Thomas Daschle: “When I saw the headline, I had to read it twice. I actually could not believe what I was reading. Again the quote is…”

“When I saw the headline, I had to read it twice. I actually could not believe what I was reading. Again the quote is from the headline, ``Bush Supports Shift of Jobs Overseas.'' Our economy has already lost 2.6 million jobs in the last 3 years. We have 9 million Americans who are unemployed. Long-term unemployment is at a 20-year high, and 80,000 workers are exhausting their unemployment benefits every week because our Republican colleagues refuse to extend temporary Federal unemployment benefits. What does the White House say? The President's top economic advisers tell us not to worry. They say shipping American jobs to China, India, and other countries is actually good for the economy. Those comments are actually in this article. It is a direct quote, that these American jobs shipped abroad are good for the economy. They say exporting computer programming jobs and other white-collar jobs is actually good for the economy. The White House acknowledges some workers will be hurt. But then they say the ``benefits'' of exporting American jobs ``eventually will outweigh the costs as Americans are able to buy cheaper goods and services and new jobs are created in growing sectors of the economy.'' How are people without jobs supposed to buy all of these goods and services? How do you keep a consumer economy going when you export the jobs? What are they thinking?…”