Gen. Clark explains his economic program:
So here’s what I will do. In the first place, I believe in ‘Buy American’- not only hardware, but software. Everything that’s associated with national security we will procure in the United States. (APPLAUSE) Our financial industry, our utility industries, virtually every aspect of American life is controlled in some way by information technology. And we simply can’t afford to have that developed abroad in other countries, because you can’t tell what’s in it. It works but you don’t know whether it’s got these so called trap doors and other things that could sabotage it at some point. So the essential stuff is, buy American hardware and software. We need to relook the H1-B visa. I’m all in favor of bringing people into this country, but only at fully competitive wage rates. (APPLAUSE) Not bringing people in to take jobs from Americans. (APPLAUSE continuing) And when they come here, I’d like them to stay and become American citizens… I met a man in Manchester the other day from India, he’s a graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology, he came here, started a software company, married an American woman, they’re running a serires of Nursing Homes – I congratulate him. It’s the American dream. It’s a success story. And we’re glad to have him. So we want ‘em to come but we want them to stay and be with us and put that creativity to work here and keep it in our economy.
And I will also remove all the business incentives that will let companies profit, taxwise or otherwise, from outsourcing jobs or moving their headquarters abroad. (APPLAUSE). We’re not gonna keep America safe and we’re not gonna make ourselves prosperous by walling off America from the outside world. But trade and markets exist to help people. They’re not gods… you don’t worship them… you dont let them go and do whatever they want. They have to be regulated, they have to be made fair, they have to be made transparent, people have to have information to participate in them. We’re going to ask every company that outsources jobs to report it so that as Americans we know which companies are preparing to outsource jobs, and we’re going to provide incentives for companies who want to keep jobs and expand jobs in America. We’re going to protect American employment (APPLAUSE). (Person asking question nods head).