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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (34578)	1/9/2004 11:36:44 AM
From: Karen Lawrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Buchanan says Dean can't beat Bush: Like his father, Bush is running up huge deficits and increasing the domain of federal bureaucrats. He, too, is a champion of foreign aid and intervention to build a New World Order. He, too, is a global democratist who cites Wilson and FDR. He, too, is a "big government conservative" like his dad. Since taking his oath, he has not killed one federal program, agency or department, or vetoed a single bill. LBJ won a landslide running on the "guns-and-butter" budget that financed the Great Society and the war in Vietnam. The Bush Republicans have gone LBJ one better. They are for guns and butter – and tax cuts, too. On the cause of a constitutional amendment to ban abortion, Bush says America is not ready. Anyone ever heard the president preach from the Bully Pulpit to change our hearts? After the Supreme Court affirmed the right of the University of Michigan to discriminate against white kids for 25 years – as long as it is not so blatant as adding 20 points to application scores for race – Bush hailed the court's recognition of the value of "diversity." When the battle flag became an issue in South Carolina, Bush quietly removed a plaque to Southern war dead put up by the Daughters of the Confederacy in a Texas courthouse, and his brother Jeb took down the battle flag over the Florida statehouse. Democrats are pro-gay rights. What do Bushites say? "We are inclusive." "We are for tolerance." "We are for diversity." "We are against discrimination." But, checking Gallup, "We believe marriage should be between a man and a woman." Heroic. Republicans have been winning elections, even for Congress. But they have done so by shucking conservative principles. Like the Americans in Vietnam, they are winning all the set-piece battles, as they are losing the war. Dean may be routed. But my guess is that whatever he stands for today will be embraced by his party tomorrow, and the GOP the day after. Civil unions, here we come. wnd.com

To: Karen Lawrence who wrote (34578)	1/9/2004 11:47:36 AM
From: laura_bush	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 89467

Tech Firms: We Must Export Jobs The "Supreme Being" works in a variety of "mysterious ways," doesn't he? -lb WASHINGTON, Jan. 7, 2004 (AP) Worried about possible government reaction to the movement of U.S. technology jobs overseas, leading American computer companies are defending recent shifts in employment to Asia and elsewhere as necessary for future profits and warning policy makers against restrictions. "There is no job that is America's God-given right anymore," said Carly Fiorina, chief executive for Hewlett-Packard Co. "We have to compete for jobs." In a report released Wednesday, the companies said government efforts to preserve American jobs through limits on overseas trade would backfire and "could lead to retaliation from our trading partners and even an all-out trade war." "Countries that resort to protectionism end up hampering innovation and crippling their industries, which leads to lower economic growth and ultimately higher unemployment," said the Washington-based Computer Systems Policy Project, whose member companies include Intel Corp., IBM, Dell Inc. and Hewlett-Packard. Intel chief executive Craig Barrett said the United States "now has to compete for every job going forward. That has not been on the table before. It had been assumed we had a lock on white-collar jobs and high-tech jobs. That is no longer the case." Barrett complained about federal agriculture subsidies he said were worth tens of billions of dollars while government investments in physical sciences was a relatively low $5 billion. "I can't understand why we continue to pour resources into the industries of the 19th century," Barrett said. The effort by the technology industry represents an early response to their growing concerns that U.S. lawmakers may clamp down on the practice, known as "offshoring," especially during an election year. Already, some Democratic candidates have criticized the practice. Democratic front-runner Howard Dean said during a debate last month that America needs a president "who doesn't think that big corporations who get tax cuts ought to be able to move their headquarters to Bermuda and their jobs offshore." Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., introduced a bill in November requiring service representatives to disclose their physical location each time a customer calls to make a purchase, inquire about a transaction or ask for technical support. The proposal targets the increasingly popular decisions by companies to move their call centers overseas to capitalize on low labor costs. A Commerce Department report last month said increasing numbers of technology jobs are moving from the United States to Canada, India, Ireland, Israel, the Philippines and China — and predicted that "many U.S. companies that are not already offshoring are planning to do so in the near future." The subject has been the focus of several congressional hearings, and some lawmakers have asked the General Accounting Office for a study on the economic implications of moving technology jobs offshore. The technology group argued in its new report that moving jobs to countries such as China or India — where labor costs are cheaper — helps companies more readily break into foreign markets and hire skilled and creative employees in countries where students perform far better than U.S. students in math and science. "Americans who think that foreign workers are no match for U.S. workers in knowledge, skills and creativity are mistaken," the trade group's report said. Even as technology companies lobby against limits on offshore employment, they are urging the Bush administration to approve new tax credits on research and development spending, spend more on university research on physical science and adjust tax depreciation schedules for technology purchases. They said they also want improvements in education, especially in elementary through high schools. A vocal critic of technology companies moving jobs overseas, Marcus Courtney of Seattle, dismissed the latest report. "This is not a recipe for job creation in this country," said Courtney, president of the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers. "This is a recipe for corporate greed. They're lining up at the public trough to slash their labor costs." cbsnews.com