gregory Mankiw, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said in releasing the annual Economic Report of the President that the "offshoring" of U.S. service jobs is "the latest manifestation of the gains from trade that economists have talked about" for centuries. "Outsourcing is just a new way of doing international trade," he told reporters. "More things are tradable than were tradable, in the past and that's a good thing."
The report, similarly, said that "when a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense to import it than make or provide it domestically."
Several economists, including some Democrats, have defended Mankiw, a Harvard economist, for speaking the economic truth. But his remarks have become a political liability for the president. Even House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), a Bush ally, joined the criticism Wednesday.
Job loss is a sensitive issue for Bush as he seeks reelection in November. The economy has lost 2.2 million jobs on Bush's watch and has been slow to reduce unemployment despite other signs of economic growth. As Bush prepared to fly to Harrisburg, the Labor Department reported that new claims for unemployment insurance rose last week by a seasonally adjusted 6,000, to 363,000, the highest level in two months.
In Pennsylvania, an electoral battleground that Bush has visited 25 times as president, unemployment has grown to 5.1 percent, and some residents were angered by Bush's recent decision to end tariffs on steel imports.
Democrats, meanwhile, sought to exploit the Mankiw flap. Senate Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) introduced legislation to require companies to give employees' three months' notice of layoffs if they are replaced with workers outside the country. "Exporting jobs isn't an accident," Daschle said, "it's administration policy."
White House press secretary Scott McClellan acknowledged before Bush's speech here that the president was obliquely addressing the Mankiw controversy. "This president is focused on creating jobs here at home," he said. Responding to Hastert's criticism, McClellan said: "I think the speaker said something about, it's important that we are creating jobs here at home, and I'm glad he agrees with the president." The spokesman noted that 366,000 jobs have been added to the economy in the past five months.
Mankiw said in a statement Wednesday that his remarks in support of free trade were "misinterpreted," adding: "It is regrettable whenever anyone loses a job."
Bush's Harrisburg trip promoted his $503 million job-training plan, which includes grants to community colleges to train workers for growing industries, as well as funds for reading and math education and Pell grants. Bush shared the stage at Central Dauphin High School with a parent, a businessman and educators, including a school administrator named Barbara Hasson.
"I've been listening to Barbaras all my life," said the president, who has a mother and daughter of that name. |
