David Marcus has the same reaction to the MAGA fight over immigration that I did: At least we're finally able to discuss policies that impact our lives.
There are two pieces of very good news that have come out of the infighting over H-1B visas for foreign skilled workers in Trump World this week. The first happy accident is that tensions are already easing, much to the chagrin of liberals who hoped they were witnessing a permanent schism.
The second, even better development, is that both sides of the admittedly zesty debate have listened, compromised, and arrived at a better and clearer set of positions for the Republican Party moving forward.
In the red corner, we had the twin heads of the Department of Government Efficiency, Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk who appeared at first to call for expansion of the H-1B visa program that allows employers to use foreign labor when they cannot find qualified Americans.
In the other red corner, we had Steve Bannon and a host of prominent America Firsters all but calling for an end of the skilled foreign worker program, a policy that would no doubt cause considerable chaos and disruption.
On Saturday, President-elect Trump weighed in, sort of, telling the New York Post that he likes the visa program and uses it himself, but not endorsing any expansion. And this is of course the same Trump who fired board members of the Tennessee Valley Authority for using foreign workers over Americans.
By Sunday morning, as parents quietly sipped coffee and spied the news on their phones, the kids getting a little more sleep before church, things had calmed down considerably in this impromptu intramural immigration debate.
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Meanwhile, Musk arguably moved even further to the center of the issue, posting late Saturday night that the excesses of the H-1B visa program are "easily fixed by raising the minimum salary significantly and adding a yearly cost for maintaining the H-1B, making it materially more expensive to hire from overseas than domestically."
Or as Musk ally and head of Trump's office of Artificial Intelligence David Sacks put it, 'Elon has said that H1B should be overhauled, that it should focus on exceptional talent in high-value areas, and that the scams and low-pay jobs should end. This is not to say there aren't still differences but less than it first appeared. Time to move forward as one team.'
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Meanwhile, the Bannonistas, who have been by Trump's side from the very beginning a decade ago, are easing their attacks on newcomers Ramaswamy and Musk, and appreciating that they are all on the same team.
Lee Smith tells MAGA: don't give in to bullying from hustlers claiming to be MAGA.
Lee Smith
@LeeSmithDC
Don't be lulled by fake MAGA truce: H1B issue is indeed consequential. When Dems & GOP offshored mfg (NAFTA, WTO), rationale was that Americans would get great "tech service" jobs--but H1B showed they wouldn't get those jobs either. 1/
And there's nothing you can do about it, said Dems and GOP alike. You want those jobs back? Where's your magic wand? And besides, you deserve the pain, clinging to your guns and God -- you're racist, homophobic, etc. you're deplorables 2/
This is what Trump was elected to fight, but according to Vivek: In fact, the things that have caused you pain are your fault. Your culture prizes mediocrity, your parents raised you poorly. Then Elon: Fight me on a thing that has hurt you, and I will crush you. 3/
Vivek continues to double down: instead of walking back or even just modifying his public rebuke of American families, he characterizes it as one of his "hard truths" -- as other MAGA influencers have jumped to his defense: 4/
'In fact nothing bad happened, it was simply a conversation, and it's the left who is trying to divide us!' But to tell people long targeted by an elite demoralization campaign that they shouldn't believe what they heard with their own ears and blame it on others is predatory. 5/
So, yes H1B matters because it's an effect of the core issue -- indeed the reason DJT is POTUS -- a political and corporate establishment that has waged a half-century long campaign to destroy the American middle class. End
Elon Musk made a very bad reference to immigration restrictionists, speaking positively of pushing these "contemptible" people out of the party.
Obviously, "contemptible" is a kissing cousin of... "deplorable."
Americans are not "racists" for prioritizing their own prosperity over that of fucking foreigners.
MAGA voters have been told for 50 fucking years that we have to champion other people's rights over our own, other people's safety over our own, other people's prosperity over our own.
We.
Are.
All.
Done.
With that bullshit.
The number of Indians who decide to not seek an H-1B visa over concerns that they'll be taking the job of an American is, let me look this up to give you the exact figure, precisely zero.
Why should Americans worry that they're not providing enough opportunities for Indians? We should prioritize Indians' opportunities to the exact level they prioritize our opportunities, which is to say, to no extent whatsoever.
We're even done with the "Well of course I'd like to see foreigners prosper" caveat before the "but."
We've been bullied and beaten down for decades. It's fucking over. We're not hearing that crap any longer.