Unerring political instincts of John Kerry

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Kerry ad attacking Bush on jobs arrives same day as upbeat report

By MATT STEARNS
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry released a new television ad Friday lambasting President Bush on the hot economic topic of the day, the outsourcing of jobs overseas. Unfortunately for Kerry, the 30-second ad, to run in 17 swing states, came out the same day that the strongest jobs report in years was released, giving a ready-made defense to the president.

THE AD: It says "while jobs are leaving our country in record numbers, George Bush says sending jobs overseas `makes sense' for America," and it adds that the president's top economic advisers made a similar claim. The ad compares that with Kerry's "detailed economic agenda to create 10 million jobs."

THE FACTS: Bush never SAID that outsourcing jobs makes sense, but he did submit a signed report to Congress that says "when a good or service is produced more cheaply abroad, it makes more sense to import it than make or provide it domestically." Treasury Secretary John Snow and chief economic adviser N. Gregory Mankiw have defended outsourcing along similar lines.

Although politically unpopular right now as manufacturing, call-center and computer-programming jobs move overseas, the notion of mutual economic benefit from trade and international investment has been a bedrock economic truism for centuries; it's one of the reasons President Clinton pushed free trade, as has every other president since Harry Truman.

Kerry has promised to deliver economic growth that would create 10 million jobs in four years, but his ad gives no specifics as to how. Among his proposals are tax breaks for companies that keep jobs in America, tax breaks for the middle class that would encourage them to spend more (presumably on U.S.-made products) and expensive energy and health plans that he claims will create jobs.

While Democrats note that the nation's work force shrank by 2.2 million jobs during the Bush administration, job creation picked up in recent months. A report Friday delivered mixed news: 308,000 jobs were created in March, the fastest pace in four years. But none were in manufacturing, and the unemployment rate climbed to 5.7 percent as more people resumed looking for work.