Hillary Clinton will Outsource more Jobs, Bernie Sanders Won't

Real people are getting really fed up — and here's just one reason why. The outsourcing of our better-paying jobs to foreign countries.

Do you remember that campaign ad about Mitt Romney and Bain Capital in 2012? A worker in Marion, Indiana tells of building a stage, and days later management had all three shifts assemble in the warehouse, when a group of managers walked out and announced that the plant was closed and that all of them were fired. In the ad the worker says, "When I built that stage, it was like building my own coffin."

This has been happening all across American for decades, and it still is, where factories are shut down and jobs are lost to low wage countries. Cities all across America have turned into ghost towns, and large cities like Detroit have gone into decay — just like where the rest of our infrastructure is headed. We have been a nation in moral and physical decline.

Good paying jobs that supported a solid tax base for local governments were shipped overseas, outsourced to countries like China (APPLE, etc.) and Vietnam (NIKE, etc.) — thanks in part to Hillary Clinton's friend and mentor, Henry Kissinger. This was mentioned in the 6th Democratic debate:

CLINTON: "With respect to China, one of the most challenging relationships we have, his [Henry Kissinger] opening up China and his ongoing relationships with the leaders of China is an incredibly useful relationship for the United States of America."

SANDERS: "After the [Vietnam] war, this is the guy who, in fact, yes, you’re right, he opened up relations with China, and now pushed various type of trade agreements, resulting in American workers losing their jobs as corporations moved to China. The terrible, authoritarian, Communist dictatorship he warned us about, now he’s urging companies to shut down and move to China. Not my kind of guy."

Yes, Hillary sounds "polished" during the debates. But when it comes to jobs, do we want someone who is artificially polished, or someone with authentic grit?

Jobs have also poured into our neighboring countries of Mexico and Canada as well, thanks to Bill Clinton, who signed the NAFTA trade agreement and gave PNTR to China — trade deals that Hillary Clinton supported — trade deals that Bernie Sanders has always opposed.

Obama, who campaigned as a "progressive", moved to the center and pursued fast track for the TPP trade deal (described as NAFTA on steroids) — a trade deal that Hillary Clinton pushed for 45 times and called the "gold standard" for trade agreements. She only recently flip-flopped and now claims she opposes TPP, but can anyone really believe anything she says? (She was on the board of Wal-Mart for 6 years, the most anti-union/worker corporation in America.)

Whoever becomes our next president will have the "triple trade treaty threat" to workers to either pass or veto (the TPP, TTIP and TiSA trade deals). Bernie Sanders would veto them all. We don't need these trade agreements to have "free trade" with other countries. Hillary says we need these trade agreements, but "working people" disagree.

If Hillary Clinton says she's not running for Obama's 3rd term, but promises to continue Obama's policies (such as the TPP trade deal), then she's really running for Obama's 3rd term.

So when Bernie Sanders had said a Democratic candidate should run against Obama in the 2012 Democratic primary, it was because Obama had moved too far to the right after first being elected in 2008 (such as with the TPP trade deal). So essentially, Bernie Sanders is running against Obama in 2016 — just like Hillary ran against Obama in 2008.

But in 2008, Obama ran as a "progressive" against Hillary, who was the "moderate". Now Hillary as the "moderate" (who now claims to be a "progressive") is running against a REAL progressive, Bernie Sanders.

So when Bernie Sanders says he can do better for the African-American community than Obama, it's because he can, because Sanders' economic policies on trade (Obama wants TPP, which will offshore more jobs and increase guestworker visas), minimum wage (Bernie wants $15 an hour, Obama supported $10.10 an hour), Social Security (Bernie wants to expand this program, Obama wanted chained-CPI for COLAs), and healthcare (Bernie wants Medicare for All, Obamacare is only the first step).

Bernie's polices will benefit ALL of us — and especially the African-American community. Because when minorities do well, it means we're ALL doing well. Obama refused to prosecute the bankers who caused the Great Recession, but Bernie would have.

Face it, Obama went from being "Hope and Change" in 2008 to "the better of two evils" in 2012 to a "total sell out" in 2016 with the TPP trade agreement — an agreement that Hillary Clinton supported 45 times, saying it was "the Gold Standard" — when it is NAFTA on steroids, a trade agreement Bill Clinton sighed and Hillary supported.

