Judging Someone By Their Priorities

By: PaulVa
Published On: 6/2/2006 9:07:17 AM

Can we really trust somebody who speaks to an Indian newspaper one day about how to attract American jobs, while simultaneously +óGé¼+ôclaiming+óGé¼-¥ a huge increase in IT jobs to a US newspaper, then admitting to an Australian newspaper that there is a lack of IT jobs in the United States all in the same week?  Is this the kind of politician we can take at his word on every other position he takes?

While meeting with a reporter from the newspaper the Australian on September 14, 2004, he admits, +óGé¼+ô"This is still not the job market America's IT workers have been hoping for. Instead, increased competition appears to be the rule for 2004 here and abroad.+óGé¼-¥

This interview came on the heels of a report from Miller+óGé¼Gäós own trade association, the ITAA, that is sourced in that same overseas article.  +óGé¼+ôIn 2003, employers expected to fill about 500,000 new IT jobs. That level was around one million in 2002 and about 1.6 million in 2000. But this year, employers said they plan to fill only 229,671 IT jobs, 270,000 fewer than last year. Almost 90 percent of the new IT jobs will be in non-IT industries. "The long-awaited recovery in the information technology job market could be off to a shaky start."

So what does Harris Miller do the next day?  Does he offer any plan at recovering some of these lost jobs, the result of an aggressive diet of offshoring? 

In an interview given to the San Francisco Chronicle on September 15th, the next day, Harris Miller doubts a third party report (Washington Association of Technology Workers) that states there was a decrease in tech jobs in the United States during the course of the decade.  In fact, the article quotes his group, the ITAA, in saying +óGé¼+ôtheir estimate suggests the information technology workforce would grow 1.9 percent to 10.5 million in 2004.+óGé¼-¥

I guess that maybe you can+óGé¼Gäót blame Harris Miller for talking out of two sides of his mouth, one in a foreign newspaper in Australia and the other in the San Francisco Chronicle.  Maybe I would give him a pass because he at least acknowledged the disappointing results of his predictions that stated there were not enough IT workers available in the United States to meet demand.

But instead of maybe offering solutions to protect workers+óGé¼Gäó jobs, he instead chose to travel to India to offer advise at a conference on building the Indian IT sector. 

According to a September 29, 2004 interview conducted by the Times of India (Galloping Toward A High Tech Future, High On IT Spirit), Harris Miller offered his advice to businesses and resident of Kolkata, India .  According to Harris Miller, "Kolkata has to get better known to IT companies and potential customers as a region that wants to get IT done.  That takes active marketing, particularly in markets around the world." He went on to offer up that "Kolkata needs to show that its infrastructure is as good, if not better, as the other regions.+óGé¼-¥  He repeated this refrain as the keynote speaker at the annual meeting of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (Business Standard, October 15, 2004). 

I would expect this kind of talk from somebody running for office in India during a conversation about building up the local economy.  But never could I ever imagine this coming from a corporate lobbyist turned Democratic Senate candidate, especially two weeks away from what might have been the most important election of our lifetimes, where I+óGé¼Gäóm sure whatever help he could have given to local, state and national candidates would have sorely been needed.

These interviews cast a penetrating glance into what may even be the character of this candidate.  The role of a primary is to vet a candidate, and when it comes to his past and to his juggling of positions, Harris Miller fails miserably.

He claimed for years through the ITAA that outsourcing would create more jobs in the United States within the technology sector.  Then he admits to the loss of jobs in the IT sector, to two foreign newspapers, while at the same time he denies any job loss occurred when he is interviewed by an American newspaper.

Those tactics may work with the corporate media.  They may work with the Washington Post which labeled Jim Webb+óGé¼Gäós candidacy as +óGé¼+ôstrident populism on trade policy+óGé¼-¥. . .and +óGé¼+ôbusiness bashing,+óGé¼-¥ but they will not with the voters.

Don+óGé¼Gäót forget, many Virginia voters we will need to welcome home to the Democratic Party will be reminded ceaselessly by George Allen about Miller+óGé¼Gäós lack of concern for the average working person, leaving the election as a referendum between George Allen and Harris Miller on only the wedge issues they disagree on. 

And while Miller was talking about the loss of IT jobs in the United States, what was his top priority as the head lobbyist for the ITAA during that time?  Finding a way to invest in and develop more IT jobs?  Nope.  You can find his top priority in a report from Congress Daily on September 8, 2004. 

Harris Miller+óGé¼Gäós top priority was to block any congressional attempts at mandatory stock option expensing.  You got it right.  While IT jobs were being outsourced and the number of American tech workers decreased, while we were in the midst of a monumental Presidential election, Harris Miller was focused on keeping executives from having to report their stock options as expenses. 

And his second priority, according to that same article cited above?  It was to +óGé¼+ôapprove a bill that would repeal the foreign sales corporation/extraterritorial income tax regime.+óGé¼-¥  Yep.  There+óGé¼Gäós a great way to make American workers more competitive.  By repealing taxes on foreign outsourced operations.

Where the Democratic Party in many places is still considered +óGé¼+ôthe party of the people,+óGé¼-¥ Harris Miller has been quick to leave working Americans behind in the grip of social Darwinism. 

The results of his efforts have been staggering and do more than just harm workers but put the United States at a competitive disadvantage as high paying jobs leave our shores.  According to his interview in the Australian where he discusses the American IT industry, +óGé¼+ôDemand for IT workers continues to drop, with hiring managers indicating that they will seek to fill about 270,000 fewer jobs.+óGé¼-¥  According to the San Francisco Chronicle article, +óGé¼+ôemployment by software, computer design, Internet and data-processing firms fell from about 2.15 million in March 2001 to about 1.74 million in April 2004.+óGé¼-¥ 

Electing him goes against what is good about the Democratic Party and everything that I believe we stand for.  The same party that brought Kennedy+óGé¼Gäós vision of a +óGé¼+ôtide that lifts all boats+óGé¼-¥ now is threatened with being hijacked by a man who flippantly argues  that +óGé¼+ôAmerican workers just have to deal with outsourcing+óGé¼-¥ while busying himself with more important things, like finding tax loops for  corporations who move their operations offshore. 

Is this what we have become in the South?  Are we that weak that we have no hope but to give up to corporatists who couldn+óGé¼Gäót give a lick about the well-being of working people?  Some of Harris Miller+óGé¼Gäós supporters have blasted the vetting of their candidate on these issues as being +óGé¼+ôwhite trash+óGé¼-¥ arguments. 

This primary is important because it offers a choice.  Are we going to follow the lead of people like Zel Miller who divided us with social issues and catered to corporate interests, or are we going to be the party of people like John Edwards, Tim Kaine and Mark Warner who spoke to people with a populist message?

The choice to me is very simple.


Comments



Great job! (phriendlyjaime - 6/2/2006 9:47:10 AM)
Thanks, and recommended!


Thanks and recommended too! (KathyinBlacksburg - 6/2/2006 10:18:19 AM)
Excellent research.


When you get the chance (PaulVa - 6/2/2006 10:24:41 AM)
Not to be a diary whore, but, please vote in my poll at DKos as I try to spread the word about Harris Miller the Job Killer.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/6/2/10356/41875



Sorry.. (Kathy Gerber - 6/3/2006 11:26:37 AM)
I didn't get over there in time.

What can I say - it's a white trash thing...