D vs. R (Score: 0) by fishybell@pipedot.org on 2015-02-09 21:16 (#2WZV) I've never been sure why republicans are the ones against this (maybe old fashioned protectionism?) and why the democrats are against it (maybe they really do hate America?), because it always seemed to me to be opposite of their respective platforms: the republicans always tout their business friendliness and the democrats always seem to portray themselves as the protector of the little-guy. Obviously I'm not so naive to think that party platforms and party policy are the same, but it seems like both parties are going out of their way to be hypocritical on this issue.I'm mostly just hoping for a day when the bipartisan support for exporting American jobs is replaced by bipartisan support for encouraging businesses to stop the brain drain. First we lost manufacturing and just now starting to bring it back, and now we're exporting (and in this case semi-exporting via remittances) high-tech and service jobs. At point do we just say "let Americans compete in a fair way?" Re: D vs. R (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-02-09 21:43 (#2WZW) It's really not a partisan issue. The bill to dramatically increase H1-Bs is endorsed by several members of both parties. People on both sides have opposed H1-Bs to varying degrees. On the Democratic side, at least Pres. Obama and Sen. Durbin spoke out against them (years ago), and those are just the first ones I found.That said... It's easy for Republicans to oppose H1-Bs (and any other visas) on simple xenophobic terms. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley firms are socially liberal, so they endorse and support Democratic candidates, not Republican ones. And those same firms lobby for cheaper IT labor more than anything else, which means more H1-Bs.
Re: D vs. R (Score: 1) by evilviper@pipedot.org on 2015-02-09 21:43 (#2WZW) It's really not a partisan issue. The bill to dramatically increase H1-Bs is endorsed by several members of both parties. People on both sides have opposed H1-Bs to varying degrees. On the Democratic side, at least Pres. Obama and Sen. Durbin spoke out against them (years ago), and those are just the first ones I found.That said... It's easy for Republicans to oppose H1-Bs (and any other visas) on simple xenophobic terms. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley firms are socially liberal, so they endorse and support Democratic candidates, not Republican ones. And those same firms lobby for cheaper IT labor more than anything else, which means more H1-Bs.