Prescription

* stop subsidizing cross-border bodyshoppers

* tax breaks should be restored/created/increased for costs to interview USA citizens (but not aliens/guest-workers/foreign student OPT/interns...) for jobs

* tax breaks should be restored/created/increased for costs to relocate USA citizen employees within the USA

* tax breaks should be restored/created/increased for employer investment in education and/or training of USA citizen employees (and maybe even a break for donations to scholarships for capable students in the general population)

* end visa waiver programs; they are insane in today's geopolitical environment

* count only adult USA citizens for purposes of determininig numbers and districts of US representatives

* fence all 8,600 plus miles of border, first quickly with 8 foot high chain-link or welded wire fence and vehicle barriers by the end of FY2016, then with more substantial fencing/walls by mid-FY2017

* patrol the borders with at least 35K fully-armed and armored regular DoD troops with orders to arrest if possible, but to repel all invaders

* run proper background investigations on every visa applicant, including interviews/interrogations of applicants (with polygraph and/or functional NMR/MRI, and voice stress analysis), interview spouses/fiancees, relatives (parents, children, siblings, aunts, uncles, first cousins), employers, teachers/professors, pastors/imams/priests/rabbis, landlords, co-workers, class-mates (and charge full reasonable costs)

* set in place means to track individual holders or temporary visas from entry to exit, with quarterly and annual aggregate reports to the public of estimates of average daily presence by visa type, and ability to find any individual within 48 hours

* moratorium on F, H, J, L, M visas for 6 months, 12 months, 5 years, 20 years (it would actually take close to 20 years of full employment with no guest-workers to heal the economy, based on estimates of numbers of displaced USA citizens), but however many months or years we can get so that dysfunctional US job markets can at least begin to recover

* significantly cut visa program levels so that the problem does not merely build up again (cut by 80%-99%; e.g. set the aggregate hard limit of E-3 plus H-1B plus L visas to 1K-2K per year and eliminate all "exemptions"; set the aggregate limit of J visas to 2K per year and eliminate permission to work in the USA; set the aggregate limit of F (student) visas to 5K per year; set the aggregate of H-2B visas to 1K per year, aggregate on green cards to 40K per year, and so on) -- note: if the corrupt federal government could be trusted with enforcing reasonable minimal standards the limits could be as much as 150% of the levels mentioned here (and the cuts 50%-80%).

* adopt a 1% rule: once a firm has 1% or more of its employees in the USA on guest-work visas or green cards (LPR visas) they are no longer eligible to sponsor or employ more, or use more in internships

* auction off guest-work and at least 75% of LPR visas monthly to the highest bidders (above the costs for paper-work handling, background investigations, etc.), and tightly link the bid amount to the compensation package, with a bond posted of 10% of the first year total compensation (salary + benefits)

* if you want to have a visa for "the best and brightest" then there'd better be some reasonable criteria by which to determine whether an applicant is "best" or "brightest" like:
  + a score of over 160 on a Wechsler IQ test AND Stanford-Binet,
  + aggregate ACT score above 34 (31 if you took the test before 1970),
  + aggregate (old 2-part) SAT score above 1540 or aggregate "new" (3-part) SAT score above 2200,
  + aggregate GRE above 1615,
  + PCAT in 99th percentile,
  + cumulative MCAT above 35,
  + LSAT of 175 or higher, or equivalent,
  + or a dozen significant US patents (not "put a camera in a cellular phone" or "interchangeable lenses for digital cameras" or "send a message when the user clicks this" or "shut off or turn on when the user makes a motion as though sliding a physical switch")
or a Nobel prize in physical/biological/medical science
PLUS a doctor's degree would make an appropriate floor for being able to apply for such a visa

* 80% of visas should be based on intelligence and high skill level, not skill-set, not "family re-unification" or "diversity" and not (90% of the time) "refugee" or "asylum" status

* if you want to have a business investment visa, then require that they bring in at least enough of their own money to start a tiny business ($160K is about what it costs to build a burger kiosk), and that they raise twice that much from non-USA investors (to cover operating expenses and salaries to start), then require that they employ at least 2 non-related USA citizens immediately (at least 60 hours per week, combined), 6 non-related USA citizens within the first 6 months (at least 180 hours per week, combined), and 10 non-related USA citizens within the first year (at least 300 hours per week, combined). (Do NOT rely on the assumption that if they raise $1M or $500K or $100K in investments from anywhere in the world including draining it from the USA, they will use those funds in such a way that at least 5 non-related US citizens may possibly some day be employed!)

* put some teeth into USA recruiting requirements and apply them to all work visa sponsors, not just those who hire 2% or more of their total work-force via such visas, and not just those who pay slightly below the average pay for competent USA STEM workers (i.e. eliminate the $60K salary exemption since this is below the average wet-behind-the-ears college new-hire salary offer, and eliminate the college/university exemption and the government and/or non-profit research center exemption, or, as suggested by senator Ted Cruz, increase it above $125K -- about the amount a young newly-wed couple would need to be earning to be able to take out a mortgage on a tiny starter home/shack on a postage-stamp lot in the Sili Valley/San Francisco area)

* eliminate OPT and CPT (which are abused in conjunction with F visas)

* eliminate quangos (quasi-non-governmental organizations. and government-sponsored enterprises. and similar crony socialist schemes) like Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, Sallie Mae...

