"Innovation" Shilling at Stanford
"Innovation" Shilling at Stanford
Date: Tuesday, November 14, 2006 2:58 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1588 -- 11/14/2006 >>>>>
When most people hear the words Mafia, and Apalachin, they probably
remember names like Joseph Barbara, Joseph Bonanno, and Vito Genovese. That
infamous meeting of the Mafia dons took place on November 14, 1957. We
don't hear much about the Mafia nowadays but one thing that hasn't changed
is that there are still conventions for organized crime figures. At Staford
University, for instance, on November 15, 2006, we will from Bill Gates,
Charlie Giancarlo, and Scott McNealy,
This meeting is called the "2006 TechNet Innovation Summit Agenda". The
"Innovation" buzzword was adopted by the Democrats as a code word for the
Skil Bill and for their wish to give high-tech companies huge tax breaks
and subsidies. Sounds sort of like the Republicans, huh?
Count on seeing the word "innovation" in thousands of news articles that
will be printed to support the Democrats' effort to pass the Skil Bill.
Pelosi said she and her colleagues gleaned ideas for their agenda
from recent trips across the country to meet with academics,
venture capitalists and entrepreneurs from the high-tech, biotech
and telecommunications realms.
Bill Gates' subject is titled "The Global Knowledge Economy: Keeping our
Competitive Edge", and of course in his opinion the only way to be
competitive is to outsource every job they can to China and India, and to
use H-1Bs for every job they can't outsource.
Technet will use this meeting to kick off the campaign to raise the H-1B
limit by passing the Skil Bill. The media PR campaign has already begun. A
few articles are included below, and many more will be coming in the next
several days. Expect a full press blitzkrieg!
I cannot comment on each and every claim they make because there are just
too many, but here are a few that are worthy of closer scrutiny.
Bill Gates is continuing his quest for more H-1Bs.
As for the H-1B visa issue and calls for more federal funding for
basic research, look for Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to urge
legislative action when he speaks at the TechNet Innovation Summit
at Stanford University on Wednesday.
Republicans and Democrats agree on one thing -- the U.S. needs far more
H-1B visas. Nancy Pelosi has her "innovation agenda" while President Bush
has his "competitiveness initiative."
As for the H-1B visa issue and the research funding proposals,
these could be considered a bipartisanship litmus test. Incoming
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has an "innovation agenda."
President Bush's last State of the Union address talked about a
"competitiveness initiative." All high-tech wants is for them to
get along.
It would be easy to miss why Pelosi is cuddling up with the corporocrats if
the LA Times article wasn't read very closely. I cut out a few paragraphs
to make it easier to understand. As usual, it's the color of money that is
most important, and Pelosi is thinking very green!
So why is Silicon Valley's massive industry so hopeful about the
liberal Democrat's likely tenure as speaker of the House?
But a high-tech lobbyist, who requested anonymity for fear of
alienating Pelosi, said she'd been less interested in the
industry's issues than its influence.
"Whether it's cash or cachet, she gravitates to the people who can
have impact on the majority," the lobbyist said. "But she has
every opportunity now that she has the gavel to show that she's
an innovation leader."
Companies are in a frenzy alright. To see their letter to Congress go to
article #5.
Which explains the frenzy of press events designed to coincide
with a lame-duck Congress. On Monday, more than 200 companies,
universities and organizations circulated a letter supporting
further action on a Senate proposal to boost the quota for
H1-B visas, which proponents argue are necessary to fill gaps
in their operations where qualified Americans aren't available.
Now we have a name for the strategy of sneaking the Skil Bill into the
omnibus spending appropriations bill which will be coming up before the
Republicans leave --- it's called the "Christmas Tree Bill". It's now a
question of who gets bragging rights to increasing H-1B -- the Democrats of
the 110th Congress, or the Republicans of the lame duck 109th.
There's always the possibility that politicians could sneak
seemingly unrelated provisions into those appropriations
bills. The practice has become so widespread that it even
has an official name: a "Christmas tree bill."
I have a solution to the problem described below. Instead of taxpayers
subsidizing the college education of foreign students, let's boot every one
of those students who don't pay their full share of the costs out of the
country, and give scholarships to Americans who need financial aid to get
educations.
Currently, we train the world's top foreign scientists at
taxpayers' expense at our universities and then send them
back to their countries to compete against us.
Only an economist could say something this dumb on H-1B and minimum wages.
The sad thing is that Ms. Furchtgott-Roth was chief economist at the U.S.
Department of Labor. She thinks doubling the number of H-1B visas is
costless. She is probably right from the DOL point of view, but doesn't
rubber stamping cost something? What about the cost of our careers?
High-skill workers can enter America through employer-requested
H-1B visas. There's an annual allocation of 65,000 of these
visas, and they're so popular that they are all exhausted the
first days they are available. Doubling the number of H-1B
visas would be costless and would result in an infusion of
extraordinary talent.
Increasing the minimum wage to $7.25 would reduce workforce
flexibility by pricing low-skilled workers out of the job market
and onto the unemployment rolls.
According to this writer scientists and engineers are retiring too fast.
That may be true, since so many of them are forced into retirement as they
are replaced with H-1Bs.
That's something that is going to have to happen because we're
coming up with shortages in our labor force in critical skill
areas, like science and engineering and technology. There are
a lot of American scientists retiring in the next few years and
we're not educating enough people in science and math. So those
positions are going to have to be filled by foreigners," said
Mark Knold, senior economist with the Utah Department of
Workforce Services.
I decided to include an article from Mark Krikorian which seems to be more
optimistic about the difficulty the Democrats are going to have pushing for
open borders. Krikorian is probably right when it comes to amnesty but pay
close attention to what he said about H-1B. He didn't downplay the
possibility of an increase, but did make it clear that increasing H-1B is
nothing to worry about compared to comprehensive immigration reform.
Although I totally disagree with Krikorian's way of thinking on H-1B we
must all understand that his views are very typical among most immigration
reformists. Their priority is to stop amnesty, not H-1B!
Sure, its likely that theyll try to move piecemeal amnesties
like the DREAM Act (HR 5131 in the current Congress), or
increase H-1B visas (the indentured-servitude program for low-wage
Indian computer programmers). They might also push the AgJobs bill,
which is a sizable amnesty limited to illegal-alien farmworkers.
None of these measures is a good idea, and Republicans might still
be able to delay or kill them, but they arent the "comprehensive"
disaster the president and the Democrats really want.
