President Barack Obama will present his “jobs plan” on Wednesday at a company which is shipping jobs overseas.
Obama is scheduled to present his “jobs 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 — creating many new jobs there, but not in the United States.
“Our 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. “This 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: “Our 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.”
Republicans can hardly believe the company the president chose to speak at is shipping jobs overseas. (RELATED: Obama works to keep North Carolina blue)
“Well the president is coming here to apparently tout how to create jobs in America, and the location he’s chosen has just apparently opened up a new manufacturing plant in Costa Rica,” North Carolina GOP spokesman Rob Lockwood told The Daily Caller. “So we are curious how a plant in Costa Rica creates American jobs.”
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. (RELATED: Obama aides give different forecasts for WH flexibility with jobs plan)
Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse did not respond to TheDC’s request for comment.
UPDATE 6:59 p.m.:
According to an April 2004 article in the Raleigh News & Observer, Portman moved the jobs overseas to “take advantage of low labor costs.”
This isn’t the first time Obama has chosen to speak at a North Carolina company outsourcing jobs overseas. In mid-June, Obama spoke at Cree LED Light Company to discuss his job creation and economic policies. Cree has been shipping jobs to China.
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