The Obama campaign is out with a new ad today that rehashes the same wild claims that fact checkers have found “on just about every level … misleading, unfair and untrue” and backed up with evidence that is “weak or non-existent.”  The truth is Obama has said that “it probably wouldn’t be good” for outsourced jobs to return to the United States and if his words don’t convince you, look at his actions: his “Jobs Council” is stacked with companies that have shipped jobs overseas, the stimulus sent billions to foreign companies and his so-called solution to this problem “won’t do much to keep jobs in the U.S.”

ON THE RECORD: President Obama On Outsourcing: “It Probably Wouldn’t Be Good For Our Economy For A Bunch Of These Jobs To Come Back …” OBAMA: “So I guess the answer to the question is, not all of these jobs are going to come back. And it probably wouldn’t be good for our economy for a bunch of these jobs to come back because, frankly, there’s no way that people could be getting paid a living wage on some of these jobs, at least in order to be competitive in an international setting.” (President Barack Obama, Remarks During A Virtual Town Hall Meeting and a Question-and-Answer Session, Washington D.C., 3/26/09)

Obama Claims He Believes In “Insourcing” But He Is Promising Jobs “He Can’t Really Deliver”

OBAMA AD: “President Obama Believes In Insourcing …” (Obama For America Ad, “Believe,” 7/3/12)

TRUTH: “President Barack Obama Is Promising New Factory Jobs That He Can’t Really Deliver - Even The Companies On His Own Jobs Council Have Shrunk Their Workforce.” (Josh Boak, “Manufacturing Math May Not Add Up,” Politico, 2/14/12)

“The U.S. Government’s Own Data Suggests The Administration Is Overstating The Potential For Reshoring.” “The U.S. government’s own data suggests the administration is overstating the potential for reshoring.” (David J. Lynch, “Obama Can Only Say Factory Jobs Return Still Being Offset,” Bloomberg, 6/28/12)

• Despite Obama’s Claims That U.S. Companies Are Bringing Jobs Back Home From Abroad, “The Net Effect Of This Two-Way Traffic On The Labor Market Has Been Virtually Invisible So Far.” “For many other businesses, however, it still makes sense to ship them abroad. The net effect of this two-way traffic on the labor market has been virtually invisible so far and — contrary to the administration’s claims about what is known as ‘reshoring’ — will be for years, manufacturing specialists and economists say.” (David J. Lynch, “Obama Can Only Say Factory Jobs Return Still Being Offset,” Bloomberg, 6/28/12)
• “The White House Employs An Expansive Definition Of Insourcing.” “Still, the White House employs an expansive definition of insourcing, including jobs that returned to the U.S. from abroad as well as new positions created as the result of improved U.S. competitiveness, according to the January report.” (David J. Lynch, “Obama Can Only Say Factory Jobs Return Still Being Offset,” Bloomberg, 6/28/12)

• Nicholas Lardy, Expert On The Chinese Economy At The Peterson Institute For International Economics, Says That This “Suggests We’re Losing More Jobs Than We’re Gaining.” “‘That suggests we’re losing more jobs than we’re gaining,’ said Nicholas Lardy, an expert on the Chinese economy at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. ‘There’s a lot of wishful thinking that the era of cheap Chinese labor is over and that our trade problems with China are getting better.’” (David J. Lynch, “Obama Can Only Say Factory Jobs Return Still Being Offset,” Bloomberg, 6/28/12)
• Michael Jansen, Chief Research Officer Of The Hackett Group, Says That, Despite Obama’s Claims That U.S. Companies Are Bringing Jobs Back Home From Abroad, The Total Number Of Companies That Are Creating Jobs In The U.S. Is “Net Zero.” “‘Our conclusion was a net zero,’ says Michael Janssen, author of a new study of the trend for the Hackett Group, a Miami-based consultancy. ‘Some of these jobs that are coming back get a lot of press. But there are just as many that get no press coverage still going offshore.’” (David J. Lynch, “Obama Can Only Say Factory Jobs Return Still Being Offset,” Bloomberg, 6/28/12)