Articles Included
Article #1
http://www.technet.org/members/innovationsummit2006/agenda/
2006 TechNet Innovation Summit Agenda
Article #2
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/12/MNGV9MB48V1.DTL&type=politics
ELECTION AFTERMATH AMERICA: WHATS AT STAKE TECHNOLOGY
Article #3
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pelosi13nov13,1,6219013.story?coll=la-headlines-business
Pelosi likely to speak up for tech industry
Article #4
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2006/november8/tech-110806.html
Gates, Yang, other business leaders to discuss global competitiveness at
summit
Article #5
http://www.competeamerica.org/hill/letter_congress/index.html
Dear Member of Congress:
Article #6
http://news.com.com/Tech+asks+departing+Republicans+for+favors/2100-1028_3-6135187.html?tag=sas.email
Tech asks departing Republicans for favors
Article #7
http://news.com.com/Democrats+unveil+innovation+agenda/2100-1034_3-5953520.html
Democrats unveil 'innovation agenda'
Article #8
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-11-13T153843Z_01_WAT006565_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-FED-FISHER-URGENT.XML
Fed's Fisher - some skilled workers hard to find
Article #9
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=43318
Keeping America Competitive
Article #10
http://www.heraldextra.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=199967&Itemid=0
Utah companies eye Democrats' business agenda
Article #11
http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/10/magazines/business2/election_tech.biz2/?postversion=2006111017
Hungry for H-1Bs
Article #12
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjM1YmEwZmNiMDBiOGIwOTQ3NDc3N2Q4MWEwMDViM2Q=
"Interesting Opportunities"
Are amnesty and open borders in our future?
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.technet.org/members/innovationsummit2006/agenda/
2006 TechNet Innovation Summit Agenda
Wednesday, November 15th
TechNet Innovation Summit and Town Hall
Memorial Hall, Stanford University
8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Welcome and Introduction
Lezlee Westine, President and CEO, TechNet
Opening Remarks
John Hennessy, President, Stanford University
What's Next: The New Innovation Era
Jerry Yang, Founder and Chief Yahoo, Yahoo! Inc.; Reed Hastings, Founder,
Chairman and CEO, Netflix; Brian Halla, Chairman and CEO, National
Semiconductor; and Charlie Giancarlo, Senior Vice President and Chief
Development Officer, Cisco Systems, Inc.; President, Cisco-Linksys LLC
Moderated by Charlie Rose followed by Q&A
Going Green...Solutions for the Future
John Doerr, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Scott McNealy,
Chairman, Sun Microsystems; and KR Sridhar, Co-Founder and CEO, Bloom
Energy
Moderated by Charlie Rose followed by Q&A
The Global Knowledge Economy: Keeping our Competitive Edge
Discussion with Bill Gates, Chairman, Microsoft
Moderated by Charlie Rose followed by Q&A
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/12/MNGV9MB48V1.DTL&type=politics
ELECTION AFTERMATH
AMERICA: WHATS AT STAKE
TECHNOLOGY
- Tom Abate
Sunday, November 12, 2006
What's at stake: Reauthorization of the expired research and development
tax credit; restoration of "network neutrality" on the Internet; and
proposals to boost what Republicans call "competitiveness" and Democrats
have styled "innovation," including changes to the controversial H-1B visa
program.
What could happen: An industrial who's-who led by the National Association
of Manufacturers will hold a news conference Tuesday on Capitol Hill to
urge passage of the R&D tax credit during the lame duck session. Virtually
every industry, not just high-tech, supports this measure. It's popular
with both parties. High-tech and other business leaders will pull out the
stops for this.
Network neutrality is the slogan under which Internet companies and
activists have tried to get Congress to restrict telephone and cable
companies from charging content providers such as Google or Yahoo different
rates for delivering information to home consumers. Any action on this
front will likely wait until the next Congress, when Rep. John Dingell
(D-Mich.), friendly to network neutrality proponents, is expected to take
over the House Commerce Committee from a Republican predecessor who favored
phone and cable company arguments that they needed differential pricing to
recoup their costs in beefing up the Internet wires to the home.
As for the H-1B visa issue and calls for more federal funding for basic
research, look for Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates to urge legislative action
when he speaks at the TechNet Innovation Summit at Stanford University on
Wednesday.
Bottom line: There's no partisan roadblock to passing the R&D tax credit in
the lame duck session -- if there's time. While the Democratic victory is a
boon for proponents of net neutrality, that issue is far too complex to
predict. As for the H-1B visa issue and the research funding proposals,
these could be considered a bipartisanship litmus test. Incoming Speaker of
the House Nancy Pelosi has an "innovation agenda." President Bush's last
State of the Union address talked about a "competitiveness initiative." All
high-tech wants is for them to get along.
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-pelosi13nov13,1,6219013.story?coll=la-headlines-business
Pelosi likely to speak up for tech industry
The San Franciscan backs public investment in innovation, but trade rules
are another matter.
By Jim Puzzanghera
Times Staff Writer
November 13, 2006
WASHINGTON Although her San Francisco district sits on the outskirts of
the country's technology capital, Rep. Nancy Pelosi has never been
considered a high-tech champion or, for that matter, very friendly to
business.
So why is Silicon Valley's massive industry so hopeful about the liberal
Democrat's likely tenure as speaker of the House?
Tech's enthusiasm started in the fall of last year, when Pelosi reached out
to Cisco Systems Inc. Chief Executive John Chambers and others to develop a
wide-ranging "innovation agenda" that included calls for more federal
funding for research and education. Then Pelosi and her fellow Democrats
took the plan on the campaign trail, trumpeting it to raise money, show
their governing vision and counter charges that the party was
anti-business.
"I'm ecstatic for the tech industry," said Josh Ackil, vice president of
government relations for the Information Technology Industry Council, a
leading trade group. "I think she strongly believes that she can show
business that she can get things done."
Pelosi, the House minority leader, continues to press her innovation agenda
and raised it in a meeting with President Bush on Thursday. Because it has
wide bipartisan support -- Bush rolled out a similar plan in January --
Democrats and tech lobbyists hope to pass it in early 2007.
High-tech innovation is an area where Democrats and Bush have common ground
and the plan was crafted to reach consensus, said Pelosi spokeswoman
Jennifer Crider.
Still, it didn't make it through Congress in this session because of
election-year political maneuvering, observers say. Even the widely popular
research and development tax credit was allowed to expire, angering many in
the tech industry.
House Republicans' failure to make the issue a priority created an opening
for Pelosi, who has had an up-and-down relationship with the tech industry.
