Arkansas politicians debate India and the question: What is outsourcing?
June 9, 2010
In a close Senate primary election in the home state of Bill Clinton and Walmart, two politicians are debating India and the question: What is outsourcing? Of course the answer naturally depends upon which politician you are: Sen. Blanche Lincoln or Lt. Gov. Bill Halter.
To put things in perspective, Sen. Blanche Lincoln, a relatively moderate Democrat from an increasingly Republican and conservative state, will face a very tough re-election bid in November for her votes in favor of some of President Obama’s more unpopular policies. To add to her problems, she is also facing a tough challenge for the Senate nomination on June 8 from within her own party – namely after becoming a target of the Big Labor for not completely supporting its agenda.
However, its how Lincoln and Halter are debating India and are defining outsourcing that is making the election interesting to watch. As the Business Standard recently reported, Lincoln issued a May 14 press release that alleged Halter had become a multi-millionaire by outsourcing jobs to India. A few days later, her campaign and the group Americans for Job Security began running commercials that continued the attack by saying that instead of creating jobs in Arkansas and America, his company had outsourced jobs to India (Some of the commercials even featured Indian-American actors who thanked Halter for sending US jobs to Bangalore).
At issue is Halter’s tenure from 2003-2007 on the board of WebMethods Inc., a technology business that opened an office in Bangalore during this period. According to SEC records dug up by the Texarkana Gazette, the firm increased the proportion of their product development staff in Bangalore which ended up lowering the firm’s personnel and operating expenses at their USA based product development centers in California and Virginia. And while there is no evidence that any American jobs were cut, they also did not choose Arkansas or another USA based location to open this new office in.
Hence and for Lincoln, her definition of outsourcing comes down to whether Halter’s company outsourced jobs overseas that could have gone to Americans while for Halter, his definition of outsourcing means cutting existing jobs in America and sending them abroad (both politicians at least agree that there are instances where US companies need to hire overseas). However and at the end of the day, these questions are a mote point in this election as all polls show the Republican candidate comfortably trouncing whatever Democrat wins the nomination.
Nevertheless, the election does bring up interesting questions that will no doubt come up again in other US elections where one candidate is a businessman. Hence, we would like to ask our readers: What is your definition of outsourcing given the above context? Is Lincoln right by saying its the creation of jobs overseas that hypothetically could have gone to Americans or is Halter right by saying its the cutting of existing jobs in the USA and then sending them overseas to places like India? Feel free to comment below.
Comments
3 Responses to “Arkansas politicians debate India and the question: What is outsourcing?”
Got something to say?
-
Advertisements
Text Links
Interesting read, pretty soon outsourcing will be a taboo word in US.
You can take politics too serious, politicians discuss all kinds of things during campaign, once the elections are over they’ll forget about it.
I grew up in Bangalore, I am a US Citizen and a software engineer. These politicians have sold the land and soles of US citizens. They with the Corporate owners have looted the country.
All the natural resources where the actual wealth is are in the hands of the selected few who have so much money they don’t know what to do with it where as most other people are working themself to death, We are all a paycheck way from being on the streets.