Posted on 08/07/2008 5:20:04 AM PDT by kellynla
Congress adjourned for a month-long recess on Aug. 1, the same day that the Bureau of Labor Statistics released distressing news about unemployment. The July economic news was not good. The official unemployment rate hit a four-year high of 5.7 percent, as the economy shed 51,000 jobs last month, bringing the total of lost jobs for 2008 to 463,000.
Seemingly oblivious to what is happening back in their states and districts, the House Immigration Subcommittee finished up business for the rest of the summer by approving legislation that, if enacted, would “recapture” some 557,000 visas that were not used during the years they were made available, going back as far as 1992. The bill, H.R. 5882, was introduced by Subcommittee Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.).
More than half of these wily visas-that-got-away would be employment-based, while the rest would be recaptured for family-based immigrants. Since immigrants who are admitted under family preference categories are also likely to need a way to support themselves, most of them would also likely enter a tightening labor market.
Aside from the fact that our slumping labor market does not require lots of new workers right now, Rep. Lofgren’s bill treats the issuance of green cards as an entitlement, rather than a privilege. Current laws set a ceiling the number of visas that can be issued in a given year; Rep. Lofgren’s bill would turn a ceiling into a floor and allow immigrants to claim those green cards years later.
While the House is acting to recapture visas in a free-standing bill, Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) is spearheading the Senate effort to corral those elusive little devils.
(Excerpt) Read more at townhall.com ...
“Illogical, Captain.”
Our Congress is so blindingly stupid that it hurts just to think about them.
ping
So joblessness increased in July. I wonder how many of those lost jobs in July were due to congress raising the minimum wage and then small businesses responding by laying off workers to compensate for that extra expense?
Very logical. Those losing jobs are low end skill set types. Those coming in are high end skill set types.
“Our Congress is so blindingly stupid that it hurts just to think about them.”
You’re being nice....follow the MONEY!!!
Some are more equal then others, heck, why not go back to 1967 and magically create even more green cards?
Or heck, let’s just go back to 1776, because the Founders would have had a green card program..
See that was easy.
Our open border traitors, doing what they can to wreck the USA.
Filthy blue collar workers. Have you ever seen their fingernails?
[/sarc]
The blue collar worker is on his way to extinction in the U.S.
And America will go with them.
Not really. The former blue collar worker will just have a much lower standard of living. The guy with the high-level skill set will have a much higher standard of living.
Skills are a commodity, just like anything else for sale.
And when they hire illegals to replace those they laid off when minimum wage went up - they won’t have to pay them the same wage. What a good deal for those businesses! /sarc
The definition of insanity: keep voting for these idiots over and over & expect something to change.
Guess the laws of supply and demand don’t apply to labor under our new feudal system.
It’s absolutely tied to the laws of supply and demand.
I can get 10,000 guys in a room and teach nearly every last one of them to put up drywall or tighten bolts on an assembly line. There’s no trick in finding guys to do that.
However, try finding 10 guys who can design the next iPod or write a new forensic accounting program.
And judging from the quality of drywall finishing that I've seen in countless new homes, I would say that about 10-15 of them will actually perform quality work.
Fire them and bring in 10,000 more. There’s a nearly endless supply.
Congress caused the problem by importing workers, and then the left blamed it all on Bush.
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