She led the charge against trade agreements with China and Central America,
top priorities of export-dependent tech companies. Through 2004, Pelosi had
a 63% lifetime rating on industry issues, according to the Information
Technology Industry Council. But Silicon Valley's proximity to her district
and the money that flows there made it hard to ignore.
In 2000, Pelosi encouraged House Democrats to stop in Silicon Valley on
their way to the Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles, hosting
about 40 of them and a group of tech executives at San Jose's Tech Museum
of Innovation. Pelosi backed the Valley's push to change new stock option
accounting rules and this year lent her support to "network neutrality"
regulations for Internet traffic backed by Google Inc., Yahoo Inc. and
other leading tech companies.
"She's lived in California all her adult life and she has seen what
happened in Silicon Valley," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose). "She
understands how that innovation and entrepreneurship created tremendous
opportunity and success."
But a high-tech lobbyist, who requested anonymity for fear of alienating
Pelosi, said she'd been less interested in the industry's issues than its
influence.
"Whether it's cash or cachet, she gravitates to the people who can have
impact on the majority," the lobbyist said. "But she has every opportunity
now that she has the gavel to show that she's an innovation leader."
After seeing reports bemoaning America's struggles to remain the world's
technology leader, Rep. Anna G. Eshoo (D-Atherton) suggested to Pelosi last
spring that House Democrats take the issue on. She jumped on the idea,
Eshoo said.
Within months, Pelosi had organized a private meeting at Stanford
University with some key House Democrats and top technology figures,
including longtime Silicon Valley venture capitalist John Doerr, Genentech
Inc. Chief Executive Arthur Levinson and Chambers, a Republican and strong
supporter of President Bush.
"It acted as a tutorial," said William T. Archey, president of the tech
trade group AeA, who attended the meeting. "At the same time she became
very supportive."
Similar sessions followed in Boston, Raleigh, N.C., and other tech hubs
before Pelosi unveiled the innovation agenda last November.
It called for doubling funding for the National Science Foundation and for
broadband Internet access over five years, producing 100,000 scientists,
engineers and mathematicians over four years and permanently extending and
expanding the research and development tax credit.
"There will be those who say we can't afford to make these investments--.
Democrats believe we can't afford not to make them," Pelosi said in
unveiling the plan last November. The plan had no price tag, but Bush's
similar American Competitiveness Initiative would cost $136 billion over 10
years.
Eshoo said Pelosi was deeply involved in the creation of the Democratic
plan and made it a top priority. "This isn't something that was simply
printed for a campaign brochure," she said.
But the 12-page plan, printed on glossy paper, became a centerpiece of the
Democrats' campaign. Pelosi continued to tout it this year, criticizing
House Republicans for failing to turn apparent bipartisan support into
action.
The plan also helped lure high-tech money to House Democrats as they
appeared poised to take control of the chamber. Computer, software and
Internet companies and their employees gave the Democratic Congressional
Campaign Committee $1.3 million in the 2006 election cycle, a 50%-plus
increase over 2004, the Center for Responsive Politics said.
And some tech companies increased their donations to Pelosi. Microsoft's
political action committee gave her $10,000 in this election cycle,
compared to $6,000 in 2004; Cisco's PAC gave Pelosi $3,500, up from $2,000,
according to PoliticalMoneyLine. Pelosi's PAC increased its contributions
from the communications and technology industries from $54,720 in 2004 to
$86,500 in 2006.
The Democrats' tech agenda doesn't deal with trade, a volatile issue that
tends to divide the party and could cause discord with the tech industry.
But industry lobbyists said Pelosi will gain a lot of credit if she can
push her innovation package into law.
"The feedback I've had from a lot of tech folks, many of whom aren't even
Democrats, is they think we're finally going to make progress on some of
these things," Lofgren said.
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2006/november8/tech-110806.html
Gates, Yang, other business leaders to discuss global competitiveness at
summit
Microsoft's Bill Gates, Sun Microsystems' Scott McNealy, Netflix's Reed
Hastings, Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers' John Doerr
and National Semiconductor's Brian Halla are coming to Stanford to discuss
the state of technology innovation and public policies needed to sustain
America's competitiveness in the global economy. Their discussion, Nov. 15
in Memorial Auditorium at the third annual TechNet Innovation Summit, will
be moderated by journalist Charlie Rose and videotaped for broadcast on The
Charlie Rose Show at a later date.
The event is co-hosted by Stanford and TechNet, a bipartisan political
network of CEOs that promotes technology industries and the economy. The
event is free and open to the Stanford community, but tickets are required.
One ticket is available per Stanford ID. Tickets can be obtained starting
today from the Stanford Ticket Office (open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
and Saturday from noon to 4 p.m.) and Nov. 13 and 14 from 11:30 a.m. to
1:30 p.m. in White Plaza.
Doors open at 7:45 a.m. and close at 8:30 a.m. for taping of the program,
which kicks off with remarks from Stanford President John Hennessy and
TechNet CEO Lezlee Westine. The ensuing discussions are "The Bright Future
for the Internet" with Halla, Hastings and Yang; "Green Tech: Solutions for
America's Future" with Doerr and McNealy; and "The Global Knowledge
Economy: Keeping our Competitive Edge" with Gates. The event concludes
around 1 p.m.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.competeamerica.org/hill/letter_congress/index.html
November 13, 2006
Dear Member of Congress:
As the 109th Congress approaches adjournment, we urge you to complete
action on an issue of critical importance to U.S. competitiveness -
remedies for the outdated and counterproductive H-1B visa and
employment-based (EB) green card programs.
U.S. employers are unable to hire any additional highly educated H-1B visa
workers until October 2007 - even if these sought after individuals may
have received advanced degrees from U.S. universities. Moreover, EB green
card processing backlogs continue to force tens of thousands of valued
employees - including scientists, teachers, engineers and medical
professionals - into legal and professional limbo for years. The need for
action in 2006 is urgent.
The undersigned organizations urgently request your support to ensure that
U.S. businesses and universities have continued access to necessary talent,
and for the U.S. to remain the world's innovation leader. We urge Congress
to pass the provisions that would relieve the drastic H-1B and EB green
card problems before adjournment.
To remain competitive in the future and to help keep jobs here in the
United States, U.S. employers must be able to recruit and retain highly
educated workers, many of whom have been educated and trained at our own
universities. Never before has our country been in such a fierce worldwide
competition for top talent. Our competitors have stepped up efforts to
attract these workers, while the current U.S. visa system prevents U.S.
businesses, universities, medical institutions and research centers from
doing the same.
