Israel (D-NY) Wants to Offshore Defense Work to India

Date: Monday, February 02, 2004 9:42 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

If you go to Congressman Steve Israel's (D-NY) website you will see that that he claims to be a real patriotic guy that supports our troops. He even took a trip to Baghdad to see what could be done to help the war effort.
http://www.house.gov/israel/

What Israel didn't mention on his website is the fact that he took a detour to India in order to learn how to offshore U.S. military defense work from New York to India. Israel was impressed with the fact that rent in Hyderabad high-tech is a mere 80 cents a square foot compared with $20 a foot on Long Island, and he was very excited that high-priced programmers in New York that get paid $70k a year could be replaced with Indians for only $15k.

Israel should win a Marie Antoinette "let them eat cake" reward for this statement:

When we bemoan the loss of jobs, we've also got to
understand what the labor force and the marketplace
is like, and enter that into the equation.

At least Israel believes in family values - he wants engineers in Long Island and India to marry each other:

India is developing a cadre of inexpensive intellectual
talent. Long Island has a proven heritage of engineering
and manufacturing new generations of defense technologies.
What I want to do is marry the two.

Congressmen don't betray American workers without a payoff, and Steve Israel is no exception. He is kowtowing to India because he is a loyal member of the "India Caucus" - that band of Congressmen that have pledged their allegiance to India's industry by continuing to allow the importation of their workers into the U.S. and to offshore American jobs whenever possible.

You can see a scan of an article where Israel is announcing to The Indian American Friendship Council (IAFC) that he will join the India Caucus at this webpage:
http://www.inamfc.org/2002/html/steve_israel.htm

To read more newsletters about the "India Caucus" go to this webpage and enter "india caucus" with the quotes:
http://www.zazona.com/shameh1b/SearchSite.htm

http://www.newsday.com/business/columnists/ny-bzcol3631794jan19,0,1308608.column?coll=ny-business-columnists

Long Island-India Venture Summit
A.J. Carter

January 19, 2004

Our motto for the day is: If you can't beat 'em, work up an alliance.

That is the conclusion Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington) reached after taking congressional colleagues on a tour of the Computer Associates facility in Hyderabad, India, and meeting with officials from India's government and business leaders about the issue of outsourcing.

"I wanted them to get the perspective of an American company that has thousands of employees and what their experience was in India," Israel said of why he took his colleagues to CA. "It was just eye-opening."

The most telling statistic: A software programmer in Hyderabad earns $15,000 a year, while someone doing the same job in Islandia gets $70,000.

Then the group toured a facility called Cyber Towers, a complex near CA that houses branches of other major U.S. technology companies. Rent in the state-of-the-art complex is 80 cents a square foot. That compares to about $20 a foot on Long Island. "When we bemoan the loss of jobs, we've also got to understand what the labor force and the marketplace is like, and enter that into the equation," he said.

So after returning early last week, and having heard both sides of the argument - i.e., let the free market work or pass protective legislation - a middle ground started to crystallize in Israel's head.
"I think that there is a third strategy that would uniquely benefit Long Island, and that is harnessing each nation's capabilities in national security by expanding defense co-production opportunities," he said. "We are just missing the boat when it comes to defense joint production - we don't do it."

Israel thinks the timing is right, as India becomes a hotbed of research in information technology and Long Island defense companies work on weapons systems that depend on information technology and biotech.

So Israel is planning what he is calling a Long Island-India defense and export summit, at which India's ambassador and some military attachis would meet with Long Island defense companies to discuss possible joint ventures and what work he might have to do governmentally to deal with legal barriers.

"India is developing a cadre of inexpensive intellectual talent. Long Island has a proven heritage of engineering and manufacturing new generations of defense technologies. What I want to do is marry the two," Israel said. "We ought to be developing jobs in both countries."

Email: aj.carter@newsday.com

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