My money's on the President.
Posted on 09/06/2017 12:32:48 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
America’s business leaders are speaking out against President Trump’s move to end DACA.
The president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, took a notable stand. He said not only will his company lobby for a legislative solution but also that Microsoft is calling on Congress to make immigration the top priority, before tax reform. And he is calling on other business leaders to follow suit.
“There is nothing that we will be pushing on more strongly for Congress to act on,” Smith said in an interview with NPR. “We put a stake in the ground. We care about a tax reform bill. The entire business community cares about a tax reform. And yet it is very clear today a tax reform bill needs to be set aside until the DREAMers are taken care of. They have a deadline that expires in six months. Tax reform can wait.”
Smith also said if the government moves to deport DREAMers who are Microsoft employees, “it’s going to have to go through us to get that person.”
This is the second time in a week that Smith has spoken out. Last Thursday, Smith and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella both issued statements calling on the administration to preserve DACA. Nadella, a first-generation immigrant from India, struck a personal note: “I am a product of two uniquely American attributes: the ingenuity of American technology reaching me where I was growing up, fueling my dreams, and the enlightened immigration policy that allowed me to pursue my dreams.”
Meanwhile, in a letter to employees this morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook said more than 250 Apple workers are affected by the DACA repeal and that he has been hearing from them all weekend.
“I want to assure you that Apple will work with members of Congress from both parties to advocate for a legislative solution that provides permanent protections for all the Dreamers in our country,” Cook said.
Dozens of CEOs including Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Reed Hastings from Netflix, Randall Stephenson from AT&T and Tim Sloan of Wells Fargo wrote a letter addressed to the president asking him to preserve the program.
The leaders argued that all DACA recipients grew up in America and give back to the community and pay income taxes. They said: “More than 97 percent are in school or in the workforce, 5 percent started their own business, 65 percent have purchased a vehicle, and 16 percent have purchased their first home. At least 72 percent of the top 25 Fortune 500 companies count DACA recipients among their employees.”
In a public post, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said about Trump’s announcement: “This is a sad day for our country” and that he and his immigration advocacy vehicle at Fwd.US will be “doing even more in the weeks ahead to make sure Dreamers have the protections they deserve.”
Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google (an arm of Alphabet), did not make quite the same commitment on Twitter. But he took a moral stand, writing, “Dreamers are our neighbors, our friends and our co-workers. This is their home. Congress needs to act now to #DefendDACA. #WithDreamers.“
When President Trump was first elected, leaders in the tech industry were reluctant to criticize campaign pledges of his that went against their values and interests. They took a wait-and-see approach and grappled with how to be a successful multinational in an increasingly nationalistic world. Tuesday morning’s outpouring illustrates a clear shift in business leaders’ willingness to speak out against decisions by the administration.
Microsoft’s Smith says in the beginning of 2017, business leaders looked around and wondered how they would navigate this new unpredictable environment. They feared being attacked by the commander in chief on social media. Now, Smith says, “I don’t think people get up in the morning worrying about tweets. We have much bigger problems to worry about than that.”
Haven’t we been warned about the evils of corporate influence on politics? After all corporations aren’t people and shouldn’t have free speech rights, right?
Trump should call him later today and say “challenge accepted.”
Yeah. It’s called ANTIFA.
Go ahead get them to act on this before Health Care and tax reform
Might as well round up some pink pussy hatted post-menopausal old ladies. Antifa? Hahahahaha! Millennials who live in Mom’s basement playing X-Box and Magic: The Gathering while eating Cheetos and drinking Mountain Dew? Any random bikers or veterans would send them running in minutes.
If you look at the poker game being assembled...the GOP players have to sit and prioritize...do they play the DREAMer hand, or do they play the taxation reform hand?
The bulk of GOP/independent voters want tax reform to occur. Obviously, the McCain and McConnell crowd are stuck. If they don’t accomplish either of these two things (very likely), then all heck breaks out in November 2018. The voters from both groups will disrespect the party elites and some whole new crew arrives after November of 2018...my humble opinion.
Much ado.
I’d tell these assholes they are condoning illegal behavior. They have hired illegal aliens brought to them by aa prior administration based on an executive order, not through authorized immigration laws and processes.
What does M$ produce of value these days?
No problem. Surtax each H1B worker the difference between their pay and what an American worker would earn.
“Do ya feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya?”
(old line from “Dirty Harry”. Microsoft is asking for it—a nice antitrust suit or two ought to do the trick.)
“We care about a tax reform bill” That benefits them. Meanwhile the need supper cheap labor. Screw every one else.
I agree with you on corporations not having the sway that they do. However the corporate entity, having been created by lawyers & politicians for the larger business community in general. Are here in the world, and run to much of our lives. The whole concept of corporations has been bugging me for years, they consolidate massive sections of the economy. Then pay the politicians to pass laws that shut down their smaller competitors through ridiculous regulations that their smaller competitors can’t afford. The mom and pops & many mid sized companies....
Ranting a bit..... My apologies.
How about surtaxing the corporations that hire them—with a 10,000 percent penalty.
This is ridiculously easy to fix—if the politicians actually want to fix it after they finish counting the money in their Silicon Valley bribery offshore accounts.
Antitrust.
>Haven’t we been warned about the evils of corporate influence on politics? After all corporations aren’t people and shouldn’t have free speech rights, right?
The left has come full circle and decided to try 3ed way socialism/corporate socialism that failed in Fascist Spain, Fascist Italy, and Nazi Germany.
So MS has decided to put foreigners needs above and before American citizens in America.
Got it. Will remember it. Really! Glad I gave up MS products early this year. It has nothing I need.
The decision to ‘end’ DACA six months down the road invites the Uniparty politicians and the Corporatist elites that fund them to legislate its continuation in the face of the POTUS.
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