1/21/04: The Iowa caucuses are now history and the winner, John Kerry, claims that he will protect the American worker from "Corporate Benedict Arnolds" who ship jobs overseas. Frankly, this is no time for this kind of hyperbole. IBM has just announced that it will hire 15,000 new employees, but only 5,000 of these new jobs will remain in this country. With "momentum" on his side, at least for the next six days until the New Hampshire primary (where he will most likely do well before moving onto South Carolina and lose to John Edwards), Kerry may be wiser to focus more on his original idea about keeping jobs in this country and modifying the employer payroll tax. That could create incentives for employers to keep new jobs on domestic shores. This may not be the best answer all around, but vilifying a particular part of the economic machine is also not an answer. Of course, if you're looking for answers from across the aisle, our country may be better served if the President focuses less on Mars and keeps his eye on this neck of the woods. As the saying goes, "All politics are local." And they should definitely remain earthbound. |