As President Obama prepares to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday night about jobs, the stakes for American workers as well as his 2012 re-election are high. Yet, as millions of Americans remain unemployed, President Obama continues to outsource numerous jobs overseas and jeopardize the safety of American troops in Iraq.
The latest jobs numbers showed that the U.S. didn’t add one single job in August. This following the Obama Administration’s announcement on Thursday that they expect unemployment will remain at nine percent for the next year as President Barack Obama runs for re-election.
Despite Obama’s pledge to focus on “jobs, jobs, jobs,” the amount of unneeded and onerous regulations burdening businesses is too great. Extreme financial regulations, health care regulations, environmental regulations, among others, plague job creation. Just another example of making the wrong choices at the absolute worst time.
Americans are desperate for work, yet the Administration is still pushing to give foreign countries these jobs. Currently, Kansas-based Hawker Beechcraft is trying to win an Air Force contract to produce fighter aircraft against the Brazilian-owned and government-subsidized company Embraer. Hawker Beechcraft would bring over 1,400 new jobs to the United States while its Brazilian counterpart would only bring around 50 assembly jobs to the US.
More specifically, these war fighters will be used for light attack and reconnaissance missions in Iraq. Granting defense contracts to foreign owned and operated companies, depending on the laws and nature of their current host regime, can be problematic. What is even more worrisome is a clause in the Embraer corporate governance by-laws known as the Brazilian “Golden Share,” which allows the Brazilian government to maintain explicit control and veto rights over the “creation and/or alteration of military programs, whether or not involving the Federative Republic of Brazil” as well as the “interruption of the supply of maintenance and replacement parts for military aircraft.”
Too often the government of Brazil does not see eye to eye with the United States on foreign policy issues. As the Brazilian government maintains direct control over Embraer, the production of the light attack and reconnaissance aircraft would be put at the mercy and whim of Brazil’s political leaders. In fact, former-Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva stated of the U.S. involvement in Iraq, “It disrespects the United Nations. It doesn’t take into account what the rest of the world thinks.” Therefore, the potential for a Brazilian partially state-run company to be awarded a U.S. defense contract that would jeopardize the safety of American troops in Iraq is too great.
Recently, the awarding of the air tanker contract to Boeing over European rival EADS made headlines as it promised thousands of jobs for U.S. workers and suppliers with Washington Senator Patty Murray commenting, “I can’t believe our country would make a decision to go with a company based in a foreign country.”
Competition is good, but at a time when our economy needs stimulation due to admittedly stagnant growth the Obama administration should not risk sending American jobs overseas as unemployment continues to be a problem for many Americans and will be for the foreseeable future.
On Thursday, it would be great to hear President Obama commit to giving U.S. military contracts to U.S. companies. Doing so would strengthen the American economy, create much needed, well-paying U.S. jobs and be in the best interest of our men and women in uniform.
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