Tone-deaf Prez to give jobs plan speech at NC co. shipping jobs overseas

So reports the Daily Caller:

President Barack Obama will present his β€œjobs plan” on Wednesday at a company which is shipping jobs overseas.

Obama is scheduled to present his β€œjobs plan” in Apex, N.C., on Wednesday at the headquarters of WestStar Precision.

WestStar is a high-end, specialty manufacturer that just opened a new facility in San Jose, Costa Rica β€” creating many new jobs there, but not in the United States.

β€œOur main office and manufacturing facility near Research Triangle Park in the Raleigh/Durham area has approximately 11,000 sq. ft. of office space, production area and warehouse,” the company says on its website. β€œThis facility has more than doubled in size from inception. Equipment includes precision CNC Machining centers, water jet cutter and CAD-CAM design stations.”

On the same page, WestStar Precision describes its new location, which is almost as big, in Costa Rica: β€œOur new office and manufacturing facility in San Jose, Costa Rica, also has approximately 10,000 sq. ft. with similar equipment as the main office. This facility is designed for high volume production to support our international and domestic clients.”

#HeadDesk.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not hatin’ on a company that is doing what it thinks it needs to do (‘The company began hiring in Costa Rica, the News & Observer reported in 2004, to “take advantage of low labor costs.”‘). Just wondering which planet our celebrity President currently resides on for thinking that presenting his “jobs plan” for American workers there will persuade doubters. Then again, maybe it wasn’t meant to:

The owner of the company, Ervin Portman, is a local Democrat on the Wake County, N.C. Board of Commissioners. He donated $1,000 to Obama’s 2008 campaign. Portman and his wife together donated several thousand more to other Democratic candidates and the state Democratic party.

And then there’s this, via The Weekly Standard’s Michael Warren:

According to the White House press office, WestStar is a company β€œthat will benefit from the bipartisan proposals in the American Jobs Act.”

How’s that work again? Scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours? We’re heard this song before. It’s a problem for both parties, and a charge that is currently plaguing GOP presidential candidate/TX Gov. Rick Perry. Christopher Horner argues here that Perry’s crony capitalism problem is not on par with President Obama’s, but I think the distinction – even if believable – is moot. The American people, with the exception of “gimme mine” Big Labor supporters, despise these types of political paybacks, no matter how “well-intentioned” (cough) they might have been ….

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