Barbara Boxer “thinks she’s struck election gold” by accusing Carly Fiorina of sending jobs overseas, but as an editorial from Investor’s Business Daily pointed out over the weekend, “[t]he real story is how Boxer has chased millions of jobs out of state with her politics.”
Investor’s Business Daily: “Incumbent Boxer’s trump card was that her opponent, while chief of Hewlett-Packard from 1999 to 2006, outsourced jobs … Problem is, Boxer is a far bigger outsourcer. The unemployment rate in her state is 25% higher than the national average of 9.4%, and the number of jobless Californians is 66% higher than when she took office 17 years ago.” (Editorial, “Golden State ‘Outsourced’ By Boxer,” Investor’s Business Daily, 10/1/10)
Boxer has also spent much time on her soapbox shouting about layoffs despite the fact that, yet again, it’s her job-killing policies that have forced companies to make tough decisions to cut costs, particularly in this recent economic downturn. In fact, companies that are finally recovering from the recession are recovering due to the tough decisions they’ve made to reduce costs – not because of some big-government bailout like the failed “stimulus” plan Boxer championed.
Companies That Have Reduced Costs Are Recovering From The Recession Faster Than The Economy Overall. “The data indicate that big companies are recovering from the downturn faster and more strongly than the overall economy, helping send stock prices higher this year. To achieve that performance, companies laid off hundreds of thousands of workers, closed less-profitable units, shifted work to cheaper regions and streamlined processes.” (Scott Thurm and Joe Light, “Propelling the Profit Comeback,” The Wall Street Journal, 10/3/10)
Certainly, Boxer’s lack of understanding about the way the real world works is stunning in and of itself. But what’s even more astonishing is Boxer’s two-fold hypocrisy in attacking Carly. Not only are the policies Boxer championed during her 28 years in Washington partially to blame for these jobs being sent overseas or destroyed entirely, Boxer has also taken tens of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from contributors who have outsourced jobs and laid off workers. In other words, Boxer’s attacks on Carly for making the tough decisions while chief executive officer of Hewlett-Packard to locate jobs outside the United States are being funded in part by other companies that have shipped jobs overseas and laid off employees.
Boxer Has Received Thousands Of Dollars In Campaign Contributions From Companies That Have Outsourced Jobs And Laid Off Their Workers, Including Bank of America, Pfizer, Boeing, Verizon, Johnson and Johnson, and Microsoft. (Center For Responsive Politics Website, www.opensecrets.org, Accessed 9/2/10)
CNN Has Identified These Companies As Either Having Outsourced American Jobs Or Employed Overseas Labor. (CNN Website, www.cnn.com, Accessed 8/9/10)
Together, These Companies Have Laid Off More Than 100,000 Workers. (Sarah Anderson, Chuck Collins, Sam Pizzigati, and Kevin Shih, “CEO Pay And The Great Recession,” Institute For Policy Studies, 9/1/10)
Yet, as she told the Los Angeles Times, Barbara Boxer is so caught up in the insular, cynical world of Washington politics that she sees no problem with these contributions … despite the hypocrisy they reveal.
But Barbara Boxer can’t have it both ways; she must tell Californians the truth. She must own up to supporting job-killing policies that have driven companies to lay off employees and send jobs overseas. And she must return the tens in thousands of dollars she has accepted from companies who have mitigated the disastrous job-killing economic climate she helped create by outsourcing work and laying off employees.