Hard work is a Missouri value.
I learned that early on, hearing about how my dad and my grandfather worked hard every day to provide for us at the Missouri business they started, the McCaskill & Son feed mill in Houston.
But we’re a far cry from the days when my dad put in a hard day’s work at the mill to provide for his family, hiring employees from Texas County whenever there was a job opening.
In today’s global economy, businesses face an increasingly complex web of decisions when it comes to their employees, profits and the bottom line. To make the situation worse, our tax code actually rewards companies that move jobs overseas, costing taxpayers in lost revenue and our communities in lost jobs.
If we all share the goal of expanding job opportunities here at home, then at the very least, we shouldn’t be rewarding companies that send American jobs offshore. We should be focused on boosting job creation in Missouri and across the country by encouraging the companies bringing jobs home and incentivizing others looking to do the same.
One way to help ensure we’re doing that is with the Bring Jobs Home Act, which would offer a 20 percent tax credit for the moving expenses of companies that shift operations back to the United States from overseas. It would prevent companies from claiming a tax cut on costs associated with shipping jobs overseas, a practice that right now puts American taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars annually.
One of the Missouri industries that’s steadily lost jobs over the last decade, some which were offshored, are our call centers — which employ more than 83,000 men and women in our state. That’s why I’ve called on President Donald Trump’s administration to take executive action to stop government contractors from using offshore call centers.
The offshoring of American jobs is exactly what Trump campaigned against, and I’m eager to work with him to make good on that promise to workers across our state.
I also hope he’ll join my colleagues and I in backing the United States Call Center Worker and Consumer Protection Act, which requires a publicly available list of all employers that relocate a call center overseas, and makes those companies ineligible for federal grants or guaranteed loans.
The best way to strengthen our economy is to support good-paying jobs here at home, and we should be doing everything in our power to boost the businesses working to make that happen.
That Missouri value is one I’ll never stop fighting for.
U.S. Sen. Claire McCaskill is the top-ranking Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee. She can be contacted through McCaskill.Senate.gov/contact.
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