Exporting America

LOU DOBBS TONIGHT: IBM facing sharp criticism tonight after "The Wall Street Journal" reported this morning that IBM is slashing thousands of jobs in the United States. IBM in that story reported by "The Wall Street Journal" will outsource most of those jobs to India at a time when millions of Americans are unemployed. As Bill Tucker now reports, IBM continues to create more jobs overseas while it lobbies for more federal stimulus money. Between four and 5,000 American workers at IBM are believed fired. We are hearing that these jobs will be eliminated here in the United States and the work shifted to India, China, Asia Pacific and Latin America.Ironically the news came even as the president was taking a question about outsourcing at his town hall meeting with an answer that didn't seem very hopeful. OBAMA: It's dependent on low-wage, low-skill labor. It's very hard to hang on to those jobs because there's always a country out there that pays lower wages than the U.S. But a union spokesman says that many of the jobs IBM is cutting are not low skill, low-paid jobs, but high-skill jobs that can also be done in countries that pay lower wages than in the U.S. Last year on the campaign trail candidate Obama waved a sword that President Obama now seems reluctant to wield. OBAMA: I say let's end tax cuts for companies that shift jobs overseas. We'll stop giving tax breaks to companies that ship jobs overseas, give them to companies that are creating good jobs right here in Virginia. Its the difference between wanting power and being in power and out of touch. TUCKER: And the numbers being talked about if they hold up means that IBM will have quietly fired somewhere in the neighborhood of 9,000 U.S. workers so far this year according to the union. And we should not forget that IBM CEO earlier this year lobbied in Washington for stimulus money to the high-tech, Lou, telling the president that $30 billion would create jobs. Of course I guess you know he neglected to say where it would create jobs. DOBBS: This is striking and it's embarrassing one would think for the president to be having taken a position on the campaign trail and basically today in that Internet virtual town hall meeting to say, basically, adios to the jobs, good luck. And they weren't jobs we wanted anyway. Extraordinarily disappointing in one -- an issue that is going to be front and center with this presidency as it appears now.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• LOU DOBBS
• TUCKER
• IBM
• outsourcing
• thousands
• jobs
• India
• China
• Asia Pacific
• Latin America
• adios President Obama
• presidency campaign
• change

[gsuitter]

Change we can believe in? LOL

Hows that been working for you?

[jackiechan511]

Its time to ban outsourcing

[Charlie12241]

We are screwed.

[druss3636]

Obama and the Democrats have introduced no less than 2 bills that were meant to curb outsourcing and establish an import tariff on all goods manufactured outside the US and sold here. Who voted both bills down? You guessed it, the Republicans

[Dimitri0809]

i don't get why those cheap foreign labor markets can't produce their own wealth, politics how tiresome eh..

[411American]

Gullible America 

[extreme469]

lou is great

[TomOzzy123]

I like how these candidates talk populist talk before they get elected, but when they get into office, they do something else.

[Jonboa]

Obama is full of crap...corrupted. IBM is laying off high paying US jobs and hiring low paid overseas workers. A year later, IBM is still off-shoring jobs and Obama is still in denial. Audacity of hope? AH HA HA HA HA! Barry Obama is a big big disappointment. Shame on you Mr. Obama. There is a special place in hell for people like you. People who use the pretense of "Hope" for political ends. And I thought politicians could get no lower.

[amolsagar]

how they are going to run wall mart without outsourcing?