Tariffs Hurt the Poorest the Most

 

The chart above displays the estimated burdens of trade tariffs (as a share of after-tax household income) on US households by income deciles. It represents graphically the main conclusion of a new research article “US tariffs are an arbitrary and regressive tax” by economists Jason Furman (Chairman, Council of Economic Advisers), Katheryn Russ (UC-Davis), Jay Shambaugh (Council of Economic Advisers), emphasis mine:

Tariffs – taxes on imported goods – likely impose a heavier burden on lower-income households, as these households generally spend more on traded goods as a share of expenditure/income and because of the higher level of tariffs placed on some key consumer goods. We estimate the tariff burden by income group and by family structure using a new dataset constructed by matching of granular data on trade and consumer spending. The findings suggest that tariffs function as a regressive tax that weighs most heavily on women and single parents.

Here’s their methodology:

We match import duties to standard consumer expenditure data to take a more detailed look and find evidence that low- and middle-income households do, indeed, spend a higher fraction of their income and non-housing expenditure on tariffs. The findings indicate that tariffs act as a regressive tax on American consumers and are distortionary in their variation across products.

Here’s the paper’s conclusion:

Based on this initial analysis, it appears tariffs are imposed in a regressive manner – in part because expenditures on traded goods are a higher share of income and non-housing consumption among lower income households, but also due to explicit regressivity within categories.  The analysis highlights an underexplored aspect of trade policy and its effects and leaves open a path for subsequent research. More research on this area would be welcome – and the new dataset created for this analysis hopefully will help further some of that research.

Bottom Line: The economic lessons here are: a) America’s low-income households benefit the most from free trade and having access to cheap imports because they spend a greater share of their budgets on traded goods like clothing, footwear, household items, school supplies, appliances, toys, and furniture (think Walmart shoppers), and b) America’s low-income households have the most to lose from greater restrictions on free trade with import quotas, protective trade tariffs, border taxes, and other trade barriers. If Trump starts a trade war with tariffs and border taxes, it will be a “war on the poorest Americans,” as Johan Norberg explains in the video below “Unequal Benefits of Trade” (MP: and unequal burdens of tariffs).

Republished from AEI.

Mark J. Perry

Mark J. Perry is a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and a professor of economics and finance at the University of Michigan’s Flint campus.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

Protectionism Will Make America Expensive Again

Over the last several weeks, Donald Trump has celebrated the decisions of some firms to produce domestically—decisions he claims resulted from his threat to bludgeon companies with hefty import taxes ranging from 10 to 35 percent. I find this very confusing because, well, it’s a violation of Mr. Trump’s biggest campaign promise: to make America great.

Mr. Trump wants to make America great, but isolationist policies will only make America more expensive.

By wielding the threat of taxation, Mr. Trump is actively coercing American companies into exclusively building their products domestically using domestic inputs. This protectionist persuasion is rooted not in logic, but emotion; instead of consulting his experience as a lifelong businessman, Mr. Trump’s conclusion is half-baked, driven by a blind, albeit well-intentioned, hope to rebuild the wealth of his countrymen.

However, the only thing these acts will build for Mr. Trump is a track record of hurting Americans — mostly the poor and middle classes.

Division and Cost Reduction

In the market, producers compete to offer customers convenience and quality for the best price. Machines, the division of labor, and other innovations and institutions let firms offer better prices by decreasing their production costs. Lower costs enable them to pass savings on to buyers and accelerate competition with other businesses who compete to earn customers.

Everyone loves a deal, but easy access to goods is even more important for people living in poverty.

The division of labor breaks up the production process into separate stages. Workers may be good at producing a product, but everyone has strengths and weaknesses. By dividing the process, firms can identify and upgrade their weak areas, freeing workers to focus on what they’re best at. Putting the best workers at each stage increases output and decreases price exponentially. The result is that production costs decrease.

Specialization doesn’t just happen within a company, either. Entire firms will specialize in the creation of a certain input, and at an especially low cost. This makes it cheaper for firms to buy inputs from specialized producers instead of wasting funds upgrading their own processes. These firms simply recognize that they can be good at some things but not everything, and they are willing to utilize others’ strengths to achieve greater savings.