Thank you in advance for your support of this critical issue. If we are
serious about remaining the world's innovation leader, we must fix our
broken employment-based visa system, and we urgently request your support
for reform this year.
To learn more about the U.S. competitiveness crisis, please visit
www.competeamerica.org.
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.com.com/Tech+asks+departing+Republicans+for+favors/2100-1028_3-6135187.html?tag=sas.email
Tech asks departing Republicans for favors
By Anne Broache
http://news.com.com/Tech+asks+departing+Republicans+for+favors/2100-1028_3-6
135187.html
Story last modified Tue Nov 14 11:34:22 PST 2006
As Republican politicians return this week to Washington for the waning
days of their rule of Capitol Hill, technology lobbyists are frantically
pressing for last-minute legislation before Democrats take over next year.
At issue are proposals including renewing a popular tax credit for research
and development expenses and expanding the number of H1-B visas, which are
temporary visas designed for skilled foreign workers. Many spending bills
to fund the federal government through the next year have yet to be
considered, and the final versions could include antipiracy measures and
Web censorship requirements.
The R&D tax credit expired on the last day of 2005, a phenomenon that is
"leaving big and small companies in the lurch," said Phil Bond, president
of the Information Technology Association of America. Bond hopes that
Congress will extend the tax benefit in an appropriations bill before
politicians leave town for the holidays.
Some of the proposals like the R&D tax credit and H1-B visas are, at least
in theory, supported by both major political parties. But Washington
representatives of tech companies fret about additional delays--and the
incoming Democratic leaders have stressed that they will be occupied with
other topics like the Iraq war and increasing the minimum wage after they
assume control.
Which explains the frenzy of press events designed to coincide with a
lame-duck Congress. On Monday, more than 200 companies, universities and
organizations circulated a letter supporting further action on a Senate
proposal to boost the quota for H1-B visas, which proponents argue are
necessary to fill gaps in their operations where qualified Americans aren't
available. They said the need for action sooner than later is especially
urgent because U.S. companies exceeded the H-1B quota for the next fiscal
year scarcely two months after the application window opened.
On Tuesday, executives of the Information Technology Industry Association,
American Electronics Association, Electronic Industries Alliance, TechNet
and ITAA are scheduled to hold a press conference urging Congress to make
the R&D tax credit a permanent legislative fixture.
If history is any indication, congressional lame-duck sessions can result
in an impasse, particularly when power shifts are imminent. Politicians
from the incoming majority party have a strong incentive to block
legislation they don't care for, and political disputes often flare up. If
spending bills are unfinished, that leaves the fallback approach: passing a
"continuing resolution," which keeps the federal government operating for a
few more weeks and postpones debate until the new Congress convenes in
January.
For instance, after the 1994 elections, when Republicans gained their first
House majority in 40 years and also took control of the Senate, the
lame-duck session lasted only four days and involved passage of just one
bill, which was related to tariffs and trade, according to a 2003
Congressional Research Service report (click for PDF). In 1954, when
Democrats took control of the House, the chamber didn't even reconvene
after adjourning at the end of August.
Another open question is how long the current lame-duck Congress will stay
in town before adjourning permanently. Congress has passed only two of its
13 spending bills for the next fiscal year. The Republican leadership's
priorities will lie in approving as many of the remaining measures as
possible--which doesn't include much room for a tax credit or H1-B
reform--a Senate majority aide said.
The Senate plans to be in session this week, adjourn for the last two weeks
of November, and return on December 4 for an indefinite time period, but
its precise agenda during that time has not been set, the aide said. An
aide to the House Republican leadership said he had only a hazy idea of
what the schedule would be and could not provide a detailed outline.
A post-election wish list
Despite those lingering uncertainties, some lobbyists for high-tech
companies and the broader business community said they're confident that
this Congress will act on their post-election wish list.
"We think that's completely doable, and there's no lack of a majority will
to do that," ITAA's Bond said in a telephone interview, referring to
renewing the R&D tax credit.
There's little dispute that extending the R&D tax credit, designed to
encourage companies to experiment with new technologies, enjoys bipartisan
support. President Bush called for its permanence in his most recent State
of the Union address. Congressional Democrats made the concept a key tenet
of the "innovation agenda" they laid out last year. Industry lobbying
groups say passage this year has stalled because of unrelated conflicts
about provisions in the proposed tax law that also includes the R&D tax
credit extension.
The response from Capitol Hill, however, has been noncommittal. An aide to
the Senate Democratic leadership said Monday that Minority Leader Harry
Reid "strongly supports passage of the R&D tax credit" but could not
comment further on a timeline. An aide on the Republican side, however, was
less optimistic about the possibility of action before the end of the year,
characterizing that prospect as "unlikely." A House Democratic staffer said
his chamber was similarly in wait-and-see mode.
Another urgent priority touted by business lobbyists, both inside and
outside the technology sector, is securing passage of legislation that
would elevate the number of visas, known as H-1Bs, and green cards for
skilled foreign workers.
It was during a lame-duck session after the 2004 election that Congress
last agreed to a number of changes in the visa program. As part of a
catch-all spending bill, the politicians decided to grant 20,000 additional
visas to foreigners who earn a master's degree or higher from a U.S.
institution.
"We have widespread support for the provisions we're pushing, but they've
been caught up in the broader immigration debate this year."
--Lynn Shotwell, chairwoman of Compete America Earlier this year, the
Senate voted to raise the cap to 115,000 as part of a sweeping immigration
bill. (The government's baseline H-1B quota has remained at 65,000 since
2004, after peaking at 195,000 between 2001 and 2003.) The measure also
contains a provision stipulating that if that cap is reached in a certain
year, then it can be raised by 20 percent for the next year. But the House
has yet to reconcile that bill with its own competing immigration proposal,
which appears to contain no H-1B provisions.
"We have widespread support for the provisions we're pushing, but they've
been caught up in the broader immigration debate this year," said Lynn
Shotwell, chairwoman of Compete America, which sent Monday's letter with
more than 200 signatures. The group markets its platform as ensuring that
"U.S. employers have the ability to hire and retain the world's best
talent."
Organizations that represent American technology workers, such as the
Programmers Guild, have opposed that approach, saying there would be no
need for additional visas if stronger safeguards were in place to prevent
their abuse. They voiced support for a competing version of legislation,
sponsored by Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.), which did not advance in Congress
and thus stands virtually no chance of passage during the lame-duck
session.
"If there was a labor shortage, as proponents allege, then the 'best and
brightest' tech workers being laid off by Intel, HP and dozens of other
companies would be snapped up," Programmers Guild wrote in a message that
it encouraged supporters to e-mail to their local representatives.
