Sessions Responds To WSJ Criticisms: ‘America Is A Country, Not A Spreadsheet’
by Caroline May
4 May 2015
226 comments
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is responding to two recent Wall Street Journal editorials critical of the Alabama lawmaker’s position that high immigration rates are harmful to American workers, specifically those in tech fields.
In a letter to the editor, Sessions pointed to the publication’s April 25 article “Scott Walker’s Labor Economics” and its April 27 follow up “The Sessions Complaint” in which The Journal took both Walker and Sessions to task for arguing that immigration policies should be determined based on what is good for American workers.
“To support your belief that American workers should receive no protections, you recycle the myth that there is a shortage of qualified Americans to fill jobs in STEM—science, technology, engineering and math—and then demand more guest workers as substitutes,” Sessions, the chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on Immigration and the National Interest wrote in the letter, dated Friday.
“Your evidence for this claim is that the government ‘received a record 233,000 requests from American business for the 85,000 H-1B visas available.’ But the only thing this statistic proves is that companies prefer low-wage, bonded guest workers over higher-paid Americans,” he added.
In its editorials, the Journal argued that more high-skilled immigrants can serve to increase productivity and increase the proverbial pie for everyone.
The newspaper further took issue with the proposition that such workers are replacing American workers, writing that few American STEM workers are not working in their chosen field. The Journal also questioned Sessions’ definitions, saying the Alabamian has been too narrow in his delineation of what constitutes a STEM worker.
Not so, argues Sessions.
“Each year, the U.S. graduates twice as many students with STEM degrees as are hired in STEM occupations. Contrary to the suggestion that these students are finding better, higher-paying jobs, the opposite is true,” he wrote.
“About 35% of science students, 55% of technology students, 20% of engineering students and 30% of math students who recently graduated are now working in jobs that don’t require any four-year college degree,” Sessions continued. “As further proof of no shortage, wages in the profitable IT industry have been largely flat for more than a decade.”
Sessions added that currently, two-thirds of entry-level tech jobs are going to foreign-born workers.
“That is because the H-1B visa is not a high-skilled immigration program,” he wrote.
It operates as a low-wage nonimmigrant temporary visa, undercutting the jobs and wages of highly qualified Americans. Just recently, Southern California Edison laid off hundreds of loyal employees and forced them to train the H-1B guest workers hired to replace them. One of those replaced American workers was a mother with a physical disability caring for two children.
Sessions concludes that: “America is a country, not a spreadsheet. A country puts the needs of its own citizens first.”
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...a-spreadsheet/
WSJ Continues Its War on Sen. Sessions
by Dan Riehl
11 May 2015
Washington, DC
Talk about “here we go again.” The increasingly tired, old Wall Street Journal seems to be indulging in a bit of self-parody by invoking that tired old phrase. The fact is, President Barack Obama’s trade deal has been so opaque, a host of Democrats are objecting to it.
As is conservative icon Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL).
So the latest WSJ editorial seems like nothing more than an ongoing attempt to smear Sen. Sessions for speaking for millions of Americans who are concerned with immigration. Not only illegal immigration, but the Obama’s administration’s demonstrated lack of respect for the law. The Journal writes:
Here we go again. In the 1990s Pat Buchanan launched a civil war within the Republican Party on a platform targeting immigration and trade. Some claimed Pitchfork Pat was the future of the GOP, though in the end he mainly contributed to its presidential defeats.
As recently at May 4th, Republican Sen. Sessions felt compelled to respond to multiple attacks by the cheap labor, open borders-loving editors at the Wall Street Journal. One has to wonder just what kind of business people there are at the WSJ, as the latest attacks since seem to indicate Sessions remains living rent free in their anti-working class American heads.
Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) is responding to two recent Wall Street Journal editorials critical of the Alabama lawmaker’s position that high immigration rates are harmful to American workers, specifically those in tech fields.
In a letter to the editor, Sessions pointed to the publication’s April 25 article “Scott Walker’s Labor Economics” and its April 27 follow up “The Sessions Complaint” in which The Journal took both Walker and Sessions to task for arguing that immigration policies should be determined based on what is good for American workers.
CNN had no problem understanding the expansive nature of the mostly opaque deal Obama is trying to get Congress to embrace. Unfortunately, the WSJ editorial page’s ability to research and evaluate the plan honestly appears to be lacking. Perhaps it was bought off by their corporate paymasters.
First, he must convince Congress to hand him trade promotion authority — a power that would allow the President to put new trade deals on a fast-track to votes, with limited debate and no amendments.
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...-sen-sessions/
