Thread: Democrats kill House GOP immigrant visa plan after GOP eliminates diversity lottery

Democrats kill House GOP immigrant visa plan after GOP eliminates diversity lottery

Posted on 09/20/2012 by Summer Ballentine
A House bill to increase visas for immigrants with American degrees in the science, technology, engineering and medicine fields was shot down Thursday. At 257-158, it failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority to pass.
A cry to bring the “best and the brightest” immigrants to the U.S. rang out from both sides of the House, but in the end screams of “yea” and “nay” drowned out chances of unison.
“Unfortunately, Democrats today voted to send the best and brightest foreign graduates back home to work for our global competitors,” the bill’s sponsor Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, said in a statement. “Democrats voted against a bill that helps American businesses hire the most qualified foreign graduates with advanced STEM degrees. Their vote against this bill is a vote against economic growth and job creation.”

U.S. Representative Lamar Smith, R-Tx, hold a press conference at his office at 1100 NE Loop 410, Monday, Dec. 13, 2010. The congressman spoke of his priorities as incoming Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. (JERRY LARA/San Antonio Express-News)

The STEM Jobs Act of 2012 would reallocate 55,000 visas for American-educated immigrants with doctorates and masters in the high demand fields. The House pushed a vote through under a suspension of the rules two days after Smith introduced it.
Both sides are on board to give more visas to highly educated immigrants. Compromise ground to a halt over what Democrats called a poison pill that would eliminate the diversity visa lottery, a program to randomly select immigrants from underrepresented countries.

“This is the perfect instance for collaboration and bipartisanship,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, argued on the floor Thursday. “(But) I cannot vote for a bill that will allow us to eliminate the diversity visa lottery.”

A two-thirds majority was needed to pass, impossible without support from both sides. Smith touted the bill as bipartisan and Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Laredo, was a cosponsor, although most of the other 66 cosponsors were Republican.

Republicans argued the lottery is a broken system fraught with fraud (both the Department of State and the Federal Trade Commission have issued warnings against scams) and allows terrorists to slip through the borders. Democrats said it’s some immigrants’ only shot at a green card and Republicans are playing a “zero sum game.”

A little more than 1 million immigrants come to the U.S. legally every year, enough for Smith.

“That’s more than any other country,” Smith said during a debate Thursday. “The purpose of this bill is not to increase or decrease immigration.”

In the end Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., wrote another version of the bill her way. Introduced Sept. 14, Attracting the Best and the Brightest Act kept the diversity lottery, included a two-year expiration date, disqualified degrees from for-profit colleges and mandated equal pay for immigrants with the same qualifications. It was referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Gonzalez and Rubén Hinojosa, D- Mercedes, were among Texans who cosponsored Lofgren’s bill.

“The Republican STEM bill failed this vote because it is misguided legislation that would curtail legal immigration to the United States,” Hinojosa said in a statement. “This country was built by immigrants and it is sad to see an obvious division in the U.S. House of Representatives when the members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus join together to defeat a bill that does not reflect the true American way.”

Congress is about to recess and the Lame Duck season is almost here, but STEM immigration might still have a chance.

Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced the Benefits to Research and American Innovation through Nationality Statutes, or BRAINS, Act on Tuesday. The bill is almost identical to the Best and the Brightest Act.

Democrats kill House GOP immigrant visa plan after GOP eliminates diversity lottery | Texas on the Potomac | a mySA.com blog

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This needs to resurface, and immediately.

Here's another raping of America that will happen if Obamination is able to stay on his throne:

House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation | The Economic Populist
House discusses 401k/IRA confiscation


Submitted by midtowng on Fri, 11/07/2008 - 14:04

• Tax Policy

This shouldn't surprise anyone who watched what happened to Argentina in 2001. Eventually the government is going to do this.

Democrats in the U.S. House have been conducting hearings on proposals to confiscate workers’ personal retirement accounts — including 401(k)s and IRAs — and convert them to accounts managed by the Social Security Administration.Triggered by the financial crisis the past two months, the hearings reportedly were meant to stem losses incurred by many workers and retirees whose 401(k) and IRA balances have been shrinking rapidly.
...
GRAs would guarantee a fixed 3 percent annual rate of return, although later in her article Ghilarducci explained that participants would not “earn a 3% real return in perpetuity.” In place of tax breaks workers now receive for contributions and thus a lower tax rate, workers would receive $600 annually from the government, inflation-adjusted. For low-income workers whose annual contributions are less than $600, the government would deposit whatever amount it would take to equal the minimum $600 for all participants.
In a radio interview with Kirby Wilbur in Seattle on Oct. 27, 2008, Ghilarducci explained that her proposal doesn’t eliminate the tax breaks, rather, “I’m just rearranging the tax breaks that are available now for 401(k)s and spreading — spreading the wealth.”
All workers would have 5 percent of their annual pay deducted from their paychecks and deposited to the GRA. They would still be paying Social Security and Medicare taxes, as would the employers. The GRA contribution would be shared equally by the worker and the employee. Employers no longer would be able to write off their contributions. Any capital gains would be taxable year-on-year.
Analysts point to another disturbing part of the plan. With a GRA, workers could bequeath only half of their account balances to their heirs, unlike full balances from existing 401(k) and IRA accounts. For workers who die after retiring, they could bequeath just their own contributions plus the interest but minus any benefits received and minus the employer contributions.
Another justification for Ghilarducci’s plan is to eliminate investment risk. In her testimony, Ghilarducci said, “humans often lack the foresight, discipline, and investing skills required to sustain a savings plan.” She cited the 2004 HSBC global survey on the Future of Retirement, in which she claimed that “a third of Americans wanted the government to force them to save more for retirement.”

Posted in Other Topics.

Did you think this went away for good in 2008? There is approximately 8 Trillion dollars in retirement accounts in this country, a very large cashe that the re distributors will love to redistribute. JMO

http://www.alipac.us/f19/house-discu...cation-264276/