Many Of The Members Of Obama’s Jobs Council Have Cut American Jobs. “In another public demonstration of concern about the struggling economy, President Obama will meet in Pittsburgh on Tuesday with the business and labor leaders he has chosen to counsel him on job creation. But many of the chief executives have cut American jobs and adopted tactics that weaken organized labor — even as their businesses post record profits.” (Alana Semuels, “Obama’s Job-Creation Panel Includes Job-Cutting Executives,” Los Angeles Times, 10/9/11)

• The Corporations Represented On Obama’s Jobs Council Have Almost Doubled Their Overseas Investments. “Seven publicly traded U.S. corporations represented on President Barack Obama’s advisory council for jobs and competitiveness — including General Electric Co. (GE) and Intel Corp. (INTC) — have devoted a growing pool of their non-U.S. earnings to investments in other countries. As a group, multinational companies with current or former chief executive officers on Obama’s jobs council have, over the past four years, almost doubled the cumulative amounts they’ve reinvested overseas, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.” (Mike Dorning, “GE Joins Intel To Advise Obama As Overseas Holdings Expand,” Bloomberg, 5/23/11)

• “Many Of The CEOs On The Jobs Council Have Also Overseen Significant Layoffs This Year.” “Many of the CEOs on the jobs council have also overseen significant layoffs this year. Companies such as Xerox and American Express have cut jobs. Other companies whose CEOs serve on the panel have received hundreds of millions of dollars of stimulus funding, without creating many jobs.” (Alana Semuels, “Union Calls For Removal Of Member From Obama’s Jobs Council,” Los Angeles Times, 10/11/11)

Obama’s Rhetoric On Insourcing Tax Breaks Are A “Fantasy” That Will Do Little To Create Jobs

OBAMA AD: Obama “Favors Tax Cuts For Companies That Bring Jobs Home …” (Obama For America Ad, “Believe,” 7/3/12)

TRUTH: FactCheck.org: “Obama’s “Jobs Overseas” Fantasy, Again” (Brooks Jackson, Lori Robertson, Joe Miller and Viveca Novak “Closing Arguments: Obama,” FactCheck.org, 11/3/08)

FactCheck.org: The Tax Breaks That Obama Is Referring To Have Nothing To Do With Why Companies Ship Jobs Overseas. “Back in 2004 when we criticized John Kerry for using a similar iteration of this claim against President Bush, we pointed out that Christian Weller, a senior fellow at the Democratic-leaning Center for American Progress, had said taxes ‘are a very small part’ of companies’ decisions to move jobs offshore. Those at a 2005 Brookings Institution summit on trade also said taxes had little to do with outsourcing. Joel Slemrod, a tax expert at the University of Michigan’s business school, summed it up by saying: ‘For those who see [offshoring] as a problem, this is not a solution.’” (Justin Bank, “Obama’s Trade Trickery,” FactCheck.org, 9/26/08)

• Factcheck.Org: “Eliminating This Incentive Would Have Very Little Effect On U.S. Employment.” “The claim that the tax code favors locating jobs overseas has been a Democratic mantra since at least 2004, when John Kerry brought it up constantly in his campaign against then-President George W. Bush. It has some truth to it — but not much. As we reported in 2004, eliminating this incentive would have very little effect on U.S. employment.” (Brooks Jackson, “A False Tax Attack,” FactCheck.org, 4/9/10)
• Factcheck.Org: “As We’ve Been Saying For More Than Four Years Now… Eliminating Them Won’t Do Much To Keep Jobs In The U.S.” “Obama’s infomercial, and his closing TV ads, continue to harp on the theme of ‘tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas,’ which Obama proposes to eliminate. We can’t say whether or not he can deliver on that promise, but as we’ve been saying for more than four years now, (and most recently on Sept. 26) eliminating them won’t do much to keep jobs in the U.S. In a recent exchange of e-mails with us, Eric Toder of the Tax Policy Center concluded that eliminating such tax breaks ‘is a nice political slogan, but will do little or nothing for U.S. employment or incomes.’” (Brooks Jackson, Lori Robertson, Joe Miller and Viveca Novak “Closing Arguments: Obama,” FactCheck.org, 11/3/08)