Obama ships jobs and tax payers money overseas.

Written by: Michael Willingham



In a desperate attempt to make his sputtering campaign appear less
like a joke, Barack Obama is accusing Mitt Romney of sending jobs
overseas during his time as a Bain Capital executive. The problem,
issues of distortion and inaccuracy aside, is that Mr. Obama sent jobs
overseas as President of the United States of America.

That’s right, outsourcing as President of the United States of America!

Evidently Mr. Obama was mapping out his course when, during his
acceptance speech at the 2008 Democratic National Convention he said,
“If you don't have a record to run on, then you paint your opponent as
someone people should run from.”
Mr. Obama purports to have “saved” the American auto industry through
the $840 billion bailout program, which leaves an unprecedentedly
large debt for generations of American (not foreign) taxpayers. Yet,
after dishing out enormous taxpayer funded handouts to struggling
automakers he devised the Cash for Clunkers scheme.

Cash for Clunkers stimulated the already booming auto manufacturing
industry in Asia. Sixty percent, and eight of the top ten, cars
purchased under this program were made by Honda, Toyota, Nissan, or
Hyundai. The other two cars were made by Ford, the only American
manufacturer that did not accept bailout money.

Isn’t it comforting to know that the Obama administration is not
“crushing” Asia’s middle class? Sadly, sending money overseas was a
chronic problem for the current Commander in Chief.

For example, Cree Inc., an LED manufacturer originally located in
North Carolina, received $39 million in stimulus money in January of
2010. Roughly half of the company's jobs are in China.

To make matters worse, its CEO delightfully accepted the stimulus
check, despite having no intention of moving outsourced operations
back to the United States. He prefers China for its “human talent and
the most state-of-the-art technologies.” This long-term plan of
outsourcing is no surprise because the company had christened a new
plant in China one year before the bailout.

Anyone with private sector experience would know this situation
creates “a poor return on investment” for taxpayers.

Perhaps the most notorious episode of Obama’s dangerously poor
judgment in funding a foreign company is when he gave $529 million to
Fisker Automotive as part of the Energy Deparment’s Electric Vehicle
Program. Fisker, a company headquartered in Finland, received the
money to begin assembling a new line of cars. The only problem is
that Fisker’s manufacturing plant is in Finland.

True, Fisker was supposed to establish a plant in Delaware so it could
manufacture in the United States. However, the company changed its
mind and kept the money. They are currently producing a line of
vehicles with a whopping price tag of $97,000 apiece.

Although this was a disaster for America, Vice President Biden praised
the Energy Department's decision to fork over the half billion
dollars. Mr. Biden’s applause came despite the fact that both his
country, and the state he served in Congress, got hosed. As if one
vice president’s traitorous endorsement is not enough, Fisker was
backed by Kleiner, Perkins Caufield & Byers, a powerhouse venture
capital firm whose list of partners includes former Vice President
Gore (thanks for helping us dodge that bullet Florida).

The Obama campaign, which has been so hostile to venture capital,
would likely criticize Mr. Gore if not for the “inconvenient truth”
that Mr. Obama works hand-in-hand with him to send American jobs
overseas.

Thus, Mr. Obama’s attack is worse than hypocritical. Not only did Mr.
Obama rely on sketchy evidence to sling this mud but, more
importantly, he racked up a dismal record of coddling foreign
manufacturers while serving as President of the United States of
America.

With all this money going overseas, no wonder Mr. Obama ran up
deficits over $16 trillion while simultaneously keeping the
unemployment rate for Americans still seeking full-time work above
eight percent for 42 months.

When politicians know they are on the brink of losing because their
many past failures have caught up to them, they often engage in
pathetic tactics. Mr. Obama has proven incapable of carrying out his
sworn duty to protect our country by sending jobs overseas himself.
Exhibit A: his last four years in office.



Michael L. Willingham is a student at the Harrison College of Business
at Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.