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Saturday, November 6, 2010

Obama calls India a job-creating giant for U.S.

Reforms to support thousands of U.S. jobs, president says in Mumbai                     


Searching for help half a world away, President Barack Obama on Saturday embraced India as the next jobs-creating giant for hurting Americans, not a cheap-labor rival that outsources opportunity from the United States.
Fresh off a political trouncing at home, Obama was determined to show tangible, economic results on his long Asia trip, and that was apparent from almost the moment he set foot on a steamy afternoon in the world's largest democracy. By the end of the first of his three days in India, he was promoting $10 billion in trade deals — completed in time for his visit — that the White House says will create about 54,000 jobs at home.
That's a modest gain compared with the extent of the enduring jobless crisis in the United States. Economists say it would require on the level of 300,000 new jobs a month to put a real dent in an unemployment rate stuck near 10 percent.

Yet to Obama, the bigger picture was the lucrative potential of an unleashed trading relationship between India and the United States. He seemed comfortable and energized away from Washington, days removed from the GOP's election thumping.
"For America, this is a jobs strategy," Obama said of his emphasis on trade, although it could stand as a motto for his 10-day trip. He is spending Sunday with young people in Mumbai and then heading onto meetings in New Delhi, the capital, before shifting later in the week ahead to Indonesia and economic talks in South Korea and Japan.
In India for the first time, Obama quickly got a sense of riches and poverty, history and tragedy.
His helicopter ride into this bustling financial center took in some of the country's slums. His luxury accommodation for the night, the Taj Mahal hotel, was one of the sites of a terrorist rampage in Mumbai that killed 166 people. Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid quiet tribute to the 31 people slain at the hotel, looking over their names inscribed in a memorial before meeting with victims' families and survivors of the shootings.

"We visit here to send a very clear message that in our determination to give our people a future of security and prosperity, the United States and India stand united," Obama said from an outdoor plaza, the soaring Gateway of India and the Arabian Sea behind him. "We'll never forget."
Indian commentators seized on the president's failure to mention Pakistan, India's neighbor and bitter rival. Pakistan was home to the 10 assailants.
The president also celebrated the life of a personal hero, Mohandas K. Gandhi, a father of Indian independence and model of peaceful activism. The Obamas spent time at the home-turned-museum where Gandhi once lived. They signed personal messages into the guest book and pledged to bring their daughters, Sasha and Malia, back one day.
Obama directly addressed the belief in the U.S. that India is robbing Americans of jobs. He acknowledged that many Americans only know trade and global commerce as the source of a job shipped overseas.
"There still exists a caricature of India as a land of call centers and back offices that cost American jobs. That's a real perception," Obama said. He noted the real concern in India that American corporate giants, if welcomed, would run mom-and-pop stories out of business and upend Indian culture.
Seeking to dismiss all "old stereotypes," Obama said the relationship between the countries is "creating jobs, growth, and higher living standards in both our countries. And that is the truth."
In the fallout of the U.S. elections, in which Democrats lost control of the House and Obama's ability to connect with his country was called into doubt, the president said one lesson learned was the need to set a better tone with business leaders. He was effusive on that front in Mumbai, gathering with top U.S. executives and studying up on their commerce with India.
"Just around this table you're seeing billions of dollars in orders from U.S. companies, tens of thousands of jobs being supported," he said. "We're a potential that has barely been scratched."
The White House arranged for four American chief executives who are in India for the occasion to brief reporters traveling with the president. They played up the importance of India as a trading partner and praised Obama's decision to come to the country to underscore that point in person.
"India represents the 14th-largest trading partner of the United States. Why? With all of the opportunity, it should be so much bigger," said Terry McGraw, chairman and chief executive of the McGraw-Hill Companies.
Obama said, "There is no reason this nation can't be one of our top trading partners."
To that end he said the U.S. would put forward a package of reforms on export controls that resulted from past administrations' concerns about India's nuclear industry. The changes, which have been much sought-after in the business community, include relaxing controls on India's purchase of so-called "dual use" technologies that could be used for civilian or military purposes, and removing a few of the last remaining Indian companies on a so-called "entities list" of groups that face restrictions on doing business in the U.S.

The commercial deals include the purchase of 33 737s from Boeing by India's SpiceJet Airlines; the Indian military's plans to buy aircraft engines from General Electric; and preliminary agreement between Boeing and the Indian Air Force on the purchase of 10 C17s.
For the most part, the deals were already pending, but the White House contends Obama's visit to India helped finalize them. Officials said the deals would support 53,670 U.S. jobs, but it was not clear how many, if any, new jobs would be created as a result.
Progress will take much more than public understanding. India's infrastructure remains an impediment to progress. And Obama's challenged India on the sore spot of shrinking its own barriers to trade and foreign investment. But his larger message was one of the united values and missions of the two largest democracies in the world.
Making that point, Obama even generated some laughter at his own expense, offering a reminder of the troubles at home.
"Our countries are blessed with the most effective form of government the world has ever known: democracy," he said. "Even if it can be slow at times. Even if it can be messy. Even if, sometimes, the election doesn't turn out as you'd like."

