Republicans now assailing President Obama for allowing federal stimulus funds to be sent overseas once vigorously opposed a Democratic effort to keep the bulk of those funds at home.
In 2009, Republicans, led by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., were clamoring for less regulation over where stimulus funds were spent and tried to eliminate a “Buy American” clause that Obama’s fellow Democrats added to the massive economic stimulus bill.
Democrats said the “Buy American” clause would ensure that more of the federal stimulus funding would be spent inside the U.S. But Republicans, who are now criticizing Obama for shipping that money — and jobs — overseas, countered at the time that such a clause would only escalate tensions between the U.S. and its trading partners.
“I don’t think we ought to use a measure that is supposed to be timely, temporary and targeted to set off trade wars when the entire world is experiencing a downturn in the economy,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said at the time.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce joined the Republican push to abolish the restriction, and McCain rallied Republicans, though he ultimately failed to strip the “Buy American” clause entirely from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Eventually, though, Republicans did manage to water down the “Buy American” provision, exempting companies from 20 developed nations and allowing contractors to buy products overseas if they would be at least 25 percent cheaper than buying domestically.
Three years later, Republicans charge that Obama is an “outsourcer in chief,” who failed to adequately regulate the flow of stimulus funds — and American jobs — overseas.
“[T]his president has been outsourcing a good deal of American jobs himself by putting money into energy companies, solar and wind energy companies that end up making their products outside the United States,” presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney said at a town hall meeting in Grand Junction, Colo.
Republicans point to reports showing that, despite a “Buy American” clause, stimulus money flowed to overseas companies. An 2010 Energy Department report showed 60 percent of the 40 largest wind farms financed by the stimulus bought their central components from foreign manufacturers.
“If there is an outsourcer in chief, it’s the president of the United States, not the guy who’s running to replace him,” Romney said.
Republicans are shifting their view of the federal regulation of outsourcing at a time when Obama is attacking Romney over the issue. Democrats charge that as head of Bain Capital, a private equity firm, Romney invested in companies that shipped jobs overseas.
“Gov. Romney has experience owning companies that were called ‘pioneers’ in the business of outsourcing,” Obama told voters in Iowa on Tuesday. “As long as I’m president, I will keep fighting to make sure jobs are located here in the United States of America.”
