Who Stole the American Dream? (70 page)
Read Who Stole the American Dream? Online
Authors: Hedrick Smith
72
At home, the big banks were firing
“Profits Falling, Banks Confront a Leaner Future,”
The New York Times
, August 29, 2011.
73
“How Offshoring Could Prolong the Jobless Recovery”
“How Offshoring Could Prolong the Jobless Recovery,” Hackett Group, January 18, 2011,
http://www.thehackettgroup.com
; “New Data: 2.8 Million Business-Support Jobs Eliminated Since 2000,” Hackett Group, November 15, 2010,
http://www.thehackettgroup.com
.
74
That “corresponds to about 30–40 million jobs”
Alan S. Blinder, “Offshoring: Big Deal, or Business as Usual?” CEPS Working Paper No. 149, Center for Economic Policy Studies, June 2007,
http://www.princeton.edu
.
1
“We have seen numerous”
William Branigin, “White-Collar Visas: Back Door to Cheap Labor?”
The Washington Post
, October 21, 1995.
2
“These are not Einsteins”
Bruce Morrison, interview, January 24, 2011.
3
“We find neither an inadequate supply”
William Butz, Terrence K. Kelly, David M. Adamson, et al., “Will the Scientific and Technology Workforce Meet the Requirements of the Federal Government?” Rand Corporation, 2004,
http://www.rand.org
.
4
To recruit hot new talent
“American-Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals in U.S. Competitiveness,” National Venture Capital Association, 2006,
http://www.nvca.org
.
5
“It makes no sense to”
“Bill Gates to Congress: Let Us Hire More Foreigners,” CNET News, March 12, 2006,
http://news.cnet.com
.
6
No ironclad protections for Americans
Morrison, interview, January 24, 2011.
7
Senior AIG executives summoned 250
Linda Kilcrease, “Problems with the H-1B Visa Expansion and T-Visas,” web post, January 8, 2008, accessed January 17, 2011.
http://www.zazona.comLibrary/BrainSavers/Problems_Kilcrease.htm
, and Kilcrease, letter to editor, “H-1B Visa: A Bad Idea,” Cnet, 2009, accessed April 21, 2012.
8
“After we were seated”
Douglas Crouse, “Competition from Abroad,”
The Daily Record
, Morris County, New Jersey, May 2, 2000.
http://www.programmersguild.org/archives/lib/abuse/drm20000502aig.htm
.
9
Americans were being replaced by H-1B
Kilcrease, “Problems with the H-1B Visa Expansion.”
10
Did not bring in any special skills
William Branigan, “White Collar Visas: Back Door for Cheap Labor,”
The Washington Post
, October 21, 1995.
11
“This profitable company boasted
Kilcrease, “Problems with the H-1B Visa Expansion.”
12
One-third of its 46,000-member workforce
“Quota Quickly Filled on Visas for High-Tech Guest Workers,”
The New York Times
, April 5, 2007.
13
Foreign worker tide kept rising
“Flaws in Guest Worker Programs Add to US Unemployment Misery,”
International Business Times News
, November 21, 2010.
14
Or multinational temp agencies
Ron Hira and Anil Hira,
Outsourcing America: The True Cost of Shipping Jobs Overseas and What Can Be Done About It
, 2nd. ed. (New York: Amacom, 2008) 54–59, 158–160. “Outsourcers Are Criticized on Visa Use,”
The New York Times
, March 31, 2011.
15
“Tata has about 18,000 people in the U.S.”
Infosys financial statements, Hira, interview, January 7, 2011.
16
Its H-1B trade made Desai
“Forbes 400,”
Forbes.com
, September 30, 2009,
http://www.forbes.com
; see also
http://www.syntelinc.com
.
17
Fraudulent visa applications
Senator Charles Schumer, debate on Emergency Border Security Supplemental Appropriations Act,
Congressional Record
S6997, August 12, 2010,
http://www.gpo.gov
.
18
“Willfully underpaid its Indian computer programmers”
Robert Reich, testimony, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, September 28, 1995,
http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/history/reich/congress/092895rr.htm
.
19
“Pervasive cheating”
Office of the Inspector General, “Foreign Labor Certification Programs: The System Is Broken and Needs to Be Fixed,” U.S. Department of Labor, May 22, 1996,
http://www.oig.dol.gov
.
20
Improperly firing American workers
Reich, testimony, Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration.
21
“We have seen numerous instances”
Branigin, “White-Collar Visas.”
22
“It is a subsidy”
Paul Donnelly, “H-1B Is Just Another Gov’t. Subsidy,”
Computer World
, July 22, 2002,
http://www.computerworld.com
.
23
Estimated that one million or more
Paul Almeida, interview, January 16, 2011.
24
Approved 828,677 H-1B visas
U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “Characteristics of H-1B Specialty Occupation Workers,” April 15, 2010, Table 1,
http://www.uscis.gov
.
25
“If I had known in 1990”
Morrison, interview, January 24, 2011.
