So the President signed an Executive Order to halt legal immigration to the U.S. for 60 days, until, hopefully we can be past , at least the worst part of this pandemic. Some have called him, because of this, a xenophobe and racist, not unlike what he’s been referred to by his political opponents before (including the media). But it’s a temporary ban and even though current Legal Permanent Residents are not affected, as well as farm workers, this for some goes too far. Of course, people with valid visas have been able to come and go in the U.S. throughout the pandemic and all this does is put a halt on those people, probably few now, from entering the country possibly bringing with them more Wuhan Virus. Of course we could test everyone at ports of entry, but isn’t it easier and cheaper just to say, no for a couple of months? Yes, the media make this a big deal, but it isn’t in reality. Sixty days.
This is a small inconvenience for a small number of people, currently as we’ve prevented flights to/from Europe as well as China. People, no matter what the Democrats are saying, are now coming to the understanding that this pandemic was placed upon us, by China. Yes, there may have been Westerners that flew in and out of Wuhan – during the rise of the pandemic, but it was China that did not close down those ports of entry for outsiders and allowed those people from Europe, the U.S., and other countries to freely travel and become infected.
People, not just ehre in the U.S, but around the world want to punish China, and I agree that they should be punished. The first thing Western countries, and even those in the East, should do is de-couple strategic, and national interest products from being produced there. In the U.S. that would mean, immediately, the reagents and compounds for necessary medicines. Congress should pass a law, now, that says that these critical medicines will be mostly produced in our own country. Give the pharmaceutical companies a temporary tax reprieve on starting up manufacturing here – say five years. We won’ t have to beg China for those medicines. Do the same for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). I would almost guarantee there will be dozens of companies standing up, producing masks, gloves, and everything else needed by health care workers that would easily be able to be obtained in a future emergency. the same with ventalators or anything else hospitals may need. I believe we could take a hit on tax revenue for a few years while these businesses ramped up.
Technology is another one. Samsung has already pulled a majority of it’s manufacturing out of China and back to South Korea. We should encourage American companies, like Apple, to do the same – again, with a tax reprieve on just those products perviously manufactured in China. Congress could pass a bill, inclusive of all of these tomorrow, if there was a will to do so.
Finally, and this is really the most important: The President should invalidate and expel every Chinese national here on a student visa, or who is here working on an H1-B. Everyone knows that they are here to steal our technology, everyone. Again, an Executive Order would take care of it.
Instead of all of these idiots in Congress saying “China needs to reimburse us” for the expense of containing the virus, de-coupling critical manufacturing and expelling Chinese nationals from our Universities and workplaces, would hurt their economy more than all of ours in the West have been damaged.
