Politics

Ohio will no longer allow any taxpayer dollars to be used to pay for the outsourcing of services after it was revealed that call center services for a federally funded appliance-rebate program had been outsourced to a location in El Salvador.

Overall, Ohio has lost nearly 300,000 manufacturing jobs since 1997, or 29 percent of the jobs in what is typically one of the higher paying sectors of the economy.

States struggling to balance their budgets and considering lay offs of public employees are expected to receive a measure of relief Tuesday as House lawmakers are expected to pass a state aid bill designed to save hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Republicans referred derisively to the measure as a “slush fund” and a “massive new entitlement program.”

Once the engine that drove the nation’s powerful economy, America’s manufacturing base has been drastically reduced through failed trade policies.