Third World America - Arianna Huffington [69]
The proposal, the StartUp Visa Act of 2010, is already in the legislative pipeline.42 It is being cosponsored by Senators John Kerry and Richard Lugar. According to the Washington Post, their bill “would create a two-year visa for immigrant entrepreneurs who are able to raise a minimum of $250,000, with $100,000 coming from a qualified U.S. angel or venture investor. After two years, if the immigrant entrepreneur is able to create five or more jobs (not including their children or spouse), attract an additional $1 million in investment, or produce $1 million in revenues, he or she will become a legal resident.”
“At a time when many are wondering whether Democrats and Republicans can come together on anything, there is at least one area where we’re in strong agreement,” wrote Kerry and Lugar in an op-ed. “We believe that America is the best country in the world to do business. And now is the time to reach out to immigrant entrepreneurs—men and women who have come from overseas to study in our universities, and countless others coming up with great ideas abroad—to help drive innovation and job creation here at home.”
The senators see the proposal as a jobs initiative, not an immigration reform initiative. As Kerry put it, “This bill is a small down payment on a cure to global competitiveness.”43
Clearly, when it comes to jobs, there is no lack of ideas. Just a lack of political will.
Yes, many of these job-creating proposals are expensive, but, in the long run, not nearly as expensive as long-term unemployment and the disappearance of America’s middle class.
PERVERTED PRIORITIES: THE REMIX
Any time the idea of funding jobs programs or rebuilding America’s moldering infrastructure is raised, our leaders immediately look at the price tag and go into sticker shock: We can’t afford that! But they never seem to have the same reaction when the defense budget races past $700 billion or when it’s time to sign the next check for funding the wars of choice in Iraq and Afghanistan (2010 price tag? $161 billion).44, 45
A perfect example of this came in May 2010 when, on the same day, the Senate approved a nearly $60 billion funding bill for the war in Afghanistan while the House took a hatchet to a spending bill, cutting out provisions that would have offered $24 billion in aid to cash-strapped states and helped laid-off workers pay for health insurance.46 The juxtaposition spoke volumes about what we’ve come to value in this country.
That’s got to change. As a nation, we need to start redefining the meaning of “national security” by making sure our ports are protected, our railways are secure, and our nation’s nuclear facilities, chemical plants, and storage facilities aren’t vulnerable to attack. And we need to make sure that with all the budget cuts happening in states across the nation, we don’t underfund our police and first responders. We’ve got to stop robbing our homeland security Peter to pay our foreign wars Paul.
For example, we are planning to spend $12.6 billion on ballistic missile defense in 2011.47 For the same amount, we could hire an additional 190,873 police officers for a year.48
So let’s end our disastrous—and Treasury-draining—nation-building forays in Afghanistan and Iraq. And let’s stop making a debate about cutting defense spending an electrified third rail that must never be touched.
There is plenty of fat in the Defense Department. Representative Barney Frank suggests a good place to