In a Breitbart posting dated today, Neil Munro provides an interesting analysis of a potential schism in the Biden administration over the importation of foreign labor.
Munro says there is an old-left East Coast wing in the Biden ranks, headed by Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and others that “wants to help raise Americans’ wages.” That faction “has clashed repeatedly with the White House’s new-left progressive West Coast wing,” headed by Vice-President Kamala Harris and DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The West Coast group “favors more immigrant labor and consumers for wealthy investors.” It is backed by fat cats such as Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO.
The split was made evident on Monday at what Munro calls a “staged cheerleading event” hosted by Raimondo to urge support of the America COMPETES Act, a technology bill to spend $52 billion on domestic computer-chip factories called “fabs.” Schmidt, representing the super-wealthy investors, spoke up in favor of the bill but added:
We need this [funding] bill passed and we collectively have got to figure out a way to get all the really, really smart people in this area to work on this. That also, by the way, includes high skills immigration to get people who want to work in the United States to work in these fabs — and the citizenry in those states are going to benefit enormously from this as well. [Emphasis added.]
To which Raimondo responded: “These are jobs, these are good jobs and these are jobs Americans should have.” [Emphasis added.]
All this is most likely a tempest in a teapot. Raimondo is suspected of harboring political ambitions beyond her current mid-level cabinet post. (Ironically, during Biden’s SOTU, she was selected as the so-called designated survivor, i.e., that member of the administration watching from a safe location in case wholesale calamity strikes everyone else.) Her posturing is suspected of being an attempt to burnish her record as a more middle-of-the-road Democrat willing to work with the other party. So far, her rather lame attempt at bipartisanship is failing: the bill passed the House in February with only one Republican voting yes.
In general, from what’s been evident so far, no one in this administration is truly interested in making life better for Americans. That just wouldn’t be Who They Are.
For more, see Breitbart.