Republican’s Latest ‘Outsourcing’ Attack Against Obama Fails And Dies

Last updated on July 12th, 2012 at 05:05 pm

The narrative in both presidential campaigns is alleging the opponent is the real outsourcer-in-chief. President Obama’s campaign has successfully attacked Romney’s time at Bain Capital and now the Republican National Committee is trying the old “I know you are, but what am I” attack.

The RNC campaign has said that money from the Recovery Act was given to companies who ultimately sent those jobs overseas, but a New York Times report shows the Republicans are spinning their wheels and not telling the truth at all.

On a new RNC website they cite  ABB Inc. as an example of stimulus money being outsourced.

From the New York Times report:

According to the Republican committee, ABB Inc., a global energy and technology company, “received over $16 million in stimulus funds to create green energy manufacturing jobs” and has “laid off workers in the U.S. and transferred work to Mexico.”

“That sounds like somebody taking facts and just twisting them,” said Barry Dillon, the spokesman for ABB, based in North Carolina. Mr. Dillon said the company employs 19,000 people in the United States, and another 8,000 across Canada and Mexico. Employment is up in the United States, he said.

“There’s nothing wholesale that we moved from the U.S. into Mexico,” Mr. Dillon said. In a detailed e-mail  Mr. Dillon wrote that the company has been expanding in both the United States and Mexico to meet rising demands of the market.

Another company that the RNC cites is an auto parts manufacturer, named Fisker Automotive. They accused Obama of giving them money through the stimulus but the company said no, that money was given to us by President George W. Bush.

The Obama administration approved up to $529 million in loans for the company but they were under a George W. Bush-era program intended to spur more fuel-efficient technologies, not the stimulus package. The company has taken only $193 million of the loans.

“In addition, the company disputes Republican claims that Fisker’s federal money “went abroad for jobs that weren’t created in the United States.” The company is assembling its first electric car, called the Karma, in Finland.

But Fisker and Energy Department officials say the portion of the loans being used for the Karma — about $169 million — has been spent on hiring and other functions solely in California and Michigan. “Every single dollar of the loan has been used in the U.S.,” said Roger Ormisher, Fisker’s senior director of global communications. ”

Now the last example in a solar company. “The R.N.C. also accuses Mr. Obama’s administration of sending $1.3 billion in loan guarantees to a company that will manufacture solar panels in Mexico.

A spokeswoman for the SunPower Corporation, based in California, said a “large number of the panels” would be built at the company’s facility in Milpitas, California, for installation at a “solar ranch” in California.

Some will be built at its plants in Asia and Mexico, said the spokeswoman, Natalie Wymer. The federal loan guarantee, which was closer to $1.2 billion, actually went to another company, NRG Solar, which owns the solar ranch.”

In the article, they find the Obama campaign is also stretching some of the truth when it comes to Romney’s outsourcing. The NY Times says when Bain outsourced jobs, it wasn’t always under the watchful eye of Romney (it should be noted that the date Romney actually left Bain is still unresolved).

With that being said, if the outsourcing that happened at Romney’s old company, Bain Capital, didn’t occur until after he left, the same can be said about the “jobs created.” Romney can’t have it both ways. He can’t take credit for investments that happened after he left but say, “well I wasn’t there” when his old company ships jobs to slave labor countries.