* cut non-military federal compensation by 10%-20%, but cut total compensation for congress-critters and staffers by 25%-35% and cut total compensation for federal judges by 25%; cut congressional pensions by 80%

* eliminate federal funding for crony socialist Export-Import Bank

* restore the STOCK act prohibition against insider trading by congress-critters, staffers, and those in the executive branch

* eliminate the Socialist Insecurity Abomination cross-generational ponzi scheme and Federal Insurance Contributions Act

* eliminate ObummerDoesn'tCare, Medicare, Medicaid, Federal Hospital Insurance, Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance, Orwellian HIPAA, and EHR requirements

* eliminate the federal loan program for hospital construction/expansion, and its "must treat" strings along with it, and repeal EMTALA (42 USC 1395dd, PL99-272, 100 Stat. 164)

* eliminate estate taxes (and qualified terminable-interest property trusts [Q-TIPs], charitable remainder annuity trusts [CRATs], charitable lead annuity trusts [CLATs], charitable lead unitrusts [CLUTs], and charitable remainder unitrusts [CRUTs] with them)

* phase out the Pension Guaranty fund/admin and return to oversight aimed at fraud prevention and adequate investment

* eliminate federal income extortion, and replace it with a 9%-10% total (local+state+federal) retail sales tax, with a hard constitutional ceiling of 10%

* eliminate the exemptions on import taxes/customs/tariffs (close to 70% of all imported goods are now exempt), and increase import customs tariffs to an average of no more than 9% (this is to raise revenue, and cover the costs of inspections, not to be punitive or start a trade war, and is far short of the average our "trading partners" charge for USA goods they import) while retaining higher tariffs only as penalties for dumping and such (import tariffs in USA history (wikipedia): Presently only about 30% of all [goods imported into the USA] are subject to tariffs in the USA, the rest are on the free list. The 'average' tariffs now charged by the USA are at an historic low.", lists of tariffs in the USA by year of significant change, and customs duties in the USA (wikipedia): "Rates based on value rate from 0 to 20% in the 2011 schedule... The USA applies a customs tariff that is among the lowest in the world: 3% on average.")

* eliminate the Federal Reserve and return to sound, full-bodied precious metal coinage (I don't care whether it's gold, platinum, palladium, titanium, nickel, zinc, copper or lime-stone, so long as the seignorage is no more than 7%; just pick one and stick with it for at least a century)

* cut federal education loan programs and grants by at least 30% immediately, by at least 60% after 5 years, by at at least 75% after 10 years, with elimination by 15 years, because they are unconstitutional

* cut EPA funding by at least 60%, ditto the National Park Service

* cut funding of the Bureau of Land Management by at least 75%

* eliminate federal government funding for National Socialist Radio/CPB/NPR/PBS, AmeriCorpse, Teach For America (TFA), Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities and AFI, Faith in Public Life (FPL), Wellstone Action

* cut funding of the Department of Energy by at least 45%

* cut funding of the Department of Education by at least 80%, only authorizing statistical aggregate data collection and reporting by the NCES

* reduce funding of the Department of Health & Human Services (a.k.a. H377 & Human Suffering), USDA, NPS, & BIA

* eliminate federal funding for UN, its commissions, councils, etc.

* eliminate federal funding for World Bank & IMF (International Monetary Fund)

* congress should more closely restrict and over-see NIH, NSF and other grant programs

* eliminate federal funding of SWAT/Tactical Teams from all local, state, and federal departments and agencies other than DoD, FBI, & CIA (let cities, counties, and states fund their own when, where, and if the local citizenry deem them necessary by initiative or referendum, with periodic referenda required for continued funding)

* restore federal funding of "National Guard" and state militia defense training, arming, and the training pipe-lines in local middle, junior, high schools, colleges, and universities

* defund, repeal and root out "intelligent transportation" systems, and requirements for "black boxes" in vehicles, GPS broadcasting and otherwise blabbing (rather than merely receiving) in telephones and tablets and lap-tops and vehicles, and idiot-meters

* rotation in office for House and Senate, state legislature, governors: You serve one term of x years and then you're not eligible to run for that or any other government office or be employed by any government agency or non-profit for x years. So, if you serve a term in the USA senate, you have to sit out the next 6 years and try to get a REAL job... and no, you cannot be employed as a lobbyist or consultant to lobbyists or think tanks between terms.

There was no shortage of gifted, knowledgeable, creative, industrious US citizen STEM workers.

There is no shortage of talented US citizen STEM workers.

No credible evidence of impending shortage of gifted, knowledgeable, industrious US citizen STEM workers has been produced.