Even with specialization, competitive firms are still confined to a limited pool of producers within their market. By extending markets worldwide, companies can access the cheapest inputs and further decrease costs. When companies say they’ll cross oceans to earn your business, some actually mean it; after all, finding the lowest priced goods, wherever they may be, results in more affordable and accessible goods for you and me.

In this way, international trade is a natural progression of the division of labor.

Everyone loves a deal, but easy, cheap access to goods and services is even more important for people living in poverty.

We Are the Least of Us

Because, ceteris paribus, international trade and competition naturally facilitate a gradual increase in quality and decrease in price, the goods created through trade become affordable to a larger portion of the market.

Think of prices like a minimum requirement; if you can’t pay the price, you can’t access the good. The more a price falls, the more people can meet the requirement. When prices fall, those in poverty can afford better and better goods, provided that they can access that market.

In Adam Smith’s iconic Wealth of Nations, he writes,

It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.”

A nation’s wealth grows as its firms produce better products for lower prices. In wealthy nations, poor people have an improved quality of life because they have greater access to increasingly high-quality goods, like shoes and cell phones.

There is a direct relationship between a country’s overall wealth and its impoverished people.

In his 2008 book, Globalization, Don Boudreaux cites David Dollar and Aart Kraay’s 40-year study on the connection between the income and growth of a country’s poorest people and the country as a whole. As Boudreaux explains, “higher incomes for the poorest citizens of a country are tightly and positively correlated with higher incomes for the rest of the citizens of that country.”

The wealth and growth of a nation can be seen through the quality of life enjoyed by its poorest citizens. Because international trade and the division of labor enable the poor to afford the goods that improve their quality of life, it is reasonable to claim that these institutions are integral to the entire nation’s wealth and progress.

By advocating for restrictive policies, Trump is sabotaging the nation he hopes to save.

Tariffs: Regression, not Progression

Increasingly competitive prices , made possible by an international division of labor , make products more available for the neediest. However, the benefits of the division of labor are limited to the extent of the market.

Relationships go both ways. International trade is a driving force for economic progression, but tariffs are an equally potent agent of economic regression.

By preventing firms from accessing the lowest-priced inputs for their products, tariffs ratchet up the price of final products. When prices increase, people of certain incomes are effectively disallowed from participating in markets. The imposition of tariffs doesn’t increase people’s access to a good quality of life — it revokes it.

When unrestricted, the market provides the means by which all humans can flourish and thrive. By advocating for restrictive policies, Mr. Trump is sabotaging the growth of the nation he hopes to save.

I do not fully condemn Mr. Trump’s ignorance; per Bastiat, economics is a discipline that trains people to scrape the scales from their eyes, to realize and recognize the existence of unintended consequences—the “unseen”—that surround every “seen” act. But if Mr. Trump intends to help this nation, he must open his eyes and allow market processes to lift the economy from the bottom up.

After all, nations do not become great by neglecting their poor. In truly great nations peasants might enjoy things which hold the envy of foreign kings.

Will Logan

Will Logan is a graduating senior at Hillsdale College, where he studied economics. He is a current participant in the Koch Internship Program (KIP) in Washington, DC.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

A US-Loving Englishman's Plea: Learn How to Serve a Proper Cup of Tea

To the airlines, restaurants, and good people of my beautiful adoptive home of America:

The ink has dried on my first American passport.  As of April, I will have been one of your compatriots for a year. I love being American for myriad reasons, one of which is the very high material standard of living we enjoy, on average, relative to the residents of other nations.

But there is a cause of suffering in our country that could so easily be eliminated at no cost to anyone, and it pains me.

I happen to be especially qualified to eliminate the scourge on account of the country in which I was born – the United Kingdom.

I have been holding my tongue (pen, or more accurately, laptop keyboard) for years out of a desire not to offend, but it has now become clear that the good that can be done by addressing the national disgrace of which I write is great enough that it is time to speak up.

I am talking, of course, about the apparent inability of most Americans to make a decent cup of tea.

Warm Water at 35,000 Feet

Strangely for a nation such as ours, with its generally high standards of service and product quality, this inability is most harmfully manifest in those Americans whose very jobs actually include making tea, and the companies who employ them to do just that.

I finally cracked on Delta flight 0037 from London to Seattle. It is a truth universally acknowledged that flying tin cans with wings are not the easiest places to serve up refreshment of high quality, however, in business class, where I was rather unusually sitting on this flight, the quality of most of the fare is usually at least acceptable.

