Exporting America: false choices
from: Lou Dobbs Tonight March 10, 2004
http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/09/commentary/dobbs/dobbs
In none of the attacks on my position on outsourcing
has a news organization addressed the facts.
By Lou Dobbs,
NEW YORK (CNN) - You may have noticed recently that I'm being
attacked for my views on the exporting of American jobs and my calls
for a balanced U.S. trade policy.
Gerard Baker of the Financial Times called me the "high priest of
demotic sensationalism."
An editorial in the Economist magazine accused me of embarking "on a
rabidly anti-trade editorial agenda" and "greeting every announcement
of lost jobs as akin to a terrorist assault."
Daniel Henninger of the Wall Street Journal excoriated me, I must
say, in high style for my troglodyte views on outsourcing by saying,
"It's as if whatever made Linda Blair's head spin around in
'The Exorcist' had invaded the body of Lou Dobbs and left him with
the brain of Dennis Kucinich."
Washington Post columnist James Glassman has simply accused me of
being a "table-thumping protectionist."
Those quotes are from some of the most respected news organizations,
and there have been dozens of other articles critical of my view that
outsourcing American jobs is neither sound, smart, humane nor in the
national interest.
Makes a fellow think
I will tell you it does make a fellow think when attacked so
energetically and so personally. But in none of the attacks on
my position on outsourcing has a single columnist or news
organization seen fit to deal with the facts.
Number one: We're not creating jobs in the private sector, and that's
never happened before in our history. Our economists and politicians
need to be coming up with answers, not dogma.
Number two: We haven't had a trade surplus in this country in more
than two decades, and our trade deficit continues to soar.
Number three: We've lost three million jobs in this country over the
last three years, and millions more American jobs are at risk of being
outsourced to cheap overseas labor markets.
That seems to me, at least, to be more than sufficient evidence for
all of us, Republicans and Democrats alike, to question critically
the policies of both parties that have led us to this critical
juncture in our economy and our history.
Frankly, I would love to be proved wrong in my views, and I would
gladly change my position, if only my critics would answer a few
questions factually, empirically and straightforwardly.
One: How many more jobs must we lose before they become concerned
about our middle class and our strength as a consumer market?
Two: When will the U.S. have to quit borrowing foreign capital to buy
foreign goods that support European and Asian economies while driving
us deeper into debt? Three: What jobs will our currently 15 million
unemployed workers fill, where and when?
My critics and proponents of free trade and outsourcing suggest I'm a
protectionist because I want to curtail the export of American jobs
to cheap foreign labor markets just to reduce wage levels, and to
eliminate our trade deficit and to pursue balanced trade policies.
Our principal trading partners, Canada, China, Japan and the European
Union, all typically maintain annual trade surpluses and pursue
balanced trade. Why don't my critics call them protectionists? Why
not call them economic isolationists?
My critics, and proponents of the status quo, are offering false
choices. They say we must decide between protectionism, or economic
isolationism as the president said today, and free trade. I'm sure
they believe those choices are the only ones available.
But maybe they also fear our policymakers may discover a middle
ground for a desperately needed new U.S. trade policy: a balanced
trade policy in the national interest.
Lou Dobbs is the anchor and managing editor of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight.
Find this article at:
http://money.cnn.com/2004/03/09/commentary/dobbs/dobbs
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