Obama slams Romney over outsourcing; Jindal criticises Prez

Washington: US President

took a dig at Republican

, his likely Republican rival, on Friday accusing the latter of leading an effort to ship American jobs to countries like India and China. He cited media reports saying Bain Capital, the financial company owned by the former Massachussets Governor, was investing in firms to outsource jobs to Asian shores.

Obama said the US needed a President who would vow to protect American jobs and manufacturing and not be an 'outsourcing pioneer'. The bigger profits have neither led to a better employment scenario nor higher incomes, said the Democrat President who has made outsourcing of jobs a major campaign issue. According to Obama, Romney, who speaks about his corporate experience during the campaign trail, does not have ideas worth for an economic turnaround.

The Washington Post had published a story on Friday where it said: "... During the nearly 15 years that Romney was actively involved in running Bain, a private equity firm that he founded, it owned companies that were pioneers in the practice of shipping work from the United States to overseas call centers and factories making computer components, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. While economists debate whether the massive outsourcing of American jobs over the last generation was inevitable, Romney in recent months has lamented the toll it's taken on the U.S. economy. He has repeatedly pledged he would protect American employment by getting tough on China..."

The Romney camp, however, called the Post story a flawed one, saying it could not read the difference between domestic outsourcing and offshoring. Andrea Saul, the Republican leader's spokesperson said Romney is a veteran of the economic world and has a better understanding of reasons that create and vanish jobs. Romney, if elected the President, will execute policies conducive for generating jobs at home, she said. The Republican Party is scheduled to finalise its presidential poll candidate in August.

In another development, Indian-American Governor of Louisiana Bobby Jindal attacked President Obama, saying the latter's re-election campaign was more based on a principle of 'divide and blame' unlike the 'hope and change' of 2008. Republican Jindal is considered to be among those shortlisted for the Vice-President's post

The first Indian-American Governor of a US state, Jindal said the US President could not ask the ordinary Americans if they were leading a superb life compared to what it was in 2008 and hence was busy blaming others. Jindal alleged that over half-a-million fewer Americans have jobs today, if compared to the time when Obama took charge.

"The President's advisors had predicted that his USD 800 billion stimulus bill would keep unemployment below eight per cent but it hasn't dipped for over three years now. Over 30 per cent of the borrowers are in trouble, 23 million US citizens continue to be unemployed or underemployed," Jindal said.

This is for the second time that the Lousiana Governor has targetted Obama. Not even a month ago, he termed the Obama administration as a combination of liberalism and incompetence at a meeting in Chicago.

Oneindia News (with PTI inputs)