OPINION

Obama’s Outsourcing of Jobs, Foreign Policy and Debt

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The left continues to pile on Mitt Romney for allegedly outsourcing jobs while at Bain Capital.

Yet the mainstream media seem curiously uninterested in reporting on “outsourcing” by the Obama Administration, which has (1) outsourced stimulus monies to create jobs in foreign nations, (2) outsourced U.S. foreign policy to U.N. and (3) outsourced our kids and grandkids financial future to pay for his unprecedented spending binge.

The Obama Stimulus has turned out to be an exercise in Venture Socialism . Unlike Venture Capitalism, in which investors risk their own capital to help companies launch and grown, Venture Socialism is when the federal government loans other people’s money (the taxpayers’) to companies. If the company pans out, the government gets the money back. If it goes belly up, the taxpayers—who had no say in the transaction—lose.

The federal government should not have made these loans in the first place, to domestic or foreign companies. After the decision was made to loan to companies in the name of helping to stimulate the American economy, some of these loans ended up funding projects in foreign nations and employing non-American workers.

Fisker Automotive was the beneficiary of Venture Socialism and a classic example of the outsourcing of jobs to the tune of $529 million in federal loans. The California-based company, partially owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, took the money and outsourced the job of actually making its cars to a plant in Finland. In a free market, Fisker has the right to do that but government lending is not a free market. Was the loan the right thing to do for taxpayers?

If you’re looking for a great-looking ride with a faulty battery and a $100,000 price tag, Fisker’s Karma just might be the car for you. If you’re looking for a return on your tax-dollar investment, though, you’d best look elsewhere.

Outsourcing extends to the President’s foreign policy. Mr. Obama “pivoted” his outsourcing to China long before he pivoted his foreign policy in that direction. During his first trip to Beijing in 2009, the president approved of American help in China’s effort produce commercial jetliners. The State Department subsequently explained the rationale: “We needed China to help us deal with North Korea and Iran and other foreign-policy issues.” So we nod to outsourcing airline manufacture to Communist China for the promise of a helping hand on foreign policy. Should the President then be criticizing Governor Romney?

Indeed, the president’s “leading from behind” approach to international relations—which relies on the “soft power” of treaties and international organizations and rejection of American exceptionalism, may be seen as an outsourcing of foreign policy. Similarly, the dogged pursuit of flawed treaties that diminish American power (e.g., the NewSTART Treaty) and undermine American sovereignty (e.g., the Arms Trade Treaty and the Law of the Sea Treaty) represents an outsourcing of national security to international organizations.

And then there’s the outsourcing of debt. President Obama inherited $10.6 trillion in national debt and has piled on another $5.3 trillion during his tenure. As of this April ,Communist China held $1.1 trillion of that debt; Japan held $1.1 trillion; Russia owned $147 billion and Brazil $247 billion. As we’ve seen, the debt is dangerous, both to our economy and our ability to spend what we need on national security.

To add insult to injury, our kids and grandkids will have to pay off the Chinese and others when these bonds fall due. Older Americans are living better lives today because we are borrowing so freely to shore up Social Security and Medicare. But ultimately this amounts to generational theft.

Outsourcing trillions in debt to foreign nations is self-defeating. Outsourcing our national security to international organizations is unwise. And using the federal government loan authorities to outsource jobs is just plain crazy.

Nothing to see here, says the left. The real scandal, it seems, is that Romney used money invested voluntarily in Bain Capital and gave the investors a good return for their money.