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Bernie Proposes the 'Outsourcing Prevention Act'

19 points by dragonbonheur 10y ago

ocdtrekkie 10y ago
Kind of awesome to see Sanders and Trump presumably trying to work together, talking about the same solution to the same problem. Of course, the real question is: Can they get their respective parties to actually back this?
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  > Can they get their respective parties to actually back this? The plan is to shame them into action with the 2018 midterms approaching.
- pasbesoin 10y ago
  Part of the story that got rolled over by much of the mainstream media reporting and Clinton campaigning. Sanders has long worked in a bipartisan fashion to actually get stuff done. Even and as he was sometimes called "the amendment king", well, those amendments got through. He was labeled the "radical", some form of far if not extreme left. Which belied his actual record. Sanders. Warren. Wyden. Some others. It will be up to a pro-active and pragmatic minority to steer the state of things towards hopefully some more effective form of governance, despite... well, I have my opinion of "the winners."
- tdb7893 10y ago
  It's very possible. I personally like trade deals but there seems to be a pretty good split in both parties that are against them.
euyyn 10y ago
> In an outline of the Outsourcing Prevention Act, Sanders said the law would bar companies that ship jobs overseas from enjoying federal contracts, tax breaks, grants or loans; require clawbacks of federal perks; levy a tax that “would be equal to the amount of savings achieved by outsourcing jobs or 35 percent of its profits, whichever is higher” and prevent executives of companies that offshore jobs from drawing bonuses, stock options or “golden parachutes.” Unintended consequences I see: * Companies rush their plans to move jobs away before this law is passed. * If it's cheaper to build X in Mexico, and an American company used to build X in the US as part of their product, now instead of moving these jobs to Mexico they might just eliminate these jobs and buy the product from some other company that builds it in Mexico.
- ocdtrekkie 10y ago
  At least regarding the first bullet point, I think the law will need to account for companies that have already done so. At least where relevant without seeing ex post facto behavior, maybe with a couple years of grace period. - American companies using overseas manufacturing become ineligible for all of the referred to tax breaks starting the next tax year. - American companies using overseas manufacturing shouldn't get any new or renewed government contracts. If you still manufacture overseas in three years, you're now dropped from the options the federal government will consider. If the long-term effects that will affect existing outsourced manufacturers are heavy enough, companies won't take the risk of moving jobs out now, knowing that the return probably won't be there in the long run.
slededit 10y ago
Unless this is going to be tied with tariffs all this will do is give a massive cost advantage to foreign companies.

19 points by dragonbonheur 10y ago

Kind of awesome to see Sanders and Trump presumably trying to work together, talking about the same solution to the same problem. Of course, the real question is: Can they get their respective parties to actually back this?

toomuchtodo 10y ago
> Can they get their respective parties to actually back this? The plan is to shame them into action with the 2018 midterms approaching.
pasbesoin 10y ago
Part of the story that got rolled over by much of the mainstream media reporting and Clinton campaigning. Sanders has long worked in a bipartisan fashion to actually get stuff done. Even and as he was sometimes called "the amendment king", well, those amendments got through. He was labeled the "radical", some form of far if not extreme left. Which belied his actual record. Sanders. Warren. Wyden. Some others. It will be up to a pro-active and pragmatic minority to steer the state of things towards hopefully some more effective form of governance, despite... well, I have my opinion of "the winners."
tdb7893 10y ago
It's very possible. I personally like trade deals but there seems to be a pretty good split in both parties that are against them.

euyyn 10y ago

> In an outline of the Outsourcing Prevention Act, Sanders said the law would bar companies that ship jobs overseas from enjoying federal contracts, tax breaks, grants or loans; require clawbacks of federal perks; levy a tax that “would be equal to the amount of savings achieved by outsourcing jobs or 35 percent of its profits, whichever is higher” and prevent executives of companies that offshore jobs from drawing bonuses, stock options or “golden parachutes.” Unintended consequences I see: * Companies rush their plans to move jobs away before this law is passed. * If it's cheaper to build X in Mexico, and an American company used to build X in the US as part of their product, now instead of moving these jobs to Mexico they might just eliminate these jobs and buy the product from some other company that builds it in Mexico.

ocdtrekkie 10y ago
At least regarding the first bullet point, I think the law will need to account for companies that have already done so. At least where relevant without seeing ex post facto behavior, maybe with a couple years of grace period. - American companies using overseas manufacturing become ineligible for all of the referred to tax breaks starting the next tax year. - American companies using overseas manufacturing shouldn't get any new or renewed government contracts. If you still manufacture overseas in three years, you're now dropped from the options the federal government will consider. If the long-term effects that will affect existing outsourced manufacturers are heavy enough, companies won't take the risk of moving jobs out now, knowing that the return probably won't be there in the long run.

slededit 10y ago

Unless this is going to be tied with tariffs all this will do is give a massive cost advantage to foreign companies.