A cup of water with a teabag nearby can no more produce a decent cup of tea than a cup of water with a packet of coffee beans next to it can produce a decent cup of coffee.

Therefore, when I asked for a cup of black tea, but was, in the typical American fashion, presented with a cup of warm water, and given a teabag, my frustration was not mitigated by my lack of surprise or the fact that I was 35,000 feet above the earth.

Indeed, the hot water dispenser on a plane is perfectly adequate to make a proper cup of tea – if only it is properly used. So I went to the galley to show the most gracious stewardesses how to do it, with as much English charm as I could muster.

To be clear, a cup of water with a teabag nearby can no more produce a decent cup of tea than a cup of water with a packet of coffee beans next to it can produce a decent cup of coffee.

My dearest American compatriots, we wouldn’t think of serving warm water and a nearby collection of coffee beans as “a cup of coffee.” Indeed, the very idea is absurd. So why do we do exactly that when it comes to tea?

The reason that a cup of hot water plus a teabag does not equal a cup of tea is, at root, the same as the reason why a cup of hot water plus a pile of beans does not equal a cup of coffee: if you add either the teabag or the beans to the water in that state, what you end up with does not taste like the drink you have asked for.  

In the case of coffee, it is obvious why.  So, as a public service, let me explain why this is also the case for tea.

The Science of Tea

Tea “works” in a pretty simple way. The properties of the water that are chiefly responsible for pulling the flavor out of the tea leaves are its temperature and the oxygen that is dissolved in it. The most important of these is temperature. And the only temperature that works is boiling or very close to it.

This means that if you are a flight attendant, a waitress in a diner, a barista, etc., when you release the near-boiling water from that big cuboid contraption that heats and stores water into the cup or pot that are you about to serve the beverage in, the teabag has to be in the cup or pot already so the water is hot enough to transform the leaves in the bag into the beverage.

If on the other hand you release the water into the cup or pot before putting the bag in it, then heat from the water will be conducted into the cup or pot, cooling the water before you put the bag in it.  Moreover, by the time you walk over to the diner’s table or the traveler’s airplane seat with your container of water, the water will have become even colder by evaporation – and so is utterly devoid of the potential to become an actual cup of tea.

You see, decent tea, like decent coffee, or even wine or whiskey, has a depth of taste, comprising layers of flavor, if you will. Near-boiling water is required to bring them out. Tepid water will deliver the “tea equivalent” of a Petrus Bordeaux watered down 10 to 1, or a single malt devastated by bad cola, or, simply that pseudo-“coffee” made from freeze-dried “coffee granules.”

High Time for Tea in America

So, as a foodie who enjoys American diners, and as a traveler who is grateful for being transported around the country and even the world by our nation’s airlines, I beg you to stop offering me tea and then giving me something entirely different.  

For the sake of our shared history, please just stop it with the non-tea. Stop it now.

For the sake of our shared history, for all that unites those of us so fortunate as to share in the glorious heritage of the Anglosphere, and for all that we have always gained by learning from each other as cousins, please just stop it with the non-tea.

Stop it now.

“Tea” means tea – not a cup or pot of tepid water with a teabag in the vicinity.

Now, as a consultant in the field of political communications, I know how hard it is to change a deeply wired paradigm. Indeed, I’ve written a book about it. I also appreciate that the ladies and gents serving customers in American restaurants and on American planes are busy people doing a difficult and important job under stress, having very much to do and think about all at once.

For that reason, let me offer two simple rules of thumb anyone can follow to eliminate America’s bibitory travesty.

• Use near-boiling water.
• Put the teabags into the container (pot, mug or cup) BEFORE the water.

That’s all you need to know.

And here’s your “failsafe” heuristic:

If, when you’re serving the tea, the teabag is not already in the water, then you are not serving tea (and, if you happen to be serving a Brit, you’re actually serving an insult).

It took the Brits generations to learn how to make a decent cup of coffee, but to be fair, they worked it out eventually. Let’s return the favor, and in so doing give hundreds of millions of Americans a chance to enjoy a wonderful beverage that they may think they’ve already tasted, but likely never have.

