CNN's Dobbs said Clinton is "selling out our middle class" on H-1B visas, but ignored GOP candidates

[NNN0LHI]

http://mediamatters.org/items/200707110001?f=h_latest

On the July 9 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, Dobbs reported that Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) "repeated her call for an increase in the number of H-1B visas" during a recent speech to the Indian Institute of Technology, adding that Clinton "backs a plan that would raise the number of H-1{B} visas to 115,000 from the current level of 65,000." Dobbs teased the segment by saying, "Tonight, Senator Hillary Clinton facing charges she's selling out our middle class to boost her presidential ambitions. Is the senator putting the interest of India ahead of working Americans?" In highlighting only Clinton's position on the issue, Dobbs ignored positions taken by Republican presidential candidates Sen. John McCain (AZ), former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Sen. Sam Brownback (KS) in support of plans "that would raise the number of H-1 visas to 115,000 from the current level of 65,000." GOP presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has also expressed his support for the H1-B visa program. Dobbs did not suggest that Giuliani, McCain, Brownback, or Romney are "selling out our middle class" or "putting the interest of India ahead of working Americans." In addition, both Dobbs and CNN correspondent Louise Schiavone suggested that Clinton was a hypocrite for supporting an increase in the number of H1-B visas issued while opposing the outsourcing of American jobs. Neither Dobbs nor Schiavone explained how Clinton's positions on these issues amount to hypocrisy.

On May 25, 2006, the Senate passed the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2006, which both Brownback and McCain voted for and co-sponsored. As a May 25, 2006, Washington Post report noted, the bill "{i}ncreases the number of H1-B visas for skilled workers from 65,000 to 115,000 annually, beginning in 2007." The legislation did not pass, because efforts to reconcile the Senate bill with the House immigration bill failed. In addition, on June 28, McCain voted to invoke cloture on the Comprehensive Immigration Reform Act of 2007, which "would have authorized U.S. employers to hire 225,000 to 290,000 H-1B workers per year," according to a June 30 San Francisco Chronicle article. Brownback voted against the cloture measure, which failed.

During a December 8, 1998, speech to the Mayor's Task Force on Biomedical Research and Development, while discussing "New York City's greatest resource beyond anything else that I've mentioned ... immigration," Giuliani asserted: "The cap on H1-B visas was 65,000 per year; Congress has approved an increase to 115,000 for fiscal years 1999 and 2000. And given where the Congress was a few years ago in its anti-immigrant feelings and attitudes, this is a step in the right direction."

In a February 7 appearance on CNBC's Kudlow & Company, Romney said, "We do have a visa program for people who come in on migrant workers visas. We have H1-B visas." He continued: "Let's bring in people who bring skill and particular abilities that we need in our economy rather than opening floodgates."

[illinoisprogressive]

1. At least one journalist has the spine to ask some hard questions of Clinton.

she has been getting a free ride in the media. Everyone knows how the gop candidates stand. But, no one has really discussed or asked any of the questions regarding some troubling things about clinton.
All candidates have had tough stuff about them, questions and have been getting vetted except for Clinton who has pretty much had a free pass.

[NNN0LHI]

2. Who would that journalist be?

Please don't try and tell me that you think that gasbag Dobbs is a journalist.

Don