Mark has already written much of what needs to be said about the GOP House leadership’s bone-headed (I can think of rougher adjectives) decision to slip in a provision quadrupling the number of temporary H-2B temporary worker visas into the omnibus funding bill. Dishonestly sold as the solution to a ‘labor shortage’ that does not exist (there is a shortage of employers prepared to pay up, but that’s a different matter), it’s a decision remarkable both for its economic illiteracy (I would have expected better from Speaker Ryan) but also its political clumsiness.
Over to the American Interest:
If you want to know why Trump keeps enjoying success despite every outrageous comment, look to measures like this. The Congressmen who inserted this provision might talk a responsible game, but their actions, in the eyes of a Trump supporter, reveal their true intentions. And the AFL-CIO came out in opposition to the measure as well. This leads credence to the notion that Trump’s natural base of support is the “radical middle,” exactly the sort of blue-collar, non-college-educated workers that feel most threatened by immigration and the state of the economy as a whole right now.
What the hell were they thinking?
The H-2B Boost - a gift for Trump