What do you think about Bush's proposals for a guest worker program?

Answer 1

I think it would ruin our schools and services and drain health care funds for our sick. The plan on the table lets them bring family and become permanent residents/citizens, so they are not what we usually think of as 'guest' workers at all. This is to be on TOP of amnesty which would let those illegally here bring family, and then let that family bring family....

Essentially, it is using 'benefit packages' made up of the social services we fund for our own children and poor to draw poor who can't get those benefits in their own country. The employer's cheap wages are at our expense.

I'd be ok with tweaking the H2B visa which lets in seasonal workers who DON'T bring family and don't get on a 'permanent' track. The employer has to provide housing for these people and can only hire those who show they came from their country, and hadn't overstayed the prior time. The employer has to provide basic health insurance. There are no kids to be in school.

Letting there be a registry of such workers who are pre-cleared so employers can hire them when a need is noted, and not only then begin time consuming paperwork makes sense. Making seasonal workers for agriculture permanent so we tax payers have to pay more for further degraded services does not make sense.

In non-seasonal jobs, they should pay wages high enough to get Americans. There should not be 'easy' guest workers there. The year round ones are where the real trouble is in terms of overcrowding schools and draining education and health care funds. Also, we don't want worker salaries for construction etc degraded to the point where Americans can't take care of their own families.

Answer 2

I would have to read the proposal and study it in depth before I could make a decision on it.I don't know all the details.My first thought is .would it be a sneaky way of granting illegals amnesty? If that's the case I am against it.I will wait until after the elections to hear the real TRUTH on all the election promises,that both party's are making and CANT produce.I have yet to see the need for a "guest worker " ,Isn't that what illegal aliens are ? We don't need more .And the fact I don't believe any politician if his/her mouth is moving.

Answer 3

I haven't seen his proposal in depth. But I've heard two proposals. One is a five year general work visa, nonrenewable. The other is a two year permit that is renewable. There is also talks of implementing a system similar to Canada where employers sponsor immigrants and when the job is over the worker leaves or gets another sponsor.

Right now there are almost 15 million employed illegal aliens. Just removing that many workers from the workforce would have devastating effects on the economy.

Think of the jobs that won't be filled, the decrease in tax revenues and the decrease in consumer confidence (15 million people not buying anything) and vacancy in rental units. Just sending the illegals home without having workers to fill those jobs would put us into a deep recession unlike anything since the Great Depression.

Capitalism needs a minimum of 5% unemployment to function properly. The US is at 4.7%, but that is with the illegals working. If the illegals leave and IF the unemployed take their jobs the unemployment rate will be below 2%. This would be disaterous except there is 3 to 4 percent of the country who don't want to work, they choose to be unemployed, that will mean that jobs will go unfilled.

The unemployment rate varies drastically, from 2% to 7% throughout the country. The illegal workers are willing to migrate to where the work is, Americans are less willing to pull up roots and move.

A guest worker program is necessary, it is basic economics.

Answer 4

The guest worker issue is a 'manana' thing, to be addressed at a future date AFTER a drastic and lasting decrease is manifested in illegal immigration numbers nationwide. A 'program' implies a system of monitored compliance with a very strict set of rules and parameters, and frankly, our immigration situation is nowhere near being ready for something like that...first, they're going to have to prove to everyone's satisfaction that yes, they can keep people from just moving in arbitrarily on a whim...after that has been done, then we can talk about 'guest workers'...

Answer 5

There are already several guest worker programs such as H-1B (specialty occupations) and H-2A (farm workers), and they are very restrictive, so much that employers get away with skirting the law and the government doesn't enforce it enough to protect the workers.

Answer 6

I think that most of the sorry bums in Washington have illegals working in their homes. They would have to pay more for services.
Wasnt it Bill Clinton that was being driven around by an Illegal?

Answer 7

If you make less than 200K a year, Bush doesn't know you exist. You are invisible to him. Bush comes from a world where illegal immigrants are essential to his and his friends lifestyle. The only difference in lifestyle for a rich guy in the south in 2006 versus 1856 is the ethnicity of your cheap labor. Bush wants that pipeline of poor immigrants to flow and to hell with ordinary Americans.

Answer 8

BUsh is trying to save republican jobs.

Answer 9

Bush wants to impress the big corporate Farms, and the Hispanic vote.. Too late, American are mad!

Answer 10

I think this would complete his obvious agenda to destroy America & middle-class Americans....