Watch the program for Tuesday the 7th.
The show probably didn't go as smoothly as he had hoped. After giving his standard propaganda pitch, callers were allowed to call in. Every single caller was skeptical of H-1B and had some very stinging questions—including the one hard to understand H-1B that called.
CSPAN set up shop at a high school, and at first it looked like they were going to stack the deck with naive kids to ask softball questions. If that was the intention CSPAN made a big mistake! There were two high school girls that looked like they were going to be patsies but much to Anderson's surprise, and to his dismay, were little lionesses. I would guess that there are some parents in that high school that have been burned by H-1B!
Anderson had one big advantage—there were no follow up questions, so he could basically B.S. his way out of some very awkward situations.
Here is my unofficial analysis and transcript of what transpired.
2:37:00 The Anderson interview begins. The online video is a total of 3 hours with the last half hour going to Anderson.
He ranted that the yearly cap isn't big enough. He then used some irrelevant statistics to show that H-1B isn't significant compared to the entire U.S. work force. What he failed to mention is that H-1B doesn't affect the entire workforce nearly as much as STEMs, so his argument was logically flawed.
2:43:00 Dominique Hunter, a high school student from Susquehanna High School in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania asked a good question about whether the importation of these foreign workers will increase unemployment and poverty in the United States. Unfortunately the video glitched during her question so it's difficult to understand. Anderson used a surprising argument that the children of H-1Bs add to our talent pool. Anderson's answer contained quite a bit of unproved geneticism because he assumed that H-1Bs have superior genes compared to Americans, and he seemed to imply that the genes are passed onto their kids. The girl asking the question was African American, so it's probably very lucky for Anderson that she wasn't allowed a follow up because she didn't look too happy that Anderson was arguing that H-1Bs are genetically superior. LOL!
2:45:00 A male caller claimed that the H-1B program is harming America by turning us into a beggar nation. Anderson used another standard line — if you don't let companies hire H-1Bs the companies will offshore the jobs. He talks about the lack of education of Americans and then claims that H-1B fees help train Americans. He made a claim that H-1Bs help Americans get more skills. Huh??? Did he think that H-1Bs come here and train Americans?
2:48:00 An angry female caller is not happy the way companies force Americans to train their replacements. Anderson answers that there are protections in the law so companies can't replace Americans, which is of course a crock. He blows off the story about workers being replaced as being nothing more than companies changing contractors, which can be misconstrued.
2:51:00 A man calls in that claims he has been here on an H-1B for 11 years (that's a long time!). He is angry that he can't get a green card. He claims it should be easy to get citizenship since his wife is an American citizen who doesn't want to leave the U.S. Anderson makes a pitch to handle his case, and then agrees that the wait for green cards is way to long.
2:53:00 Nicole Weaver, another African American female student from the same high school asked what kind of training Americans need to compete. Superficially her question seemed like a softball but there were plenty of traps for Anderson to stub his toes on and it showed the way he danced around the question. Anderson said that most American companies are not avoiding hiring Americans, and he said once a foreigner comes here to work they become American so there is no difference. Predictably he called for more technology schools.
2;55:00 A man calls that give a much better answer to the high school girl's question than Anderson did. If you listen to anything in the video fast forward to listen to this guy. Anderson couldn't help but crack a smile when he lied big time to answer the caller.
2:58:00 The last caller was an engineer who agreed with the previous caller but added that H-1Bs are underpaid. Ooops! Anderson's answer was so loopy he started to get spacey.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: If anybody can record this video I would like to get a copy on VHS, DVD, or CD. We need to get this on youtube with better quality, and because CSPAN doesn't necessarily archive these things long term. Right now I don't have cable TV so I record it, but I have the tools to put it online.
