Will Bernie Sanders Please Explain Why Outsourcing Jobs is Bad, but Insourcing Workers is Good?



Bernie-sanders-franklin-nh-20150802-DSC02607_(19619885364)In an op-ed appearing on the leading opinion site, Townhall.com, I note the logical inconsistency between Bernie Sanders’ positions on free trade and immigration. While Sanders steadfastly opposes trade agreements like NAFTA and the proposed TPP pact because he believes they cost Americans jobs, he supports mass immigration and blanket amnesty for illegal aliens. “However, if that exact same worker from another country shows up illegally in this country and fills the exact same job, displacing the exact same American worker, Sen. Sanders seemingly has no problem with that,” notes the op-ed.

The entire op-ed can be read here.

About Author

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Ira joined the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) in 1986 with experience as a journalist, professor of journalism, special assistant to Gov. Richard Lamm (Colorado), and press secretary of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. His columns have appeared in National Review, LA Times, NY Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, and more. He is an experienced TV and radio commentator.

4 Comments

  1. avatar

    You won’t hear the media asking Clinton to explain all the benefits that NAFTA has brought us, but you will hear every twisted question put to Trump with the intent of discrediting him.

    Jimmy Carter stated that we now live in an oligarchy, where a few control America to their benefit and not the citizens benefit. Both parties in Congress consists mainly of multi-millionaires that prostitute themselves to corporate pimps addicted to cheap imported labor. I hope that one day our country implements term limits on Congress.

    • avatar

      In Carter’s day the media was not owned by a few big companies with agendas. The pro mass immigration, pro “free trade” slant of much of the media is directed by those companies desire for cheap labor. For instance, when you read stories about our “need” for high tech workers you rarely hear the fact that most American STEM workers don’t have a job in that field.

      Cruz is now trying to portray himself as an advocate of “fair trade”, like Trump, but he was pushing the TPP agreement for a long time. He and Paul Ryan [who now has a primary challenger on this very issue] wrote in the Wall Street Journal on April 22, 2015: “The U.S. is making headway on two historic trade agreements, one with 11 countries on the Pacific Rim and another with America’s friends in Europe. These two agreements alone would mean greater access to a billion customers for America’s manufacturers, farmers, and ranchers.”

      The problem is that “greater access” never happens. We open our markets to them and they use every trip in the book to still block our products. And the TPP is the same deal that Hillary once called “the gold standard” of trade deals. But then she decided there were more votes on the other side and you know the rest of the story.

  2. avatar

    It’s not only outsourcing jobs and insourcing workers, it’s also the fact that these deals are going to let international trade boards overrule our laws. India is already making noise about suing us because of the cap on H1B workers. We are supposedly restricting their “rights” to bring in all the workers they want to staff their companies here.

    Only one person among the present GOP candidates has been a consistent long time opponent of these trade deals. Cruz now is acting like he was on board in opposing them all along. He wasn’t. He praised TPP in the past. Sanders supported the gang of eight bill in 2013 which contained big increases in foreign worker visas.