Bushspeeek continually getting him in trouble....he can't talk and it's all too obvious when you TRY to read what he said to Russert.....grade school grammar and constant repitition
UPDATE - Bush aide seeks to stem damage
over exporting jobs
Thursday February 12, 7:39 pm ET
By Adam Entous
(Recasts throughout with Mankiw letter)
WASHINGTON, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Under pressure from fellow Republicans to defuse
an election-year controversy, one of President George W. Bush's top economic
advisers said on Thursday he did not mean to praise the shifting of U.S. jobs abroad.
The chairman of the White House
Council of Economic Advisers,
Gregory Mankiw, issued what
amounts to a public apology after
Bush expressed concern in a speech
in Pennsylvania about "people
looking for work because jobs have
gone overseas."
"My lack of clarity left the wrong
impression that I praised the loss of
U.S. jobs," Mankiw said in a letter to
House of Representatives Speaker
Dennis Hastert.
An Illinois Republican, Hastert joined
Democrats in Congress and on the
campaign trail in criticizing Mankiw
for saying "outsourcing" by U.S. companies was "something that we should realize is
probably a plus for the economy in the long run."
"It is regrettable whenever anyone loses a job. A job loss is always an awful experience
and can lead to hardship for a worker and his or her family ... I regret that I did not
express my views on these issues of great concern more clearly," Mankiw said.
A spokeswoman said the letter was Mankiw's idea, not the White House's. "He believed
it was an important opportunity to clarify his views," White House spokeswoman Claire
Buchan said.
With concern about unemployment heating up ahead of the November presidential
election, Democrats have seized on Mankiw's comments and the council's annual
report as evidence the Bush White House is insensitive to the plight of out-of-work
Americans.
LABOR COSTS
They accused Mankiw -- and the White House -- of encouraging companies to move
operations to places like Mexico, India and China, where labor costs are lower.
Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle derided what he called "Alice in Wonderland
economics" and predicted Mankiw would quit.
Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York told reporters, "This is the
economic report of the president and not the economic report of Mr. Mankiw ... We
cannot allow our Republican friends to shift the blame and the burden to Mr. Mankiw."
Hastert said of Mankiw: "His theory fails a basic test of real economics."
Bush himself sought to stem the controversy during a visit on Thursday to a high
school in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania -- a pivotal state in this year's election and one of
the hardest hit by factory job losses during his presidency.
Without mentioning Mankiw by name, Bush said, "I don't worry about numbers, I worry
about people."
"There are people looking for work because jobs have gone overseas," Bush added.
"We need to act to make sure there are more jobs at home" by retraining displaced
workers and by making his tax cuts permanent.
The Republican president offered no new initiatives to curb outsourcing and aides said
he opposed restrictions on free trade.
Senate Democrats introduced legislation requiring companies that export American
jobs to first give their employees and affected communities fair warning.
Nearly 2.8 million factory jobs have been lost since Bush took office and the issue
looms large ahead of November's vote, where victory in rust-belt states like
Pennsylvania could be key.
Underscoring its political importance to Bush's re-election, Thursday's presidential visit
was his 25th to Pennsylvania. He narrowly lost the state in the 2000 election, and
analysts say he may have hurt his chances this year when he scrapped U.S. tariffs on
steel imports in December to avert a trade war with Europe. (Additional reporting by
Randall Mikkelsen) |
