How MAGA Can Stuff DOGE Again in Its Field and Win the Day on H1B

By Lambert Strether of Corrente.

Anyone inform Steve Bannon: Here’s a technique for MAGA to win on H1B. Congress is so carefully divided that even a number of members maintain veto energy over the Home’s selection of a Speaker. Take these steps: This week, type a MAGA caucus (minimal dimension: 4. See under). Then, when Congress reconvenes at midday ET on January 3, the MAGA caucus ought to deny their votes to any Speaker nominee. No speaker may be elected. With out a Speaker, the Home can’t operate, not to mention rely and certify the outcomes of the Electoral School in order that Trump can take the oath of workplace on January 20. The one means out: The Republican Social gathering agrees to the MAGA caucus calls for on H1B coverage. The MAGA caucus then permits the vote for a speaker to proceed to a conclusion.

That’s it, actually. That’s the put up. However I’ll broaden a bit on particulars of the technique, touch upon H1B controversy over the previous few days, focus on what the demand is likely to be, and conclude.

Technique Background

The thought of utilizing the Speaker’s election as leverage comes from Chad Pergram, who covers Congress for FOX. He writes in “The Hitchhiker’s Information to failing to elect a Home speaker shortly” (an earlier model appeared in Water Cooler)

[T]he speaker’s election on Jan. 3 poses a particular problem. Right here’s the bar for Johnson – or anybody else: The speaker of the Home should win an outright majority of all members casting ballots for somebody by title. In different phrases, the individual with essentially the most votes doesn’t win.

The pinnacle-count:

The Home clocks in at 434 members with one emptiness [Gaetz]…. That is the breakdown when the Congress begins: 219 Republicans to 215 Democrats…. However the speaker’s election on Jan. 3 poses a particular problem. Right here’s the bar for Johnson – or anybody else: The speaker of the Home should win an outright majority of all members casting ballots for somebody by title. In different phrases, the individual with essentially the most votes doesn’t win.

This is the reason it took McCarthy so many ballots to win in January 2023.

So let’s crunch the mathematics for Mike Johnson. If there are 219 Republicans and 4 voted for somebody moreover him – and all Democrats forged ballots for Jeffries, the tally is 215-214. However there’s no speaker. Nobody attained an outright majority of all members casting ballots for somebody by title. The magic quantity is 218 if all 434 members vote.

By rule, this paralyzes the Home[1]. The Home completely, unequivocally, can’t do something till it elects a speaker. Interval.

Due to this fact, the Maga Caucus ought to include a minimal of 4 members. Extra:

This additionally signifies that the Home can’t certify the outcomes of the Electoral School, making Trump the forty seventh president of america on Jan. 6.

The failure to elect a speaker compels the Home to vote again and again…

And over… and… over…

Till it lastly faucets somebody.

McCarthy’s election incinerated 15 ballots over 5 days two years in the past.

After all, no person needs that. Which is why the Republican Social gathering ought to accede to the MAGA Caucus’s calls for. In writing, naturally.

I’m not at all an professional in Republican politics or factions; I got here up as a Democrat. However following the H1B controversy on the Twitter, it struck me forcibly than many MAGA supporters have been in truth very properly versed in coverage, historical past, and knowledge, and deployed their data successfully towards Musk and his tech bros. For instance, H1B just isn’t about importing staff who’re “extremely expert” (a pervasive, unexamined, and dishonest, tech bro speaking level). That’s why, for instance, Trump introduced Mar-a-Lago waiters into the nation beneath H1B. Slightly, H1B is about importing staff who’re low cost and compliant, as a result of administration can maintain the specter of visa elimination over their heads. That signifies that different issues being equal, administration will at all times choose H1Bs over residents (the facility imbalance, as idpol varieties would say).

If MAGA is a celebration faction whose salient function is loyalty to Trump, the MAGA caucus technique simply outlined won’t ever be adopted. If MAGA is about coverage, there’s not less than an opportunity. Right here, the distinction between Democrats and MAGA may be very nice. It’s onerous to think about a livid debate over coverage going down amongst Democrats in public, one with little or no deference to leaders proven. It happens to me that Democrat expenses of authoritarian followership and cultishness are, properly, projection. It’s additionally onerous for me to think about any Democrats having the stones to undertake the MAGA caucus technique. However maybe MAGA does!

H1B Controversy

Axios has a very good timeline of the controversy, in “Trump sides with Musk in H-1B struggle“:

The MAGA-DOGE skirmishes began final Sunday, with anti-immigration and anti-Indian vitriol towards Trump’s choose of enterprise capitalist Sriram Krishnan as his AI advisor.

I missed the Krishnan “vitriol.” Unhappy to say, however when so many “physique retailers” (InfoSys, and so on.) are based mostly in India, and vital Indian cititzens, it’s simple to see why animus would possibly develop.

It escalated into full battle Thursday when Musk ally and DOGE co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy took to X to blast American “mediocrity” tradition. Musk defended Ramaswamy, and the 2 sides began partaking in an more and more bitter confrontation.

I entered when Vivek posted his screed. Suffice to say that you could possibly have swapped out Vivek’s phrases and swapped in Hillary’s “deplorables” speech, and no person would have observed. On the brilliant facet, it’s splendidly clarifying to see that management in each events hates the working class.

