Insourcing

Foreign Policy
July 10, 2012

The U.S. presidential election quickly seems to be turning into a battle of “who-outsources-least.” President Barack Obama has taken to referring to Republican candidate Mitt Romney as an “outsourcing pioneer” during his tenure at private equity firm Bain Capital. The Republican National Committee has countered with a new website accusing Obama of enriching foreign firms and workers with U.S. stimulus money.

The concern over outsourcing certainly hits a political nerve among the electorate — and it makes sense during a time of high unemployment. But if the campaigns want to really focus on what accounts for America’s sluggish economy, they should spend less time focusing on who is sending jobs overseas and more on who can actually bring skilled workers into the United States — or keep them there. America’s real outsourcing crisis is not firms moving manufacturing to other countries, but the thousands of potential entrepreneurs and job creators who are prevented from setting up shop in America because of immigration laws.

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