"Instead, many are unable to find work. Many U.S. IT workers with degrees
and several years of experience cannot find full-time work either."
Beyond work on the R&D tax credit, the Republican Congress likely won't
accomplish much else of note to the technology industry, some lobbyists
said. For instance, few expected movement on a massive telecommunications
bill that passed a Senate committee in June without Net neutrality
provisions sought by Internet companies like Google and eBay.
And despite President Bush's recent renewed calls for the Senate to approve
a controversial bill that would expand the government's ability to monitor
e-mail and telephone communications without a warrant, even Republican
aides acknowledged that bill's fate remains up in the air. (The House
managed to pass a Republican-backed companion bill, mostly along party
lines, just before the chambers adjourned for pre-election campaigning.)
On Capitol Hill, an early Christmas tree
"Issues like telecom, surveillance, copyright and patents are too
controversial, too intricate or both for such a short session," said Will
Rodger, public policy director for the Computer and Communications Industry
Association, whose members include Google, Oracle and Sun Microsystems.
"Congress, in the meantime, has a slew of appropriations bills to pass, and
those could take up all the time they have left."
There's always the possibility that politicians could sneak seemingly
unrelated provisions into those appropriations bills. The practice has
become so widespread that it even has an official name: a "Christmas tree
bill."
Gary Shapiro, president of the Consumer Electronics Association, recently
said he had reason to fear that Tennessean Senate Majority Leader Bill
Frist, who is retiring, might try to slip a proposal for a so-called
"broadcast flag" into a spending bill. Such a law is designed to curb
digital TV piracy by making certain receivers illegal to sell.
The ITAA's Bond said his organization would be similarly vigilant to
back-door attempts at pushing through questionable policies. "We'll need to
make sure that if somebody tries to slip something in there," he said, "it
represents the best and balanced (approach)."
7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://news.com.com/Democrats+unveil+innovation+agenda/2100-1034_3-5953520.html
Democrats unveil 'innovation agenda'
By Anne Broache
http://news.com.com/Democrats+unveil+innovation+agenda/2100-1034_3-5953520.h
tml
Story last modified Tue Nov 15 12:13:38 PST 2005
Delivering high-speed Net access to all Americans within five years was
among a medley of priorities outlined by the U.S. House of Representatives'
Democratic leader on Tuesday.
"Universal broadband--whether it's delivered by Wi-Fi or WiMax, or hard
line--will put all Americans, no matter where they live, no more than a
keystroke or a mouse click away from the jobs and opportunity broadband
both creates and supports," Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California said in
prepared remarks for a morning appearance at the National Press Club in
Washington, D.C.
The suggestion mirrors a proposal by President Bush last year but appears
to be more modest. The president clamored for a deregulatory approach that
would grant broadband access to "every corner" of America by 2007.
Among other goals Pelosi presented: granting scholarships aimed at
producing 100,000 new scientists, mathematicians and engineers in the next
four years; doubling research and development spending, and boosting tax
incentives; seeking alternative-energy sources that lessen the nation's
reliance on Middle East oil; and providing assistance to small businesses
(PDF here).
If Congress doesn't act soon, other countries following the U.S.
"blueprint" for technological pre-eminence will get further ahead, she
said. This year, she noted, 70,000 engineers will graduate from U.S.
institutions, while India and China will produce 350,000 and 700,000
engineers, respectively.
It didn't take long for the announcement to transform into a political
football, as House Republicans speedily pounced on the plan. House Speaker
Dennis Hastert issued a statement warning that the Democrats' plan would
inevitably lead to "more taxation, litigation and regulation."
Hastert also accused Democratic leaders of voting against several pieces of
legislation considered important to tech interests.
It was unclear on Tuesday how the Democrats' plans would be financed or
when they might be introduced in Congress. Pelosi remarked in her speech,
"we intend to submit them to the rigors of pay-as-you-go budgeting, so they
will not add to the deficit but instead will grow our economy."
Partisan politics aside, trade associations representing big technology
companies were quick to praise the announcement.
Now on News.com:
Revisiting Intel's accidental revolution
Playing for keeps in the console biz
Vista knocks on corporate doors
Extra: Apple's iPhone is calling
Video: NYT chairman on the blogosphere
"We support any effort in Congress--by either political party--to ensure
continued investment in innovation for the future," Robert Holleyman, CEO
of the Business Software Alliance, which represents industry bigwigs like
Apple Computer, Cisco Systems, Intel and Microsoft, said in a statement.
Pelosi said she and her colleagues gleaned ideas for their agenda from
recent trips across the country to meet with academics, venture capitalists
and entrepreneurs from the high-tech, biotech and telecommunications
realms.
Tech company executives have lamented what they have described as a
declining U.S. educational system and a shortage of skilled U.S.-born
workers. But the nation still retains the top spot in some areas of global
competitiveness--namely the supercomputer realm.
8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://today.reuters.com/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2006-11-13T153843Z_01_WAT006565_RTRIDST_0_ECONOMY-FED-FISHER-URGENT.XML
Fed's Fisher - some skilled workers hard to find
Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:38 AM ET
SAN ANTONIO, Nov 13 (Reuters) - Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President
Richard Fisher said on Monday that U.S. employers were witnessing a clear
shortage of certain types of workers, including welders, plumbers and truck
drivers.
"Throughout this nation and especially in the state of Texas ... (companies
are) suffering from a shortage of skilled and semi-skilled labor," he told
the Texas Lyceum Public Conference.
Fisher, not a voting member of the Fed's interest rate setting committee
this year, said hourly wages for some types of workers in the Texas
construction sector had jumped sharply and employers were now having to pay
bonuses just to get people to show up for work.
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=43318
November 10, 2006 Edition > Section: Opinion > Printer-Friendly Version
Keeping America Competitive
BY DIANA FURCHTGOTT-ROTH
November 10, 2006
Senator Clinton and President Bush may not always see eye to eye, but
keeping America globally competitive is a shared goal. Since the election,
much of the talk has been about the gridlock that will result from
political "cohabitation," as the French call it. But there's much the two
parties can agree on to improve -- or reduce -- our competitiveness, at no
cost to the federal budget.
Next Monday, well-timed to come out after the election, the Council on
Competitiveness will release the 20th edition of "Competitiveness Index
2006," a publication tracking matters influencing American prosperity and
economic growth. Ripe with bipartisan ideas, the report will present the
major factors enabling America to compete in the global economy.