On Friday afternoon, Musk doubled down, saying MAGA adherents who continued to blast immigration and the tech group have been “contemptible fools,” later clarifying he was speaking about “racists” who would “completely be the downfall of the Republican Social gathering if they don’t seem to be eliminated.”

That “later clarifying” is doing plenty of work; it’s virtually as if anyone handed Musk the speaking level. After which:

Simply earlier than midnight Friday, Musk as soon as once more defended the H-1B program in vulgar, all-caps phrases, saying this system was the important thing to the success of his (and different massive American) corporations.

“Take a giant step again and F–Ok YOURSELF within the face.,” Musk wrote.

Oh? How precisely? The Axios timeline offers out earlier than a sequence of engagements between Musk and MAGA, the place MAGA beats Musk like a gong on knowledge and coverage. This can be a very lengthy thread, however offers the flavour:

And:

And:

Oh look. Labor arbitrage! To which Musk responds, meek as a lamb:

Fairly the change in tone, eh? From ” F–Ok YOURSELF within the face” to “simply mounted”! It’s virtually as if Musk received a name, isn’t?

After all, if H1B have been that “simple to repair,” it might have been mounted alongside in the past. And it’s fairly revealing that it took a number of blows to Musk’s head and physique over many hours by MAGA with pores and skin within the sport who really understood the info and the coverage points to get whoever in Susie Wiles’s workplace displays Musk’s tweets to choose up the cellphone.

The Demand

Primarily based solely on having consumed huge numbers of Tweets on H1Bs, my conclusion is that Musk is fallacious to need “reform.” The aim of H1B is, in spite of everything, labor arbitrage: low cost, compliant labor. If labor arbitrage is reformed away from H1B, then there’s no cause for it within the first place. If not, it ought to be abolished completely. If Elon needs to import mind geniuses as an alternative of waiters for Mar-a-Lago, we now have one other class for that: O-1 (“O-1 Visa: People with Extraordinary Skill or Achievement“).

So that’s my demand, ill-informed although it might be: Abolish H1B; reform O-1 as wanted.

Nonetheless, get the dedication to satisfy the calls for in writing, for 3 causes:

First, my takeaway from the controversy is that the H1B supporters — i.e., DOGE — are essentially dishonest; they held onto their “extremely expert labor” speaking level like grim dying, even that MAGA was simply in a position to present it was a lie (Sterling’s thread was the very best response, however there have been many, many others that have been good too). Something not diminished to writing will likely be gamed or not delivered on.

Second, it was amusing to see the cuddle puddle of Silicon Valley enterprise capitalists and media service suppliers — i.e., DOGE — performing as enforcers as quickly as Elon took the “reform” line; they used the identical phrases and ways Democrat enforcers do! (“Now just isn’t the time,” “one crew,” “time to maneuver on”). So, with dishonest celebration enforcers, sure, get it in writing.

Lastly, I’m sick of DOGE simply tweeting it out. It’s wonderful to see a heated coverage argument play out in public, however Elon’s commitments are well worth the digits they’re written with. Elon tweeting “Reforming H1B is sweet, really” and an entire cheering part chanting “The controversy is over” simply doesn’t make it[2]. Get the dedication to satisfy the calls for in writing.

Conclusion

Let me shut with phrases from the candidate who, if the Democrats hadn’t stabbed him within the again, may need forestalled Trump:

I’ve gotta say, quoting the President of School Republicans wasn’t on my Bingo card. However I don’t assume quoting Bernie Sanders was on his Bingo Card both.

Thus far — Hi there, President Romney! — Republicans have change into extra like MAGA, not MAGA like Republicans. Maybe the H1B controversy will present whether or not this tendency will proceed, or stall.

NOTES

[1] It could be that in excessive conditions — and a number of votes for Speaker usually are not excessive — there are methods out. From “Home Observe: A Information to the Guidelines, Precedents and Procedures of the Home“:

Beneath the fashionable observe, the Speaker is elected by a majority of Members-elect voting by surname, a quorum being current.

As Pergram says. Extra (citations omitted):

In two cases the Home agreed to decide on and subsequently did select a Speaker by a plurality of votes however confirmed the selection by majority vote. In 1849 the Home had been in session 19 days with out having the ability to elect a Speaker, no candidate having acquired a majority of the votes forged. The voting was viva voce, every Member responding to the decision of the roll by naming the candidate for whom he voted. Lastly, after the fifty-ninth poll, the Home adopted a decision declaring {that a} Speaker could possibly be elected by a plurality. In 1856 the Home once more struggled over the election of a Speaker. Ballots numbering 129 had been taken with none candidate receiving a majority of the votes forged. The Home then adopted a decision allowing the election to be determined by a plurality. On each of those events, the Home ratified the plurality election by a majority vote.

So if historical past is any information, 129 ballots is the baseline for altering the process Pergram describes. Feedback from Congressional guidelines experts welcome.

[2] Re: President-elect Trump, as soon as a Speaker is chosen, the election is licensed, and he takes the oath of workplace, a cheerful ending would appear like this: “Congratulations, you’re nonetheless my agent.”