Politics
Obama to stress jobs insourcing
U.S. President Barack Obama
Pointing to a rebound in manufacturing, President Barack Obama in Wednesday is visiting a Milwaukee plant that has brought back jobs to the United States.
Before going on an extended West Coast fundraising spree, the president was visiting Master Lock, a Milwaukee maker of padlocks that was cited in his State of the Union address for bringing back 100 jobs to the U.S. from China in response to higher labor and logistical costs in Asia.
The president was making his economic pitch as Congress was poised to advance a key component of the jobs agenda he unveiled last September. House-Senate negotiators reached a tentative agreement Tuesday on extending a payroll tax cut through the end of the year and renewing jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed. Lawmakers were expected to unveil the proposal Wednesday and could send the measure to Obama as early as this week.
The extension would be a win for Obama, who has said the cut in the Social Security payroll tax, amounting to about US$40 per paycheck for the average worker, is vital to keeping the economy on the right path.
“Congress needs to extend that tax cut — along with vital insurance lifelines for people who’ve lost their jobs during this recession — and they need to do it now, without drama and without delay,” Obama said Tuesday. “No ideological sideshows to gum up the works. No self-inflicted wounds. Just pass this middle-class tax cut.”
Obama has repeatedly talked up the nation’s manufacturing base as an engine of growth and a sign of a recovering economy. He has urged companies to promote “insourcing,” promising new tax incentives for businesses that bring jobs to the U.S. instead of shipping them overseas and eliminating tax breaks for companies that outsource jobs.
The manufacturing sector was hard-hit for more than a decade. Manufacturers shed 5.8 million jobs from 1999 to 2009 as many companies shifted jobs overseas to take advantage of lower costs and many plants were modernized and automated, allowing firms to do more with fewer workers.
