Tucker, Cuban Battle Over Whether Choosing Foreign Workers Over American Workers Is Good for Economy

Tuesday on Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban battled over the H1-B visa and its usefulness for the United States economy.

Cuban argued that a business bringing in the best applicants from around the world is actually good for the American economy, while Tucker noted that people who get beat out for jobs just remain unemployed and get on disability insurance.

Partial transcript as follows:

CUBAN: [G]etting the most qualified applicant for a company and going out there and searching the world for the best applicant, I think, is a good thing for American business. It allows to us compete globally in ways we might may not have otherwise been able to.

CARLSON: That’s the talking point and it makes sense, I have to say on its face, but the reality as you know is that 80% of the foreigners admitted under H1-B make less than the median income in the field in which they work. In other words, they’re being brought over not because of their skills, but because they save labor costs. That’s a subversion of the idea.

CUBAN: Correct … when you look at the actual numbers, you’re exactly right and hopefully this will address it, but when it comes to competing for the best talent around the world, I’m a big believer in American exceptionism. I believe we can compete. And when someone from one of our universities, a native born, an immigrant, naturalized, however you want to define someone working here in the United States when they can’t get the job, we get smarter. We know someone doesn’t get a job from me, you know, I tell them, “Work harder, get smarter, you’ll get it the next time around. You’ll get the next job.” I think that’s good for everybody.

CARLSON: Except in a lot of those cases we don’t get smarter, we get unemployed and go on disability. I mean, 44 percent, thereabout, of recent college graduates —

CUBAN: Go on to disability?

CARLSON: Yeah, people actually stay out of the labor force for huge, long periods of time they are not even counted in the official numbers.

CUBAN: Tucker, that’s so far out of left field — to assign a disability issue…

CARLSON: I’m talking about SSI disability insurance, which is one of the ways that people make due when they don’t have a full-time job as you know. And it’s a huge issue in this country.

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent

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