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Bush urges US Congress to lift H-1B visa limit
PTI ^ | February 03, 2006 | Sridhar Krishnaswami

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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bush; china; h1b; india; screwthepoochgeorge; visa
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To: dalereed
Bush knows we can't have a One World socialist government until the US standard of living is lowered to the rest of the world.

Can I have some of your tinfoil? I fear an NWO attack is imminent.

281 posted on 02/04/2006 9:07:48 AM PST by logician2u
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To: WilliamofCarmichael
Well said!

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...


282 posted on 02/04/2006 9:07:50 AM PST by Itzlzha ("The avalanche has already started...it is too late for the pebbles to vote")
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To: JasonC
Its not unsolicited.

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.

283 posted on 02/04/2006 9:09:45 AM PST by maui_hawaii
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To: JasonC

I'd stick around for your reply but I'm out the door to the gun show.


284 posted on 02/04/2006 9:09:59 AM PST by B4Ranch (No expiration date is on the Oath to protect America from all enemies, foreign and domestic.)
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To: JasonC
Pure slander

What slander? You talk about workers. You don't talk about citizens.
285 posted on 02/04/2006 9:12:52 AM PST by hedgetrimmer ("I'm a millionaire thanks to the WTO and "free trade" system--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: logician2u

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.


286 posted on 02/04/2006 9:13:33 AM PST by dalereed
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To: GregoryFul
That long ago - right before a particularly strong bout of Carter inflation incidentally - the average hourly wage was under $5. Broad CPI and average wages are up about the same amount since then. Disposable income is up twice as much - 7.26 times - because of more people working (a lot more 2 earner families e.g) - and higher income from things besides wages (interest, rents, dividends, etc). Individually you may not have kept pace with inflation at its strongest, 1970s levels. That can and does happen. But on average we are all vastly better off than we were in the 1970s - when a TRS-80 was newly fangled, only a few percent of the population had ever been on an airplane, there was no cable let alone internet, etc. Not to mention the horror of the clothes, and oh god the hairstyles...
287 posted on 02/04/2006 9:15:02 AM PST by JasonC
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To: hedgetrimmer
Slander - "There are no nations"
Slander - "There is no love for an archaic old piece of paper called the US Constitution"
Slander - "no obligation to perpetuate the American way.

Direct quotes. Guilty as charged. You can admit it and apologize, or be an ass.

288 posted on 02/04/2006 9:17:07 AM PST by JasonC
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To: All; JasonC

It appears that JasonC fears the debate that may well end his BS.


289 posted on 02/04/2006 9:18:13 AM PST by maui_hawaii
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To: maui_hawaii
Debate about what? You are picking a fight, not raising a subject. Why would I want to debate you about nothing?
290 posted on 02/04/2006 9:18:14 AM PST by JasonC
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To: B4Ranch
Net worth is growing not shrinking. Yes debt is growing too, but net worth is what you get after you back that out ("net"). US "savings" consists primarily in stock and house appreciation.
291 posted on 02/04/2006 9:19:49 AM PST by JasonC
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To: hedgetrimmer
Citizens have rights. Remittances are foreign aid. Citizens rights to representation in this matter have been abrogated.

I have a right to tell you how to spend your money? Sign me up.

292 posted on 02/04/2006 9:20:39 AM PST by 1rudeboy
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To: JasonC
Its there. I called you to it.

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.

293 posted on 02/04/2006 9:21:13 AM PST by maui_hawaii
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To: JasonC
The salary they artificially created to cut their margins is up 64% in the last 16 years.

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!

294 posted on 02/04/2006 9:21:47 AM PST by Itzlzha ("The avalanche has already started...it is too late for the pebbles to vote")
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To: JasonC; maui_hawaii
And I don't do unsolicited pings, incidentally.

Really? then what was Post 270? I didn't ping you...

295 posted on 02/04/2006 9:23:04 AM PST by Itzlzha ("The avalanche has already started...it is too late for the pebbles to vote")
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To: JasonC; maui_hawaii
Ooops...I meant 275. You were responding to my 270.

My mistake.

296 posted on 02/04/2006 9:24:45 AM PST by Itzlzha ("The avalanche has already started...it is too late for the pebbles to vote")
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To: JasonC

Did I say JasonC said there are no nations? Or did I say "free traders"?


297 posted on 02/04/2006 9:24:55 AM PST by hedgetrimmer ("I'm a millionaire thanks to the WTO and "free trade" system--Hu Jintao top 10 worst dictators)
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To: JasonC; WilliamofCarmichael
You are picking a fight, not raising a subject.

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.

298 posted on 02/04/2006 9:25:06 AM PST by Reaganwuzthebest
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To: B4Ranch

Thanks B4! ;^)


299 posted on 02/04/2006 9:25:39 AM PST by Itzlzha ("The avalanche has already started...it is too late for the pebbles to vote")
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To: maui_hawaii
What subject? Why is this a hard question? I just want to know what you think we have to talk about, because frankly I have (1) no idea who you are or (2) what your opinions are on any of this or (3) what you think of mine or (4) why I should care.
300 posted on 02/04/2006 9:26:07 AM PST by JasonC
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