Robin Koerner

Robin Koerner is British-born and recently became a citizen of the USA. A decade ago, he founded WatchingAmerica.com, an organization of over 200 volunteers that translates and posts views about the USA from all over the world, works as a trainer and a consultant, and recently wrote the book If You Can Keep It.

This article was originally published on FEE.org. Read the original article.

5 Tips to Stop Waking Up Exhausted

(Family Features) It’s no secret that finding time for the recommended eight hours of sleep is easier said than done. More often than not, your time asleep is limited by your busy schedule. If you are lucky enough to squeeze in a full eight hours of shuteye, you are still not guaranteed to wake up feeling refreshed.

While some responsibilities are hard to shake, setting yourself up with the right routine can vastly improve your quality of sleep and combat the issues keeping you up at night:

1.     Lighten up: If it’s never light in your bedroom, you may be confusing your body’s circadian clock. The circadian clock regulates how alert you are due to the light and darkness in an environment. If you keep your bedroom dark during the day or use black-out curtains, this can act as a signal to your body that it should be asleep. Swap out your curtains for a lighter color or keep your shades partially open –natural sunlight in your room can help you wake up in the morning.

2.     Out with the old: Approximately half (49 percent) of Americans have had their mattress for five years or more and while people struggle with sleep for a variety of reasons, your mattress could be keeping you from getting a good night’s sleep. A quality mattress, like the Beautyrest Platinum Hybrid Mattress can give you the support you need to wake up feeling refreshed. It offers a “cool to touch” surface while also providing the support and pressure relief necessary to make sure that once you fall asleep, you stay asleep.

3.     Tune out: Everyone’s guilty of binge-watching their favorite TV shows from time to time. While you may satisfy your curiosity by catching the ending of your favorite series, you may not be so happy when you wake up groggy after staying up too late. Set an alarm for 30 minutes before you want to go to sleep and when the alarm goes off turn off your TV and get ready for bed. Limiting screen time before you fall asleep can also avoid disrupting your body’s level of melatonin, which controls sleep cycles.

4.     If you snooze, you lose: Hitting the snooze button even once in the morning can make you feel groggy throughout the day. By hitting snooze, you are prompting your body to start another stage in your sleep cycle without giving it enough time to fully recover. Try downloading an app with a smart alarm to make sure that you are waking up during a lighter stage of your sleep cycle.

5.     Cut the caffeine: While there is nothing quite like coffee for an afternoon pick-me-up, having caffeine after 2 p.m. can impact both your sleep quality and quantity. Instead of having a cup after lunch, take your coffee break earlier in the day or consider switching to decaf.

For more tips to wake up feeling refreshed, visit beautyrest.com. 

Florida airport shooting suspect inspired by Islamic State: media

Esteban Santiago is taken from the Broward County main jail as he is transported to the federal courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, U.S., January 9, 2017. Amy Beth Bennett/South Florida Sun Sentinel via REUTERS

(Reuters) - An Iraq war veteran accused of killing five people at a Florida airport told investigators he was inspired by Islamic State and previously chatted online with Islamist extremists, an FBI agent testified on Tuesday, U.S. media reported.

Esteban Santiago, 26, was ordered held in jail until a Jan. 30 arraignment, court records show. At that time he would enter a formal plea to charges that he opened fire in the baggage claim area of the Fort Lauderdale airport on Jan. 6.

"He has admitted to all of the facts with respect to the terrible and tragic events of Jan. 6," Assistant U.S. Attorney Rick Del Toro said at the federal court hearing in Fort Lauderdale, NBC 6 South Florida television reported. "These were vulnerable victims who he shot down methodically."

Reuters was not immediately able to reach U.S. prosecutors or the Federal Bureau of Investigation to confirm the media reports.

Santiago, a private first class in the National Guard who served in Iraq from 2010 to 2011, traveled from Alaska to Florida with a handgun and ammunition in his checked luggage, officials said.

Upon retrieving his gun case from the luggage carousel, he went to a bathroom to load the weapon and then opened fire on others waiting for their bags, investigators said.

FBI special agent Michael Ferlazzo testified Santiago told interrogators he carried out the attack on behalf of Islamic State and that he had been in contact with others on jihadist chat rooms who were planning attacks.

"It was a group of like-minded individuals who were all planning attacks," Ferlazzo said, according to NBC 6.

The FBI has said Santiago previously displayed erratic behavior, entering the FBI office in Anchorage in November and saying his mind was being controlled by a U.S. intelligence agency.

