Reply #22: chatter from the anti-outsourcing groups, think this is true - economy

[Robert Oak]

LA Times ran an article claiming Kerry's corporate tax reform wouldn't
do jack to stop outsourcing.

Kerry said in debate #2 he could "not stop outsourcing" and did nothing to retort to Bush's claim his plan would "do nothing".

In the grassroots, there were repeated press releases and stories
that Bush and Kerry were the same w.r.t. US jobs.

People were furious that he stopped the "Benedict Arnold CEO's" rhetoric and he especially was not trusted because he didn't recant on his NAFTA, China PNTR and other "free traitor" votes.

His economic team, in the last 4 days, released a paper, but in pdf
and just did NOT distribute it, an overall plan to curb outsourcing.

They stopped pushing to ban federal and state contracts from being offshore outsourced.

they never presented a multi-dimensional policy modification approach to strengthen the position for US jobs, nor specifically outline what
changes need to be make with US trade policy beyond vague references
to add "labor and environmental standards" and a brief mention of floating the Yuan.

this isn't exactly a major battle plan to turn a record trade deficit around.

Their trade policy was nebulous at best and sounded almost like pandering to the unions, with no real outline at all on how to deal
with the budget deficit.

Add to that, absolutely no out of the box plan to secure social security and almost no mention the real reasons social security is in trouble, which is because they dip into the money set aside for social security to finance tax cuts, DoD spending and the like.

To me, they were trying to play both sides of the fence on the economy and by doing so, lost both the "big business" groups as well as the workers.

There were people going on bus tours about the lost of American jobs, but not even much of a mention to endorse Kerry really, more about
pushing their own agenda.

The democratic party MUST start endorsing economic policy that helps
American workers and frankly, I don't think they know exactly what to do. Economics is so littered with studies biased towards the needs of
multinational corporations and seemingly economic models rarely take into account the middle class, or even the effects of a strong middle class on the overall economic health of the nation.

They also need to get out to the rural areas and talk, in DETAIL,
about their plans.

Only Elizabeth Edwards in her town hall meetings had the ability to go into the depth needed to convince people.

Seriously, the grassroots activists were not convinced. And I would claim if they were not convinced, few workers who were voting on this issue, were truly convinced the democratic party was really going to help them.