According to the below email, sent only hours ago by Cisco Systems Senior Director - Jeff Campbell to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, Cisco is against the "Buy America" provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.
Please keep in mind that the only reason we have been allowed to read Cisco's email is because President Obama has wisely and prudently required it according to his memorandum:
Sec. 3. Ensuring Transparency of Registered Lobbyist Communications
Thank you President Obama!
The Buy American Provisions that Cisco is Against:
Official response from Cisco regarding its position of being against the "Buy American" Provisions:
"Cisco has advanced its position to the NTIA on the company's and the technology industry's behalf. While the company strongly supports the objectives of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as a purely practical matter, much of the technology industry's supply chain has for decades been global in nature, whether in PC manufacturing, mobile phones, MP3 players or networking/telecommunications equipment."
The "Buy American" provisions (page 189) of the stimulous bill are mainly aimed at physical infrastructure projects, like roads and bridges, to assist the steel industry. A Senate stimulous bill in February even went so far as to suggest that all "manufactured goods" bought by taxpayers for the stimulus be produced in the U.S., which is problematic since very few electronics companies, Cisco, Dell -- but also makers of household appliances and automobiles -- do their manufacturing on U.S. soil anymore. The provisions could obviously mean that the largest electronics companies wouldn't be eligible for stimulous money.
But "Buy America" has been so controversial, that in Februrary, President Obama began backing away from it. The argument against is that it would create protectionism that would be echoed in other country's stimulous bills and that it could violate trade agreements to boot.
On the other hand, the Communications Workers of America prefers that Buy America not only be enforced for the broadband portion of the stimulous bill, but also that broadband stimulous grant recipients be required to report the number of jobs created and the wages/compensation of those jobs:
CWA: Broadband Grants Must Focus on Creating Good Jobs
Access Equipment Vendors Currently Serving the U.S. Market:
Typical Broadband System Deployment Cost Per Subscriber - Share By Cost Category:
Typical Broadband System Deployment Cost Per Subscriber, By Technology and Labor Content:
Why do you think Cisco is against the "Buy America" provisions?
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We should buy American
Maybe this will make Cisco bring jobs back from Asia and Mexico to the USA.
Don't forget
Don't forget to single out the new $2B investment in South Korea...way to go Cisco, keep offshoring your talent...lets see what happens.
Why do you think Cisco is
Why do you think Cisco is against the "Buy America" provisions?
Because it will cost them money...think unions.
Cisco is against the "Buy America" provisions
Why? It doesn't take a genius to figure out that large corporations like Cisco are no longer "American" institutions, regardless of where their headquarters are. The lst 30 years of unrestrained greed and avarice has produced a class of senior management that is treasonous in their pursuit of profit at any cost. They hold no allegiance to any nation, including ours. They are contemptable. The concept of the "greater good" is alien to them.
We should buy what's best for
the American taxpayer dollar, since the government is run using OUR money. Cisco, Juniper, foreign competitor should compete for the taxpayer dollar. Every private company across the US does this kind of thing every day. Cisco and many other companies go offshore since they aren't using somebody elses money to fund their operations. If the government made it more attractive to invest the $2B in the US, they would.
"Free Trade" is bogus
Corporations like Cisco want to be able to pit one countries workers against another, to drive down costs and standards of living. That makes it impossible to pass envirnmental, labor, or any other type of standards without driving capital offshore.
Virtually all the other indutsrialized countries utilize a Value Added Tax (VAT) that corrects the imbalance of living standards for imported goods and also captures taxes from remote producers. (Here in the US, companies can avoid paying income taxes by "profit shifting" to their overseas subsidiaries.) Thats why tourists from Europe and Japan load up on consumer electronics and other imported goods when they visit - they are much cheaper here than in their own countries.
Anyway, we are talking about government stimulus spending here - its not really supposed to do anything beneficial - just get money into the economy. Who cares if they can build 300 bridges to nowhere versus only 250 if they use more expensive US steel?
Bullsh*t. If American
Bullsh*t. If American companies invested in America we wouldn't be in this current economic situation. American taxpayer dollars should go to purchase AMERICAN products, which support AMERICAN companies that employ AMERICANS!
Adtran makes a good product
Adtran makes a good product here in the US!! This is good for them.
How can we buy American
In the case of electronics and electronic components, there are many that are no longer made in America. Offshore companies already have exclusive manufacturing of several basic components and several assemblies. I don't think we could build telecom products exclusively from Made In America parts if we wanted to. And to try to come back up to speed and quality would be very expensive. It would be nice if we could, but that ship has left.
wow..
so your advice is give up? That's crazy talk dude, crazy.
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