The FBI turned him over to local police, who took him to a medical facility for a mental evaluation, officials said.  

Police took a handgun from him but returned it last month after a medical evaluation found he was not mentally ill, authorities said.

Santiago used the same weapon in the airport attack, agents testified, the Sun Sentinel reported.

His defense team did not challenge the prosecution's argument that Santiago posed a flight risk and said he was prepared to be detained through his trial, CNN said.



 (Reporting by Daniel Trotta in New York; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Lisa Shumaker)

Obama shortens sentence of Manning, who gave secrets to WikiLeaks

Chelsea Manning is pictured in this 2010 photograph obtained on August 14, 2013.Courtesy U.S. Army/Handout via REUTERS

By Roberta Rampton and Ayesha Rascoe

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Tuesday shortened the prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, the former U.S. military intelligence analyst who was responsible for a 2010 leak of classified materials to anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, the biggest such breach in U.S. history.

A White House official said there was no connection between Manning's commutation and renewed U.S. government concern about WikiLeaks' actions during last year's presidential election, or a promise by founder Julian Assange to accept extradition if Manning was freed.

Manning has been a focus of a worldwide debate on government secrecy since she provided more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks - a leak for which she was sentenced to serve 35 years in prison.

Obama, in one of his final acts before leaving office, reduced her sentence to seven years, angering some Republicans.

"This is just outrageous," House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. Ryan, a Republican, said the decision was a "dangerous precedent" for those who leak materials about national security.

"Chelsea Manning's treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation's most sensitive secrets," Ryan said.

Manning was working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2010 when she gave WikiLeaks a trove of diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts that included a 2007 gunsight video of a U.S. Apache helicopter firing at suspected insurgents in Iraq, killing a dozen people including two Reuters news staff.

Republican Senator Tom Cotton said the leak endangered troops, intelligence officers, diplomats and allies.

"We ought not treat a traitor like a martyr," Cotton said.



TOOK RESPONSIBILITY

Manning, formerly known as U.S. Army Private First Class Bradley Manning, was born male but revealed after being convicted of espionage that she identifies as a woman. The White House said her sentence would end on May 17 this year.

Manning, who twice tried to kill herself last year and has struggled to cope as a transgender woman in the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, men's military prison, accepted responsibility for leaking the material -- a factor that fed into Obama's decision, a White House official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The official said Obama's decision was rooted in Manning's sentence being longer than sentences given to others who had committed comparable crimes. Obama, who leaves office on Friday and is scheduled to give his final news conference on Wednesday, is expected to discuss his decision then.

WikiLeaks also published emails in the weeks leading up to the Nov. 8 presidential election that U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Russian intelligence agencies hacked the Democratic National Committee and the accounts of leading Democrats, part of a campaign by Moscow to influence the election.

But Obama's decision had nothing to do with the latest WikiLeaks controversy, the White House official said.

"The president's decision to grant clemency and offer commutation to Chelsea Manning was not influenced in any way by public comments from Assange or the WikiLeaks organization," a White House official said on a conference call with reporters.

Assange has been holed up at Ecuador's London embassy since 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden for the investigation of allegations, which he denies, that he committed rape there in 2010. He has said he fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States, where there is an open criminal investigation into the activities of WikiLeaks.

WikiLeaks sent a tweet quoting Assange's attorney, Melinda Taylor, saying he would abide by his promise to accept extradition if Manning was freed. "Everything that he has said he's standing by," Taylor said, according to the tweet.

Civil rights groups praised the move, calling it overdue.

"Chelsea Manning exposed serious abuses, and as a result her own human rights have been violated by the U.S. government for years," said Margaret Huang, executive director of Amnesty International USA.



STUXNET

Obama also pardoned retired U.S. Marine Corps General James Cartwright who pleaded guilty in October to making false statements to the FBI during an investigation into leaks of classified information.

The aggressive prosecution of Cartwright, who last served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, sent shockwaves through the Pentagon.

He lied during questioning by the FBI over a book written by a New York Times reporter that exposed a malicious computer software program known as "Stuxnet" designed to disrupt Iran's nuclear program. Cartwright denied being the source of the leak.

