Posted on 02/04/2006 4:38:34 AM PST by Tyche
Making a strong pitch for America to stay competitive in the face of emerging economies such as India and China, President George W Bush has urged the Congress to raise the number of H-1B visas that allow companies to hire foreign workers for scientific and high tech jobs.
"Congress needs to understand that nations like India, China, Japan, Korea and Canada all offer tax incentives that are permanent. In other words, we live in a competitive world. We want to be the leader in this world," Bush said in a speech in Minnesota on Thursday.
To fill vacant jobs in the US, Bush urged the Congress to lift current limit on H-1B visas that allow foreign workers to get jobs in the United States. The Congress in 2005 capped at 65,000 the number of H-1B visas, a third of the 195,000 allowed during the technology boom.
"I think it's a mistake not to encourage more really bright folks who can fill the jobs that are having trouble being filled here in America, to limit their number. So I call upon Congress to be realistic and reasonable and raise that cap," Bush said, but did not say by how much he wanted the limit lifted.
He said that one part of the agenda to stay competitive was to study math and science, a theme he touched on in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday.
"It's one thing to research, but if you don't have somebody in that lab, well And so I got some ideas for the Congress to consider. The first is to emphasize math and science early, and to make sure that the courses are rigorous enough that our children can compete globally," Bush said in a speech at the 3M Corporation.
He said there are more high-tech jobs in America today than people available to fill them. "So what do we do about that? And the reason it's important -- and the American citizen has got to understand it's important -- is if we don't do something about how to fill those high-tech jobs here, they'll go somewhere else where somebody can do the job."
"There are some who say, we can't worry about competition. It doesn't matter, it's here. It's a real aspect of the world in which we live," he said.
"And so one way to deal with this problem, and probably the most effective way, is to recognize that there's a lot of bright engineers and chemists and physicists from other lands that are either educated here, or received an education elsewhere but want to work here. And they come here under a programme called H1B visas," Bush said.
He said America should not fear competition. "It's important for us not to lose our confidence in changing times. It's important for us not to fear competition but welcome it."
Senior administration officials noted that the number of H-1B visas has fallen to 65,000 which in their estimation was 'too low' and that it was imperative 'to bump that up.'
". . . some of reports have called for increases of 10,000; others between 20,000 and 40,000. So there is a number of options on the table to be considered. But we'll work with Congress on that," said Claude Allen, assistant to the President for domestic policy.
Can I have some of your tinfoil? I fear an NWO attack is imminent.
I notice the response you seem to be getting from the "Laissez Faire" types here, that are willing to sell the World the rope to lynch us with...
I am soliciting it now.
It would entail an educated conversation, more than the mudslinging going on here.
I am throwing down the challenge for an educated debate rather than this partisan mudslinging with you on one end of the spectrum and others on the other...with each other talking past one another.
I throw the challenge to you.
I'd stick around for your reply but I'm out the door to the gun show.
I hope you are young and have to suffer with it.
I'm 68 and have seen this coming for 40 years and the only reason it hasn't totally occured is conservatives have been fighting it tooth and nail for as long as I can remember. Thankfully, I won't have to live that many years with it.
Enjoy yourself future slave.
Direct quotes. Guilty as charged. You can admit it and apologize, or be an ass.
It appears that JasonC fears the debate that may well end his BS.
I have a right to tell you how to spend your money? Sign me up.
I pinged.
I did it in response to your posts here and your mannerisms here.
The thread is there waiting for you.
Its going to take some reading-and some thinking-if you are up for it.
Hmm....really?
Maybe a little more depth is needed in your understanding of economics...
Sociologist Lisa Catanzarite looked at many different occupations across 38 major metropolitan areas. She found that the higher the percentage of "recent immigrant Latino men" [RILM] in each local job, the lower the wages paid to citizens and established immigrants.
She writes:
"The pay penalty in occupation-MAs [Metropolitan Areas] with 25% RILM [recent immigrant Latino men] amounts to $2,369 per year; at 15% RILM, the penalty is $1,421, and at 5% RILM, $474. These are substantial wage discounts, given that annual earnings average $21,590. In other words, in occupations with 25% RILM, workers earn only 89% as much as workers in comparable fields without RILM."
In other words: all else being equal, if the makeup of your occupation's local labor pool changes from 0% new immigrant to 25%, your income shrinks 11%. (source...http://www.ncpa.org/iss/imm/2003/pd081903c.html and http://www.chicano.ucla.edu/)
And that only accounts for the unskilled Labor market...the % difference is GREATER in the "Skilled" Labor segment. And don't deny it, because the demands for H-1B's PROVES it's more profitable for Companies to follow this business model that GUTS the American Middle Class!
You sound like a cheap cloth salesman..."never mind the quality...feel the width!"
So stuff your cheap Karl Marx allusions...free markets economies are not free if the PLAYING FIELD is not level, and the game is rigged!
Really? then what was Post 270? I didn't ping you...
My mistake.
Did I say JasonC said there are no nations? Or did I say "free traders"?
The ones ususally picking the fights are free traders with their inflammatory rhetoric. The US didn't become the greatest country in the world by being a bunch of lazy idiots, which WilliamofCarmichael pointed out very well in post 262 and you didn't respond to. It's one thing for corporations to harp they need more cheap labor but when the president does it that's a different story. It reminds me of the malaise speech in 1979.
Thanks B4! ;^)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.