A lot of African-Americans lost jobs to foreign countries because of the Clintons. Bernie Sanders would repeal bad trade deals and not sign more bad trade deals.

Just since 1997 more than 67,161 factories have closed, forcing workers into lower wage jobs in fast-fast and retail (e.g. McDonalds, Wal-Mart, etc.) — that is, if they're lucky enough to even be rehired. And most recently this week — in Indianapolis, Indiana — another plant says it will be closing.

United Technologies announced that it's Carrier Air Conditioner factory and distribution center is moving to Monterrey, Mexico. In the video below you hear a manager telling their employees that they are not being laid off due to any failure on the job or lack of productivity, "It's just business." (Which reminded me of that campaign ad against Mitt Romney.)

United Technologies does billions of dollars a year in business with the federal government. CEO Gregory Hayes pulled down nearly $10 million in 2014, and over $20 million the year before. On Thursday, the company reported $7.6 billion in profits, up from $6.2 billion the year before, and $5.7 billion the year before that. In October, United Technologies even expanded its stock buyback program to $12 billion. By spending the company's own money on it' stock, it elevates the value of its share prices (and increasing the value of stock-option grants for company executives.) United Technologies was described as so flush with cash that it could "burn money to boost returns for its investors".

From The Huffington Post:

Over the past year, the establishment wings of both the Republican and Democratic parties have struggled to understand the outrage expressed in that video. How could people seriously consider a Democratic socialist from Vermont, or a crypto-fascist strongman for president?

The answer is pretty simple. Both Republicans and Democrats have consistently backed economic policies over the past 35 years that have systematically gutted the American middle class. For decades, Congress has listened to corporate lobbyists who told our representatives that if they could just cut this one tax rate, or just ease this one regulation, there would be a renaissance of prosperity. The renaissance has happened for the rich. Everyone else has been left behind.

Senator Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) said at a hearing last Thursday, noting that 2,100 Carrier workers had been notified of their impending termination at a company that had operated in Indiana since the early 1950s. Donnelly's outrage was directed mostly at the lobbying establishment:

"These same folks said if we put in tax extenders, things like bonus depreciation, research credit, the Export-Import bank. I sat here and fought for Ex-Im Bank because these folks came in here and said this will help American jobs stay in America."

Donnelly and Congress secured all of those perks for U.S. corporations. United Technologies offshored thousands of jobs anyway.

United Technologies not only relies on the federal government for billions of dollars in revenue, it contributes millions of dollars a year to well over 100 nonprofits, from the centrist Brookings Institution think tank, to partisan groups including the Democratic Governors Association and the Republican Governors Association, to anti-tax organizations and straight-up corporate lobbying front groups.

Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have been persistent critics of American trade policies that other candidates have embraced as pro-growth. Sanders targets his outrage against the moneyed corporate class and argues that U.S. trade policies hurt workers around the world by degrading labor and environmental standards. Trump focuses his rage on the others who take the jobs. But both are tapping into a continuing domestic outrage that Democratic and Republican elites alike should have recognized decades ago.

Now both political parties are trying desperately to rig the elections to keep Sanders and Trump out, and to keep themselves and the their corporate puppet masters in power.

Washington Post: The DNC has rolled back restrictions that were first introduced by presidential candidate Barack Obama in 2008 — restrictions that banned donations from federal lobbyists and political action committees. Some suggested it could provide an advantage to Hillary Clinton’s fundraising efforts. The decision could further inflame tensions between the DNC and supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who has railed against the influence of lobbyists, particularly those representing Wall Street. [Here come the lobbyists, superPACs and big money donors for Clinton!]

New York Times: With nine months until Election Day and quite a few candidates still standing, most lawmakers have yet to declare a favorite [despite all of Hillary Clinton's super-delegates] ... Many Democratic lawmakers are hesitating to endorse, partly out of respect for their current colleague, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont ... Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who has earned a devoted following among liberal voters, has not backed a candidate; she is the only female Senate Democrat not to endorse Mrs. Clinton. And despite his apparent preference for Mrs. Clinton, Senator Harry Reid, the Democratic leader, has resisted endorsing and raised the possibility of a contested convention.

Daily Kos: And the odds for a brokered or contested Republican convention also just got better.

So it seems the village peasants really might grab their torches and pitchforks and storm the ramparts — because the establishment politicians are trying to deny THE PEOPLE a political revolution. Bring back the jobs or bring on the guillotines!