With both politicians and business leaders lobbying for the expansion of H1B and related work visas, the nature of how those visas are currently used, and the repeated findings that there isn't a STEM shortage I wonder where you stand on such things.

To provide some topics you can reply to:

* H1B visas should be a last resort. They should either be more expensive or more restrictive.

* H1B visas should not have citizenship tied to the employer, if they are that badly needed their citizenship should be fast tracked

* Employers should be more incentivized to provide training programs for US citizens before hiring foreign workers

* Similar to Obamas focus on creating a university rating, a school should also need to report foreign student graduation rates and if they stay to work on a foreign worker visa. There are graduate programs that merely exist to allow foreign students a way into this country which ultimately drives up the cost of education, displaces citizens from the classroom, and then once they graduate they get the job that the citizen isn't qualified for (because she was priced out and displaced)

When you start thinking globally, term like 'foreign worker' would start sounding ridiculous to you. And protectionist policies probably would stop making any sense as well.

On the other hand, naturalization should take some time. Fast track citizenship doesn't make much sense, as it does take some time to get the culture of the place [e.g to serve public duties, like jury duty, etc].

Absolutely agree with you. That they are reeks of indentured servitude.

- Raise the national minimum wage and index it to the cost of living increases

- Extend unemployment benefits to workers who have lost their jobs and haven't been able to get back into the workforce

- Provide tax incentives to businesses that hire long-term unemployed workers and prohibit discriminating against the long-term unemployed when hiring

- Establish a work-sharing program that allows workers to collect unemployment assistance when employers choose to reduce hours instead of layoffs

- Provide incentives to employers for hiring unemployed veterans

- Support workers' rights to organize through the Employee Free Choice Act as well as trade laws that protect labor

- End tax incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas

- Fund school construction and modernization projects including urgent repairs, energy-efficient upgrades, and wiring for high-speed internet access

- Establish a National Infrastructure Bank to invest in infrastructure repair and expansion projects that will create millions of jobs nationally and open new economic opportunities

What do you think will work?

If a minimum wage is appropriate, this seems right. I tend to think a minimum wage is appropriate in the current situation. It does risk eliminating jobs at the low end.

"Extend unemployment benefits to workers who have lost their jobs and haven't been able to get back into the workforce"

Probably also a good idea - I don't think "they need a kick in the pants" is a very good model of those people.

"Provide tax incentives to businesses that hire long-term unemployed workers and prohibit discriminating against the long-term unemployed when hiring"

I like the first half of that - and maybe go further and outright pay a portion of wages as companies retrain these people. We have to make it desirable to hire them. An actual cost-benefit analysis should be done, though...

The second half worries me a bit. Trying to get companies to act outside of their interests is always messy (which certianly isn't to say it should never be done, mind...), and it's inviting litigation. I don't really think more work for lawyers is the kind of jobs program we want.

"Establish a work-sharing program that allows workers to collect unemployment assistance when employers choose to reduce hours instead of layoffs"

Interesting, and probably a good move making hours slightly closer to fungible for both parties.

"Provide incentives to employers for hiring unemployed veterans"

Probably not a bad thing (and probably easy to sell) but I'm curious what those incentives would look like.

"Support workers' rights to organize through the Employee Free Choice Act as well as trade laws that protect labor"

Interesting. We've definitely shifted away from organized labor as a country, for good and ill. I personally prefer employee ownership (startups and co-ops) to unions, where that makes sense... and would like to see unions made less necessary (like most concentrations of power) - but that isn't to say this couldn't be a good move.

"End tax incentives for companies that ship jobs overseas"

Also curious what that looks like.

"Establish a National Infrastructure Bank to invest in infrastructure repair and expansion projects that will create millions of jobs nationally and open new economic opportunities"

An interesting thought. Certainly, it makes sense to build infrastructure while money is cheap.

"What do you think will work?"

One thought I had on the international stage, which isn't really relevant to the House but I figure I'll mention it anyway, is that while I think the WTO's push to reduce trade barriers generally makes sense, we might want to globally (possibly in the context of the WTO) come up with a framework for permitting certain types/sizes/scopes of barriers based on the differences between countries in things like worker protections, environmental regulation, taxation, &c (including enforcement of same), with a goal of checking somewhat the downward pressure. Not anywhere near a trivial task, of course.

I'm also a big fan of the idea of a low (~7k or so) basic income, but I'm not sure whether pushing that makes sense.

So I'm Walmart (or some other large retail employer). What stops me from simply cutting every full time employee down to part time because I know the government will pay the difference in their salary?

Also curious why you think the minimum wage is a national issue? Why shouldn't each individual state or even city decide what minimum wage makes sense for them?

I do like the anti-discrimination for long-term unemployed and the National Infrastructure Bank (New Deal 2) though.

Presumably you think that you actually need those workers in your stores doing work, otherwise you'd just lay them off.

It seems like fixing this is a prerequisite to fixing many other broken aspects of the govt.