And, earlier this fall, New York's Commission on Independent Colleges and
Universities published a report titled "How States Can Enhance Innovation
Through the Support of Higher Education and Research," focusing on how to
increase science education in New York's primary and secondary schools and
colleges.
The American economy's recent performance is almost enough to make us
forget about global competitiveness. Since the beginning of 2003, the
annualized real GDP growth rate has averaged 3.5%. Aside from the tech
bubble of the late 1990s, that's one of the best rates in over 30 years.
Analysts forecast that our weak third-quarter growth rate will be followed
by a pickup in the fourth quarter.
In addition to a strong GDP, our unemployment rate is at 4.4%, and we've
created almost 2 million jobs over the past year, 1.7 million in the
private sector.
But that does not mean that we can become complacent, or that our new
Congress should lose sight of one of its main goals -- building a bigger,
stronger America. We do not face much economic competition from Europe,
with its low GDP growth, aging population, high unemployment, and excessive
taxes, but we face strong competition from Asian countries such as China,
India, and Singapore.
The CICU report demonstrates that far too few New York high school students
take the foundation courses in math, biology, physics, and chemistry that
would prepare them for serious study in college in the sciences. It
proposes more teachers and mentors for middle and high school students. And
New York high school students probably do better in science than students
in many other states.
Minority leader Nancy Pelosi has spoken of the wisdom of cutting earmarks
from the federal budget in order to reduce federal spending. There is no
better place to start than with the dollars that we allocate for scientific
research. We rely on scientific progress for the health and wealth of
future generations. Even so, a significant proportion of our science
research budget is earmarked for unrelated projects in influential members'
districts, rather than going to high-level research.
The 2006 Department of Energy's Office of Science budget alone had over 150
earmarks totaling $135 million, many unrelated to basic science. New York
State examples ranged from $750,000 for Joint Environmental Stewardship at
SUNY New Paltz and Ulster Community College to $1.5 million for the South
Nassau Hospital Green Building. The 2006 Department of Defense basic
science and research budget contained about $1 billion in earmarks.
Congress and President Bush could raise the quality of our research without
spending one extra dollar just by spending our science funding on
competitively awarded projects. Scientists would submit proposals for
research within specifically requested categories, the proposals would be
reviewed by their peers, and the very best would be selected for funding.
The resulting increase in quality would vastly improve our research base.
Another way to increase scientific competitiveness without spending federal
dollars is to increase immigration of high-skill workers. Currently, we
train the world's top foreign scientists at taxpayers' expense at our
universities and then send them back to their countries to compete against
us. Congressional Democrats now have an opportunity to work with the
president on immigration reform, which stalled under House Republican
leadership.
High-skill workers can enter America through employer-requested H-1B visas.
There's an annual allocation of 65,000 of these visas, and they're so
popular that they are all exhausted the first days they are available.
Doubling the number of H-1B visas would be costless and would result in an
infusion of extraordinary talent.
It's unfortunate that some Democratic campaign proposals would have the
unintended consequence of reducing our competitiveness. The Council on
Competitiveness report lauds the flexibility of our workforce and our low
tax rates, both of which have been targeted by the new congressional
winners.
Increasing the minimum wage to $7.25 would reduce workforce flexibility by
pricing low-skilled workers out of the job market and onto the unemployment
rolls. This would primarily affect younger workers, particularly teenagers,
in the leisure and hospitality industry, vital to New York. We have to hope
that gridlock prevails on this proposal.
Similarly, Democrats' promises to raise taxes on the rich could be
accomplished by not extending the tax provisions that expire in 2010. These
include making permanent certain forms of business expensing, personal
income tax rates, capital gains tax rates, and the estate tax.
Raising income taxes might be populist, especially among the 50% of earners
who pay almost none, but would be detrimental to competitiveness and
economic growth. With nations all over the world competing to lower taxes,
America must stay at the cutting edge in order for entrepreneurs and
foreign investors to flourish. As New York knows only too well, labor and
capital are mobile and need little excuse to go elsewhere.
It would be costless for Congress to halt the leakage of capital offshore
from America, particularly from New York, by passing new legislation and
revising regulations that affect corporations and financial institutions.
Some companies are moving to London because the British government is
shielding the London Stock Exchange from inefficient American financial
regulations. Senators Clinton and Schumer may want to take a fact-finding
trip to London to get more details.
Our two political parties now have the opportunity to work together to
increase American competitiveness. It's time to move on from partisan
politics and take the global view. Both Democrats and Republicans could be
the winners in this global race.
Ms. Furchtgott-Roth is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and director
of Hudson's Center for Employment Policy. From 2003 to 2005 she was chief
economist at the U.S. Department of Labor.
10. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.heraldextra.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=199967&Itemid=0
Monday, November 13, 2006
Utah companies eye Democrats' business agenda
GRACE LEONG - Daily Herald
Like many pro-Republican Utahns after the Democratic Party's seismic sweep
of the U.S. Congress earlier this week, Brent Ashworth was glum.
While he hopes the power shift will lead to a change in America's foreign
policy on the war in Iraq, he, like many small business owners, also wonder
if this will lead to the revival of an unpopular Democrat stereotype:
increased taxes and tighter regulation.
Many partisan confrontation-averse business owners are watching for signs
of cooperation between the local Republicans and the new Democratic
congressional leadership on issues ranging from tax relief in energy and
education to regulatory relief for small businesses.
Ashworth, an attorney who started a business in rare documents and
memorabilia in downtown Provo in June, says he favors the laissez-faire
capitalist policies espoused by Republicans, but like many Americans, he is
decidedly against the war in Iraq.
"We have to get that albatross off our backs," Ashworth said. "The economy
did well under Clinton, and fairly decently under Bush. A lot in the future
will depend on the policies adopted. But we have to get the Iraqi situation
solved. We're bankrupting our economy. Is the war for a worthy purpose?
Maybe in the beginning, but the loss of life on both sides far outweigh the
billions of dollars spent on the war."
Nonetheless, with unemployment in Utah at historic lows, a stable local and
national economy and a still-booming local housing market amid a national
slowdown, there was little reason for the Republican majority of voters in
Utah to switch allegiances in the midterm elections, said Steve Densley,
president of the Provo-Orem Chamber of Commerce.
But who knows what will happen in the 2008 Congressional elections, he
said.
"The Democrats have two years to prove if they have what it takes to do
what needs to be done. I would love to see them address education, work
force issues and health care," Densley said. "For the most part, the
concept of a Democratic party is that there tends to be more people on the
wagon rather than people pulling the wagon. There'll probably be more
social entitlement programs that businesses have to fund, increased taxes
to fund more programs for health care."