Onkar Kanwar, chairman of India's largest tire manufacturer, Apollo Tyres, said he appreciated the symbolism of Obama's coming to India during his first term and choosing to visit Mumbai first.
"Ties are getting closer and closer, which needs to be done. ... This demonstrates his commitment to another large democracy where he sees a lot of synergies," Kanwar said. "He's done all right."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.   

White House: Asia trip nowhere near $200 million a day

Obama aides try to counter claims from conservative critics                     




Image: U.S. President Barack Obama greets Ambassar Philip Murphy at Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany.
Jason Reed  /  Reuters
President Barack Obama greets U.S. Ambassador to Germany Philip Murphy on the tarmac of Ramstein Air Base in Germany on Friday as Air Force One refuels en route to Mumbai, India.
msnbc.com staff and news service reports msnbc.com staff and news service reports
updated 11/5/2010 7:51:14 PM ET


Cost estimates of President Barack Obama's 10-day trip to Asia remain up in the air, but they certainly are nowhere near as high as the $200 million a day some conservative critics claim, the White House said Friday.
White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer blogged that the figures, first reported by Press Trust of India and spread by U.S. media, conservative pundits and GOP politicians, have "no basis in reality" and are "wildly inflated."
Pfeiffer also quoted a Pentagon spokesman, who rebutted the notion that 34 Navy warships would be used in the trip as "comical."


The president and first lady Michelle Obama boarded Air Force One on Friday to fly to Mumbai, India, first stop on a tour that will also take the president to Indonesia, South Korea and Japan.
Back in the states, debate about the trip's cost continued to swirl.
"Certainly an astounding figure, were it true," Pfeiffer wrote about the cost claims. "But it's not even close to true. This hasn't stopped some political opponents of the President including some elected officials from trafficking in this claim."
Pfeiffer said security concerns prevented officials from getting into "details associated with security procedures and costs, but it's safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated and President Obama's costs are in line with the costs of protecting previous Presidents. "
Pfeiffer quoted Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell about the warship claim:
"We obviously have some support role for presidential travel. We don't speak to that in detail for security reasons. But I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we were deploying 10 percent of the Navy — some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier — in support of the president's trip to Asia. That's just comical. Nothing close to that is being done."
The cost item became news when the Press Trust of India quoted "a top official of the Maharashtra Government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit."
"The huge amount of around $200 million would be spent on security, stay and other aspects of the Presidential visit," the news agency quoted the official as saying.
The agency also claimed the presidential entourage would include 3,000 Secret Service agents, U.S. government officials and journalists.
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann said on CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360" this week that the trip "is expected to cost the taxpayers $200 million a day." She said: "He's taking 2,000 people with him. He'll be renting out over 870 rooms in India. And these are 5-star hotel rooms at the Taj Mahal Palace hotel. This is the kind of over-the-top spending."
The Taj Mahal has only 560 rooms including 44 suites, according to its website.
The White House has not booked the entire hotel and the press, which won't be staying there, pays its own way, reported Jonathan Weisman in his The Wall Street Journal blog.
Weisman and other media also cited a Snopes.org report that $200 million a day would represent "the unbelievably staggering sum of $66,000 per person per day" for 3,000 people. He and others also cited a FactCheck.org analysis noting the entire Afghanistan war alone costs roughly $190 million a day.
Television and radio show host Glenn Beck expanded on the Press Trust story, saying the president is spending $2 billion to see "the festival of lights" and questioning why Obama was even going.
Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh repeated the claim and asked, "Why is he leaving town and taking 3,000 people with him two days after the election, a trip which has been planned for months?"
Michigan-based columnist Doug Powers, writing a post on conservative journalist Michelle Malkin's site, said, "To put it in perspective, $200 million is enough money to buy a pair of Lanvin sneakers for over 370,000 Indians. The president’s 'carbon footprint felt ’round the world' tour will also utilize at least 40 aircraft, or as Al Gore calls it, 'Wednesday.'”


During the 10-day visit, the president is squeezing in some sightseeing, including a visit to the enormous Istiqlal Mosque in Indonesia, a Great Buddha statue in Japan and the Gandhi museum in Mumbai. He opted against visiting the famed Golden Temple Sikh holy site in India, though White House officials denied rumors that it was because he would have had to wear a head covering that could have stirred false speculation that he is a Muslim.
The BBC reported one security measure in Mumbai was true: All coconuts around the Gandhi museum were taken down.
"We told the authorities to remove the dry coconuts from trees near the building. Why take a chance?" Meghshyam Ajgaonkar, executive secretary of Mahatma Ghandi's home in Mumbai, told the BBC.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.   

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