Congress should adopt 'America first' policy to fix economy

e-mail this story discuss this issue in our forums Guest column • Tony Beam: There's only one possible way to define marriage (03/24/04) • Robert R. Morgan Jr.: Four steps could lead to safer, healthier South Carolina (03/23/04) • Steve Parrish: The time is now for an overhaul of tobacco legislation (03/22/04) • Henry McMaster: New law would turn the tables on child predators (03/21/04) • Roger G. Owens: More black judges are needed for equality to thrive (03/21/04) More details Inez Tenenbaum was re-elected in 2002 to her second term as South Carolina's superintendent of public education. She also is a Democratic candidate in the 2004 U.S. Senate race in South Carolina. For more information, see www.inez2004.com.

Just below this is an article in which Inc. Magazine ranks Greenville/Spartanburg as the third-worst metropolitan area in the nation for entrepreneurs seeking to grow a new business. The Upstate, according to this report, is one of five cities that are "huge losers in the manufacturing decline of the past five years" and "victims of the rise of offshore manufacturing in China and Mexico."

Frustrated and frightened job seekers reading this depressing news must have found particularly jarring the headline on another news report the very same day: "Bush report says 'outsourcing' will aid U.S. economy."

Perhaps the president should run that one by us again.

The fact is that the American trend known as "outsourcing" — moving jobs and functions to foreign countries where labor is cheap and government restrictions are few — ought to alarm every South Carolinian and every American. For years, proponents of the unfettered exchange of goods and services have assured us that America stands to lose only low-wage, low-skill jobs while growing the higher-technology sectors of our economy that pay better wages and raise our standard of living.

Yet today, America is losing jobs not just in manufacturing — hard enough for states like South Carolina, where the textile industry has supported so many families — but across the economic spectrum. Health service jobs, tax preparation, information technology and a host of other higher-wage jobs are being sent by the thousands to countries like India, where educated workers are available at a fraction of the cost of U.S. workers. Iconic American companies like Microsoft and IBM actively seek to reduce labor costs and raise profits by exporting U.S. jobs to foreign countries.

The result for our state is predictable. Job-wise, both the Upstate and South Carolina as a whole are reeling. Over the past three years, nearly 70,000 South Carolinians have lost their private-sector jobs, and the number is rising every week. South Carolina lost more jobs last year as a percentage of the population than any other state in the nation, and the Columbia metropolitan area lost more than nearly any other area of the country. Not surprisingly, one recent report describes our state as among 11 still considered to be in economic recession.

It is difficult to imagine that in such hard economic times, policies that sacrifice even more and better U.S. jobs to the cheap labor and predatory trading practices of foreign countries could possibly be applauded as "a good thing."

Globalization is indeed a fact of American life and a benefit to many companies in South Carolina and around the nation. Our state should be working aggressively now to create and secure a productive place for itself in this new marketplace, by investing in research and development to support high-technology industries and, most of all, by building on the improvements we have made in education in recent years.

South Carolina's focused effort to raise standards and improve accountability is resulting in impressive gains in student achievement. Today, our SAT scores are rising faster than any other state in the nation, our students are scoring at or above national averages on nationally standardized tests, and we are ranked No. 1 in the nation in improving teacher quality. Keeping education as our top priority will ensure that we build on these gains and prepare our citizens for the jobs of tomorrow.

But it is just plain common sense that America's trade policies must be balanced to help preserve the jobs that are available now and support our citizens who need work today. Congress can and should promote fair trade, by negotiating trade agreements that put our companies on a level playing field with foreign competitors. Congress can and should enforce the agreements we already have in place, and trigger safeguards when imports disrupt the U.S. market. It can and should insist on an end to currency manipulation and other tricks that countries use to keep prices artificially low. And it can and should immediately remove tax breaks for U.S. businesses that move jobs offshore and create new incentives to invest in production at home.

South Carolina and America are facing crucial economic times. We must continue adjusting to long-term changes in the economy of the world and the nation, but we have a moral duty not to dismiss the needs our people and our state confront today. Our government should act now to put America first.