But Roger Layton, former chairman of the Utah County Democratic Party,
disagreed.
"The senators who are elected on the national level are pretty moderate,
and there's a perception that the Democrats elected shifted more to the
center. That's a good sign for us in Utah County. [U.S. Rep.] Jim Matheson
is a Democrat, but he cares more about what his constituency thinks,"
Layton said. "Besides, there are already so many programs in existence for
health care, education. We would be hesitant to push for more new programs.
We need to have common sense utilization of our programs."
State Republican Party Chairman and businessman Joe Cannon voiced concerns
that the Democrats may pursue rescinding income tax cuts enacted by
Congress in 2001.
These tax cuts are scheduled to expire in 2010.
"Ultimately, business people will adapt to whomever is in power. The
Democrats' economic policies are different from those of Republicans,"
Cannon said. "The Democrats want to see an increase in government revenues
from increased taxation. But when you tax income, you're taking money from
the private sector meant for jobs and giving it to the government. Studies
show a dollar in the private sector multiplies itself faster than a dollar
in government hands."
Layton disagreed. "If you cut income taxes and increase the budget deficit,
you haven't done us a favor. Sooner or later, we have to pay for all of
that. But I've not gotten the feeling that the Democrats are pushing for
repealing the tax cuts. There'll be a lot of debate before we get there."
Immigration reform
Ron Heinz, managing director of Canopy Ventures in Lindon, says the
existing Republican leadership under Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and U.S. Sens.
Orrin Hatch and Robert Bennett, both R-Utah, understand the critical issues
facing the high-tech industry in Utah.
In a meeting last week between Bennett and 15 other Utah County-based tech
executives, Heinz said Bennett appeared to support increasing the number of
visas available to foreign-born workers, which can benefit skilled
worker-starved businesses in technology, biotechnology and health care.
"You can't close the borders without making it easier, at the same time,
for foreigners to come in on a legal basis. That's something that is going
to have to happen because we're coming up with shortages in our labor force
in critical skill areas, like science and engineering and technology. There
are a lot of American scientists retiring in the next few years and we're
not educating enough people in science and math. So those positions are
going to have to be filled by foreigners," said Mark Knold, senior
economist with the state Department of Workforce Services.
But Heinz says the combination of the strong incumbent local Republican
leadership and macro-economic policy changes, including reducing stringent
corporate accountability laws such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, will be good
for Utah's small businesses.
"A number of Democrats appear to be supportive of curtailing regulations
under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The law's meant to curb corporate malfeasance
but the pendulum has swung way too far. It's become onerous for publicly
traded companies to remain public and a majority of companies are taking
their initial public offerings to foreign stock exchanges because of the
overly stringent governance in the U.S. that will hurt our capital markets
in the long haul, if it remains unchecked," Heinz said.
Case in point, Q Comm International is one of a growing number of U.S.
public companies going private to eliminate what company CEO Mike Keough
calls "increasingly onerous costs associated with being a public company in
today's regulatory environment."
By going private, the Orem-based provider of prepaid transaction processing
and electronic point-of-sale distribution solutions hopes to eliminate
accounting, legal and public company costs, which are about 20 percent of
its annual cash-based expenses, Keough said.
"Democrats tend to have a more balanced view of spending and investment in
civilian-oriented programs like education. Some have their eye on creating
tax credits for research and development in technology and life sciences,"
Heinz said.
Mike Mower, a spokesman for the governor's office, sees possible new
spending priorities under the new congressional leadership, but says it is
too early to identify which sectors will be affected in Utah.
Raising minimum wage
Business owners in Utah are also bracing themselves for the effects of a
potentially higher federal minimum wage, the first such increase since
1997. Some say small-business owners would be required to pay more, forcing
them to hire fewer workers and potentially hampering economic growth.
"Raising the minimum wage sounds good, but study after study shows the
consequences of raising minimum wages are to reduce the number of jobs
available to people, particularly entry-level jobs. Let the market
determine how much to pay workers," Cannon said.
But others, including state economists like Knold, argue there would be
little impact because many businesses in Utah already pay above the federal
minimum wage of $5.15 an hour. More than 20 states have minimum wages above
the federal level. Nearly half of small business owners favor an increase
in the minimum wage, according to a 2006 Gallup Organization survey.
"Even if they raise the minimum wage to $6.30, that's still catching up to
the market rather than getting ahead of it," Knold said. "The unofficial
minimum wage in Utah is $7 an hour. That's what you have to pay today to
get workers. Good luck trying to hire people at $5.15 in a tight labor
market."
Federal funding
Of greater concern to Knold is the possibility of fewer available federal
funds to state agencies, including Utah's Workforce Services Department,
under a Democrat-controlled Congress.
"Our worker-training dollars are already under pressure because of the
federal budget deficit. The employment training administration budget has
been cut 16 percent this past year, with the possibility of more cuts next
year," Knold said.
"If the Democrats push for more balanced budgets, they're going to have to
get the money from either raising taxes or cutting program funding. And I
don't think the Democrats have the stomach to raise taxes, so our state
program funding will likely be cut further," he said. "And that's a problem
because those federal funds go to providing job retraining, career-making
information and financing our employment statistics gathering program."
But Layton doesn't see Utah being targeted by Democrats for a backlash.
"I hate to see good programs cut," Layton said. "Matheson will be a voice
of moderation even if there's an attempted backlash. I don't think Matheson
has a lot of enemies in Washington. I hope that gives him the leverage to
say he's done well in a largely Republican state."
11. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://money.cnn.com/2006/11/10/magazines/business2/election_tech.biz2/?postversion=2006111017
Hungry for H-1Bs
One issue that's near and dear to Silicon Valley's heart: H-1B visas. These
permits allow foreign engineers, programmers and other highly-skilled
professionals work in the United States for three to six years. The base
number of visas issued each year for skilled workers is capped at 65,000,
which is a huge concern for tech giants, like Intel and Hewlett-Packard,
which have an insatiable appetite for engineers and programmers from India
and China.
The H1-B ceiling once approached 200,000 before Congress started curtailing
visa applications in recent years. Legislative efforts to raise the ceiling
have failed, including two attempts in the current Congress that were
defeated amid the broader debate over immigration. Republican leaders
didn't want to appear soft on the issue.
Now that Rep. George Miller (D-California) is likely to chair the Education
and Workforce committee, tech companies are optimistic the H-1B cap will
now be increased.
12. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=ZjM1YmEwZmNiMDBiOGIwOTQ3NDc3N2Q4MWEwMDViM2Q=
November 09, 2006, 8:32 a.m.
"Interesting Opportunities"
Are amnesty and open borders in our future?
By Mark Krikorian
Before election night was even over, White House spokesman Tony Snow said
the Democratic takeover of the House presented "interesting opportunities,"
including a chance to pass "comprehensive immigration reform" -- i.e., the
presidents plan for an illegal-alien amnesty and enormous increases in
legal immigration, which failed only because of House Republican
opposition..
At his press conference Wednesday, the president repeated this sentiment,
citing immigration as "vital issue -- where I believe we can find some
common ground with the Democrats."
Will the president and the Democrats get their way with the new lineup next
year?
Nope.
Thats not to say the amnesty crowd isnt hoping for it. Tamar Jacoby,
the tireless amnesty supporter at the otherwise conservative Manhattan
Institute, in a recent piece in Foreign Affairs eagerly anticipated a
Republican defeat, "The political stars will realign, perhaps sooner than
anyone expects, and when they do, Congress will return to the task it has
been wrestling with: how to translate the emerging consensus into
legislation to repair the nation's broken immigration system."
In Newsweek, Fareed Zakaria shares Jacobys cluelessness about Flyover
Land: "The great obstacle to immigration reform has been a noisy minority.
-- Come Tuesday, the party will be over. CNNs Lou Dobbs and his angry
band of xenophobes will continue to rail, but a new Congress, with fewer
Republicans and no impending primary elections, would make the climate much
less vulnerable to the tyranny of the minority."
And fellow immigration enthusiast Fred Barnes earlier this week blamed the
coming Republican defeat in part on the failure to pass an amnesty and
increase legal immigration: "But imagine if Republicans had agreed on a
compromise and enacted a comprehensive -- Mr. Bushs word --
immigration bill, dealing with both legal and illegal immigrants. Theyd
be justifiably basking in their accomplishment. The American public, except
for nativist diehards, would be thrilled."
"Emerging consensus"? "Nativist diehards"? Jacoby and her fellow-travelers
seem to actually believe the results from her hilariously skewed polling
questions, and those of the mainstream media, all larded with pro-amnesty
codewords like "comprehensive reform" and "earned legalization," and
offering respondents the false choice of mass deportations or amnesty.
More responsible polling employing neutral language (avoiding accurate but
potentially provocative terminology like "amnesty" and "illegal alien")
finds something very different. In a recent national survey by Kellyanne
Conway, when told the level of immigration, 68 percent of likely voters
said it was too high and only 2 percent said it was too low. Also, when
offered the full range of choices of what to do about the existing illegal
population, voters rejected both the extremes of legalization ("amnesty" to
you and me) and mass deportations; instead, they preferred the approach of
this years House bill, which sought attrition of the illegal population
through consistent immigration law enforcement. Finally, three fourths of
likely voters agreed that we have an illegal immigration problem because
past enforcement efforts have been "grossly inadequate," as opposed to the
open-borders crowds contention that illegal immigration is caused by
overly restrictive immigration rules.
Nor do the results of Tuesdays balloting bear out the enthusiasts
claims of a mandate for amnesty. "The test," Fred Barnes writes, "was in
Arizona, where two of the noisiest border hawks, Representatives J.D.
Hayworth and Randy Graf, lost House seats." But while these two somewhat
strident voices were defeated (Hayworth voted against the House
immigration-enforcement bill because it wasnt tough enough), the very
same voters approved four immigration-related ballot measures by huge
margins, to deny bail to illegal aliens, bar illegals from winning punitive
damages, bar illegals from receiving state subsidies for education and
child care, and declare English the states official language.
More broadly, this was obviously a very bad year for Republicans, leading
to the defeat of both enforcement supporters -- like John Hostettler
(career grade of A- from the pro-control lobbying group Americans for
Better Immigration) and Charles Taylor (A) -- as well as amnesty promoters,
like Mike DeWine (D) and Lincoln Chafee (F). Likewise, the winners included
both prominent hawks -- Tancredo (A) and Bilbray (A+) -- and doves -- Lugar
(D-), for instance, and probably Heather Wilson (D).
Whats more, if legalizing illegals is so widely supported by the
electorate, how come no Democrats campaigned on it? Not all were as tough
as Brad Ellsworth, the Indiana sheriff who defeated House Immigration
Subcommittee Chairman Hostettler, or John Spratt of South Carolina, whose
immigration web pages might as well have been written by Tom Tancredo. But
even those nominally committed to "comprehensive" reform stressed
enforcement as job one. And the national partys "Six for 06" rip-off of
the Contract with America said not a word about immigration reform,
"comprehensive" or otherwise.
The only exception to this "Whatever you do, dont mention the amnesty"
approach appears to have been Jim Pederson, the Democrat who challenged
Sen. Jon Kyl (a grade of B) by touting a Bush-McCain-Kennedy-style amnesty
and foreign-worker program and even praised the 1986 amnesty, which pretty
much everyone now agrees was a catastrophe.
Pederson lost.
Speaker Pelosi has a single mission for the next two years -- to get her
majority reelected in 2008. She may be a loony leftist (F- on immigration),
but she and Rahm Emanuel (F) seem to be serious about trying to create a
bigger tent in order to keep power, and adopting the Bush-McCain-Kennedy
amnesty would torpedo those efforts. Sure, its likely that theyll try
to move piecemeal amnesties like the DREAM Act (HR 5131 in the current
Congress), or increase H-1B visas (the indentured-servitude program for
low-wage Indian computer programmers). They might also push the AgJobs
bill, which is a sizable amnesty limited to illegal-alien farmworkers. None
of these measures is a good idea, and Republicans might still be able to
delay or kill them, but they arent the "comprehensive" disaster the
president and the Democrats really want.
Any mass-amnesty and worker-importation scheme would take a while to get
started, and its effects would begin showing up in the newspapers and in
peoples workplaces right about the time the next election season gets
under way. And despite the sophistries of open-borders lobbyists, Nancy
Pelosi knows perfectly well that this would be bad news for those who
supported it.
--- Mark Krikorian is executive director of the Center for Immigration
Studies and an NRO contributor.
Newsletter Homepage:
http://www.JobDestruction.com/shameh1b/JobDestructionNews.htm
Support this Newsletter and www.JobDestruction.com by donating:
www.zazona.com/Donations.htm
To Be removed from this mailing list, reply to this
email with UNSUbSCRIBE in the subject window
Back to archives