Profile in Courage:
Bush Distances Himself from Aide
on Exporting Jobs
Thursday, February 12, 2004 1:23 PM ET
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By Adam Entous HARRISBURG, Pa. (Reuters) – Under pressure from fellow Republicans, President Bush distanced himself on Thursday from one of his top economic advisers who said the outsourcing of U.S. jobs to workers overseas may benefit the economy. |
“The (economic) numbers are good. But I don’t worry about numbers, I worry about people,” Bush told students and teachers at a high school in Pennsylvania — a pivotal state in this year’s election and one of the hardest hit by factory job losses during his presidency.
Without mentioning by name the chairman of his Council of Economic Advisers, Gregory Mankiw, Bush said he was concerned “there are people looking for work because jobs have gone overseas” and vowed to “act to make sure there are more jobs at home” by keeping taxes low and by retraining displaced workers. Bush offered no new initiatives to curb outsourcing and aides said he opposed restrictions on free trade.
“You can fool all of the people
all of the time.”
— Art Buchwald