60 Days to Show President Obama Cares about American Business and U.S. Jobs

A Dollar Short and Three Years Too Late

I am writing this to share with as many Tea Party groups as possible. I wrote it fast because I am working two part-time jobs and writing at night just to pay my bills and I try not to dwell on the past. However, if more people don’t speak out and inform others of the waste and indifference in Washington, DC, there will be much worst things to dwell on.

After 22 years working at the U.S. State Department – seven of my last years in the State Department’s business office, the Department’s only office specifically designated to ensure strategic support of American companies seeking to export – I had to call it quits in August 2010. I couldn’t take the arrogance, endless entitlement and nonsense of working under Hillary Clinton and Obama cronies. I resigned and began writing satirical fiction making fun of the State Department (go to http://www.dawinsteadbooks.com.)

Needless to say, I never looked back when I resigned from the U.S. Government. The business office I worked in, by that time, was so badly marginalized, on one in that office was really doing anything to help American companies increase their exporter. The second reason is I know I could do better on my own. But I still have regular contact with others in the Department and just this week I was informed that leadership on the Clinton/Obama Seventh Floor leadership a few days ago instructed staff below to organize two to three business outreach programs…to boost President Obama’s record on support for U.S. exporters…and to do it within 60 days.

Here is my take on this. Now they want to make it look like they support American companies. Now they want to make it look like they’re doing everything possible to increase U.S. exports. Why? That answer is simple…the White House and the Department of State at day one placed support for U.S. exporters at the very bottom of their priority list. And how do they plan on doing it? Well that’s not so simple, since the problem within began that same day. It goes back to the so-called brokered deal that put Hillary Clinton and many of her campaign staff in charge of the State Department.

Explaining this is quite simple if allowed to use an example. My story goes back to the period immediately following the President’s signing Executive Order 13534 (National Export Initiative) on March 11, 2010. Designed to help meet the President’s goal of “doubling export by 2014 and support two million additional jobs in the United States,” the National Export Initiative, or what Washington bureaucrats called the NEI, was designed to marshal the full resources of the United States Government behind American companies that sell (American-made) good and services abroad. It was a good plan and one that called for the Department of State – with its global network of American ambassadors and economic/trade officers – to work in concert with other key U.S. Trade Agencies.

The State Department named Lorraine Hariton, a Clinton supporter, as the top manager to oversee State’s NEI efforts. She was and still is the Department’s Special Representative for Business (my direct boss) and she and her team, including myself, took the plan and ran with it. It felt great to see interest placed back on U.S. exports and supporting American companies, hoping to eventually increase jobs. The problem came about a month later when the Department of State’s Assistant Secretary Jose Fernandez, an Obama supporter and ranked over Hariton, pushed his way into the NEI. And soon after he dictated his participation in the next Principals meeting chaired by top NEI officials at the Commerce Department. I was the action officer tasked for preparing for his participation and I assumed Hariton would also be includes since she was in charge of State’s overall NEI efforts. But when Hariton and I arrived at A/S Fernandez’ front office to pre-brief and escort him to the Commerce Department, he informed Hariton she would not be going.

Overall, I have to say A/S Fernandez did quite well at the meeting and represented the State Department as well as anyone could have, but the shock came as we made our way back to the State Department, when he asked me if I thought Hariton was upset that she was cut out of the meeting. I said “probably not…she’s very busy and has a lot on her plate” and he replied and I quote: “Well she shouldn’t be upset. She would have just sat in the corner and looked pretty.”

I immediately informed three of my colleagues (to document the incident) and eventually informed Lorraine Hariton. I also told the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and to my shock, both of them thought it was funny. It was soon after when I realized my long and exemplary career at the State Department was coming to an end.

As we near elections in November, I want to share this story with as many people as possible, particularly in swing states. I think it is important information, new and show just how dysfunctional Washington is under Obama’s rule. It is clear to anyone working in the State Department that the two sides – Obama’s folks on one side and Hillary’s folks on the other – can barely stomach each other. But they have one thing in common – they both hate the private sector. I saw the downward spiral of support for business during early on and I fought it until the very end. Now when people ask me how our reputation around the world can be mended or ask how we can double exports by 2014, I can only say the President needs a lot more than 60 days to prove the State Department cares about American business under Hillary’s watch. I like to talk of the good days when the State Department led multi-billion dollar commercial advocacy programs and capped the win by having our own President tell potential international buyers why they should buy American. ‘We’re number one and our products are too.’ But those days are long gone and I know why. There are a growing number of people in Washington that don’t believer we are number one. They believe we should be number 20 or 30. Now all I want to do is get other taxpayers, the under- and unemployed, and those that just simply love America to get mad as hell at both…the White House and the U.S. Department of State. They’ve failed us miserably.