26
India has “been viewed as”
Som Mittal, “At Last Washington’s Anti-Outsourcing Rhetoric Cools,”
Mercury News
(San Jose, CA), December 12, 2010.
27
Indian firms are saving U.S. corporations
“Global Sourcing Trends,” Strategic Review 2010, executive summary, NASSCOM.
28
“Pfizer adopted Corporate Procedure 117”
Pfizer, “Contingent Worker Procedure,” Corporate Procedure #117, November 3, 2007,
http://kalamazoocontractoradministration.pfizer.com
.
29
Pfizer signed up two Indian staffing agencies
“Pfizer to Outsource Some Computer Services,”
The Day
(New London, CT), June 23, 2005.
30
When the first Indian IT specialists arrived
Lee Howard, interview, January 27, 2011.
31
“Everybody was scared to death”
Former Pfizer systems analyst (name withheld on request), interview, January 31, 2011.
32
“Five years ago”
Howard, interview, January 27, 2011; Lee Howard, “Pfizer to Ax IT Contractors,
The Day
, November 2, 3008.
33
“These contracting companies”
Pfizer systems analyst, interview, January 31, 2011.
34
Pfizer maintained
Senator Christopher J. Dodd and Representative Joseph Courtney, letter to Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler, November 3, 2008.
35
Pfizer contended that these were not
Bruce Morrison, email, April 15, 2012, and interview, April 16, 2012.
36
“Pfizer would have had no involvement”
Anthony J. Principi, Pfizer senior vice president, letter to Senator Christopher J. Dodd and Representative Joseph Courtney, November 6, 2008.
37
Requiring U.S. firms
Senator Charles Grassley, prepared statement, Senate Immigration Subcommittee Hearing, July 26, 2011, Office of Senator Grassley,
http://www.grassley.senate.gov
; Paul Almeida, interview, January 6, 2011.
38
“Program is riddled with loopholes”
Office of Senator Charles Grassley, press release, “Grassley, Durbin Say GAO Report Highlights Need for Major Reform of the H-1B Visa Program,” January 31, 2011,
http://www.grassley.senate.gov
.
39
“The myth of a desperate software labor shortage”
Norman Matloff, testimony to House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration, April 21, 1998,
http://judiciary.house.gov/about/subimmigration.html
.
40
Rejected high-tech industry claims
Butz et al., “Will the Scientific and Technology Workforce Meet the Requirements of the Federal Government?”
41
Offshoring strategies were causing
B. Lindsay Lowell, Harold Salzman, Hamutal Bernstein, et al., “Steady as She Goes? Three Generations of Students Through the Science and Engineering Pipeline,” Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, Rutgers University, and the Urban Institute, October 2009,
http://policy.rutgers.edu/faculty/salzman/steadyasshegoes.pdf
.
42
“A glorified international temp agency”
“Border Bill Aims at Indian Companies,”
The New York Times
, August 6, 2011.
43
“Erode cost arbitrage”
Congressional Record
, S6997–S6998, August 12, 2010,
http://www.gpo.gov
.
44
One potentially helpful step
“Highly Skilled May Wait Less for Visas,”
The New York Times
, November 29, 2011.
1
“The people’s business”
Evan Bayh, press statement at Purdue University, February 15, 2010,
http://bayh.senate.gov
.
2
“Strident partisanship”
Evan Bayh, “Why I’m Leaving the Senate,”
The New York Times
, February 21, 2010.
1
“Over the past thirty years”
Nolan McCarthy, Keith T. Poole, and Howard Rosenthal,
Polarized America: The Dance of Ideology and Unequal Riches
(Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 2006), 1–3.
2
“It’s the incredible shrinking middle”
Senator John Breaux, quoted in “Congress—Mr. In-Between,”
National Journal
, December 16, 1995.
3
“There are still times when”
Tom Mann, interview, January 7, 2010.
4
“Just one or two determined senators”
Bayh, “Why I Am Leaving the Senate.”
5
“This type of social interaction”
Ibid.
6
The last straw
Bayh, press statement.
7
“The best way to address”
“Senate Rejects Plan to Create Commission on the Deficit,”
The Washington Post
, January 27, 2010; Mike Allen, “Why Washington Is Broken?” Politico, January 26, 2010,
http://www.politico.com
.
8
“It’s impossible to avoid”
Fred Hiatt, “McConnell’s Cynical Flip,”
The Washington Post
, February 1, 2010.
9
The debate in each case was
Nicholas D. Kristof, “The Wrong Side of History,”
The New York Times
, November 19, 2009.
10
In the Senate, 13 Republicans
John D. Morris, “Congress Passes Bill on Medicare,”
The New York Times
, July 29, 1965.
11
GOP opposition was monolithic in 2010
“Senate Passes Health Care Overhaul on Party-Line Vote,”
The New York Times
, December 25, 2009; “Congress Sends White House Landmark Health Overhaul,”
The New York Times
, March 22, 2010.
12
Health reform proposed by Republican Richard Nixon
“Nixon Offers Health Insurance Program,”
The New York Times
, February 7, 1974.
13
Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut
“Lieberman Gets Ex-Party to Shift on Health Plan,”
The New York Times
, December 15, 2009.
