WaPo makes lame attempt at "they all do it" on outsourcing

Last week the Washington Post published a story outlining Mitt Romney's history as an "outsourcer" at Bain Capital. And then today, in an obvious attempt at false equivalency, they made a lame attempt to suggest that President Obama is an outsourcer too. Trouble is, the case they tried to make just doesn't stand up.

For example, they talk about President Obama's failure to fulfill the promise of ending tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. But even the most casual observer recognizes that it is Congress who failed to pass such legislation.

They also mention foreign trade deals but completely fail to provide any specifics on jobs that were outsourced as a result. Perhaps they need some reminding that one of the groups that was the biggest proponent of President Obama's trade deal with South Korea was the United Auto Workers. I'd be willing to hazard a guess that those folks were very aware that it would be adding jobs in the U.S. rather than in South Korea.

Finally they go after false claims about outsourcing as a result of stimulus bill.

According to some critics, a galling example of the Obama administration fostering overseas work came as part the 2009 stimulus program. They point to millions of dollars meant to develop a domestic clean-energy industry that instead landed in the hands of foreign businesses. An April 2010 study by the Energy Department found that 60 percent of the 40 largest wind farms then financed by the stimulus relied on foreign manufacturers for their central components, including turbines.

Apparently this is going to be Romney's answer to the charges about his history of outsourcing. Here's what he said in Colorado today.

"It is interesting that when it comes to outsourcing that this president has been outsourcing a good deal of American jobs himself, by putting money into energy companies that end up making their products outside the United States," Romney told a supportive audience.

This is a bald-faced lie and seems to be Romney's favorite defense...to accuse his opponent rather than address challenges directed to him.

Yesterday when I predicted that this line of attack was coming, I suggested that Michael Grunwald (who wrote the book on the stimulus bill) would be a good source for de-bunking it. So today I tweeted Mr. Grunwald and let him know I'd be interested in his response to the WaPo article. He tweeted back (gotta love these new social networking tools, dontcha?) that it was bogus and sent me a link to an article he wrote back in Oct. 2010.

AWEA [American Wind Energy Association] credits the stimulus with saving at least 40,000 jobs in construction, engineering, trucking and yes, manufacturing. According to the Department of Energy, the U.S. only imported 40% of the components for its wind turbines in 2009, down from about 80% in 2006.

Romney doesn't get a pass on this one simply because he and his accomplices at the Washington Post point a lying finger at President Obama to diffuse the heat he's getting for his business practices in the past.