OK I will give my take on a bill that sort of just came from no where and is all of a sudden the answer to the farming out of jobs.

I do not believe any bill of substance just all of a sudden shows up like that....even if it was in process for days/weeks/months....when did anybody hear anything about it? Not until just recently....I really don't know. What I do know is any bill of substance gets a lot of press and dialogue long before it goes for any discussion or vote. Hence I am skeptical.

Secondly the link that I posted does a good job of describing the real root causes of jobs outsourcing. I have only seen one comment since posting the link in two different threads today. The causes in the article are why I called the bill in question a band aid. Until such time as the real causes that drive outsourcing are addressed not much will change.

The incentives to outsource far out weigh anything that can be attempted with just the proposed tax breaks. In the early 70's when GE in Appliance Park Louisville KY jobs were being evaluated how much they cost to get done in Appliance Park VS manufacturing in Mexico. Each time before any jobs were eliminated by outsourcing the proposal was reviewed from a tax implication and labor point of view.

The tax incentives at the time were miniscule compared to the labor savings, hence no contest. The jobs were reviewed with the union on the basis of here is what the same components would cost in Appliance Park as well as what the costs would be in Mexico. Our proposals never ever expected the unions to buy into the prices from Mexico. What we did propose was a reasonable reduction in labor costs. The unions said there was no way they were going to buy such a proposal.

Over a five year period I watched GE build three brand new plants in Mexico and reduce employment in Appliance Park by the thousands.
Appliance Park employment in the early 70s was around 21,000. Employment in the 80s and early 90s was less than 10,000.

Could there be that big a difference in costs? How about almost 20 to one? Union member sweepers were getting over $20 per hour including benefits. Average assembly line workers were getting $18-$30 per hour.

The Mexican government was providing incentives faster than could be calculated including almost paying for the new manufacturing facilities there. When new jobs were advertised there we had a minimum of 50 applicants for each job.

We went to the federal government in the USA to get incentives for new manufacturing facilities, methods and equipment. We were turned down. We went to the unions to get a reasonable lowering of hourly costs.

The end result was Appliance Park almost becoming a ghost town.

So from first hand experience I can tell you the tax bill being proposed will not even come close.

On a side note but related...the price of steel in those days. We were getting quotes from Japan for rolled steel at prices that were more than 50 % less than we could get from Pittsburgh. Once again we were in negotiations with the steel companies to get a reduction in pricing. They were not expected to match the Japanese prices...just a reasonable reduction in costs. They of course had to go back to their union bargaining units for support. They were turned down 100%. After 5 years almost 80% of all steel was coming from Japan. They had new much more efficient steel mills subsidized by the Japanese government. Pittsburgh had steel mills making the steel the same way they did in the 40s and 50s.

Until such time as the US government decides to help subsidize manufacturing in this country and unions take heed to what it takes to BE COMPETITIVE........nothing is going to change. A ginned up for electioneering purposes tax break will not come close to doing the job.

Once upon a time there used to be over 500 machine tool companies in the USA. From 1970 through the middle 1980s that number dropped to less than 200. All outsourced to newer manufacturing facilities all over the world. We were not COMPETITIVE.

The story was and continues to be repeated every day currently.

When Obama or no matter who is in the WH or congress decides to start investing in American manufacturing like it's competitors and their governments do around the world....there will be no resurgence of manufacturing. And without an new industrial revolution in manufacturing here in the USA there will be no returning to the glory days when we had it all.

Of the billions and trillions being squandered to finance institutions how much was ever designated to fix America's competitive short fall in manufacturing?

The above is a mere scratch of the surface of the depth of the problem with out sourcing.
And for the first hand experience of much of the above I do not think the current bill will make ANY impact of significance....other than political cannon fodder for the 2012 elections.

I hope the above gives you some insight into why I REMAIN a skeptic on this subject.

btk