14
Eisenhower regularly shared drinks
Harry McPherson, interview, April 2, 2010.
15
“I am now a Keynesian”
“Nixon Reportedly Says He Is Now a Keynesian,”
The New York Times
, January 7, 1971.
16
When Johnson was in the worst jams
McPherson, interview, April 2, 2010.
17
The most productive legislative records
Sarah A. Binder, “The Dynamics of Legislative Gridlock, 1947–1996,”
American Political Science Review
93, no. 3 (September 1999).
18
“Shame, Shame, Shame”
Bill D. Moyers, “What a Real President Was Like,” Outlook,
The Washington Post
, November 13, 1988.
19
He worked on Dirksen’s pride in America
Lyndon B. Johnson,
The Vantage Point: Perspectives of the Presidency, 1963–1969
(New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1974), 157–58.
20
“There is no way on earth that”
Harry McPherson, interview, August 8, 2010.
21
Democrats fell all over themselves
E. W. Kenworthy, “Dirksen Shaped
Victory for Civil Rights Forces in Fight to Bring Measure to Vote,”
The New York Times
, June 20, 1964.
22
“Pull to the center”
Johnson,
Vantage Point
, 102–03.
23
“I think we just delivered”
Moyers, “Real President.”
24
Up from just 4 Senate seats to 20
“Members and Seniority 88th Congress, 2nd Session,”
CQ Almanac 1964
(Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, 1965), 27–32; Directory of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives, May 27, 2011,
http://www.house.gov
.
25
The parties have deserted the center
McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal,
Polarized America
, 1.
26
See the widening gulf
Keith Poole and Howard Rosenthal, “Two Dimensional Animated Gif for the 46th to 105th Congresses (House and Senate Simultaneously)” (Athens: University of Georgia, May 12, 2011),
http://www.voteview.com/animate.htm
.
27
“This sense of the tribe”
Mann, interview, January 7, 2010.
28
“This is the sharpest, most rancorous”
Norman Ornstein, interview, January 7, 2010.
29
“Nobody goes there anymore”
David M. Herszenhorn, “In Health Vote, a New Vitriol,”
The New York Times
, December 24, 2009.
30
“Partisan polarization”
Binder, “Dynamics of Legislative Gridlock.”
31
“Republicans began using filibusters”
Ornstein, interview, January 7, 2010.
32
Senator Strom Thurmond
“Carolinian Sets Talking Record,”
The New York Times
, August 30, 1957.
33
“You have
tyranny of the minority
” Senator Tom Udall, interview, November 18, 2011.
34
“The silent filibuster”
Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein,
The Broken Branch
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 81–82.
35
Originally, personal holds
Norman Ornstein, “Our Broken Senate,”
The American
(American Enterprise Institute), March–April 2008.
36
“A hold is a hostage-taking weapon”
Ornstein, interview, January 7, 2010.
37
“The use of delaying tactics”
Mann, interview, January 7, 2010.
38
“Condemned to death-by-filibuster”
Barbara Sinclair, testimony to the Senate Rules Committee, July 28, 2010.
39
Senate has become such a bottleneck
Tom Udall, Senate floor speech,
Congressional Record
, January 27, 2011,
http://www.gpo.gov
.
40
These procedures have evolved
Senator Jeff Merkley, “Why ‘Supermajority’ No Longer Works in the Senate,”
The Washington Post
, November 6, 2011.
41
Filibuster came into being by mistake
Sarah A. Binder, testimony to the Senate Rules Committee, April 22, 2010.
42
To bar filibusters on the procedural motion
“Senate Limits ‘Holds,’ Keeps Filibuster,” Weekly Report,
CQ Weekly
, January 31, 2011.
43
“We want to force a talking filibuster”
Udall, interview, November 18, 2011.
44
The two trends overlap almost perfectly
McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal,
Polarized America
, 2–8; Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal, “The Political Economy of American Income Inequality,” voteviewblog, November 23, 2011,
http://voteview.com
.
45
Litmus tests: The Minimum Wage
Bartels,
Unequal Democracy
, 5, 27.
46
Below the real value
“Congress Passes Increase in the Minimum Wage,”
The New York Times
, May 25, 2007; Doug Hall, “Increasing the Minimum Wage Is Smart for Families and the Economy,” Economic Policy Institute, May 19, 2011,
http://www.epi.org
.
47
Twelve states passed state minimum wages
McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal,
Polarized America
, 169–71. In 2005, Washington State had the highest legal minimum wage: $7.35 an hour.
48
Eight of them
Catherine Rampell, “Wage Floor Is Increasing in 8 States in New Year,”
The New York Times
, December 23, 2011.
49
Bush made the big changes in 2002
Bartels,
Unequal Democracy
, 197.
50
Gridlock was the ally of the wealthy
“Estate Tax Will Return Next Year, but Few Will Pay It,”
The New York Times
, December 17, 2010.
51
“The fight over estate tax repeal”
Bartels,
Unequal Democracy
, 197.