Obama weighed Cartwright's service along with his motive when making the decision, the White House official said, noting Cartwright had not divulged material that the journalist was not already aware of, and that his conversations were focused on preventing the publication of material that could hurt national security.

"It's clear in this case ... that General Cartwright's motive was different than most people who are facing charges of leaking classified information to a journalist," the official said.



PUERTO RICAN MILITANT

Also on the pardon list: Oscar Lopez Rivera, who was sentenced in 1981 to 55 years in prison for his involvement with Puerto Rican militant group FALN, which claimed responsibility for dozens of bombings in the 1970s and 1980s.

Lopez Rivera -- who turned down a similar offer from President Bill Clinton in 1999 -- was the last remaining member of FALN still in prison.

"Mr. Lopez Rivera is now in his 70s. He has served 35 years, nearly half of his life in prison," a White House official said. "The president determined that was sufficient amount of time to serve, although the president certainly believes that the crimes that were committed were serious."

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders campaigned for the release of Lopez Rivera during his unsuccessful campaign against Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Manning and Lopez Rivera were among 209 commutations granted by Obama on Tuesday and Cartwright was among 64 pardons.

In total, Obama has commuted sentences for 1,385 federal prisoners -- a total greater than that of the 12 previous presidents combined -- and he is expected to announce more on Thursday, the White House official said.

Most of the commutations were a part of Obama's effort to reduce the number of people serving long sentences for non-violent drug offenses.



 (Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Ayesha Rascoe; additional reporting by Phillip Stewart, Patricia Zengerle and Dustin Volz; Editing by Sandra Maler, Grant McCool and Lisa Shumaker)

Trump accuses civil rights leader Lewis of lying about inauguration

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) testifies to the Senate Judiciary Committee during the second day of confirmation hearings on Senator Jeff Sessions' (R-AL) nomination to be U.S. attorney general in Washington, U.S., January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts/File Photo

By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump extended his war of words with African-American civil rights leader John Lewis on Tuesday, accusing the Democratic congressman of lying when he said Trump's inauguration would be the first that he would miss.

"John Lewis said about my inauguration, 'It will be the first one that I've missed.' WRONG (or lie)! He boycotted Bush 43 also because he 'thought it would be hypocritical to attend Bush's swearing-in....he doesn't believe Bush is the true elected president.' Sound familiar!" Trump said in a pair of posts on Twitter.

"He got caught in a very bad lie," Trump said in an excerpt of an interview broadcast on Fox News on Tuesday.

Lewis' office did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The Republican president-elect initially clashed with Lewis on Twitter over the weekend after the U.S. representative from Georgia questioned the legitimacy of his Nov. 8 election victory, because of U.S. intelligence agencies' conclusion that Russia meddled in the campaign.

Lewis also said he would not attend Trump's swearing-in this Friday and that "it will be the first one that I miss since I've been in the Congress."

Lewis' remarks, in an interview with NBC's "Meet the Press," were released last Friday at the beginning of the holiday weekend honoring slain black civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Trump responded on Saturday by tweeting that Lewis had falsely complained about the election results and instead "should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested)." Trump wrote dismissively that he was "all talk."

On Tuesday, Trump continued the battle, quoting an article in the Washington Post in 2001 that said Lewis spent  Inauguration Day in his Atlanta district rather than see Republican President George W. Bush sworn in.

Bush was declared the winner of the 2000 presidential election after the U.S. Supreme Court halted a protracted recount of a close race in Florida against Democrat Al Gore.

Trump's attacks on Lewis offended many Americans including some of Trump's fellow Republicans. Trump drew just 8 percent of the black vote in the November election.

The 76-year-old Lewis, who has been a civil rights leader for more than half a century, was beaten by police during a march he helped lead with King in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, drawing attention to hurdles for blacks to vote.

Maine's Republican governor, Paul LePage, chided Lewis on Tuesday in a radio interview, saying several Republican presidents had pursued civil rights reforms and Lewis should offer a simple word of thanks.

LePage, who has referred to himself as a proto-Trump political figure, has been involved in controversies including making racially charged statements and using obscenities.



 (Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Additional reporting by Eric Walsh and Eric Beech; Editing by Frances Kerry and Peter Cooney)

Why Obamacare’s ‘20 Million’ Number Is Fake

Liberals are notorious for caring about “groups” of people, but when it gets down to individual persons, not so much. You’re about to see this play out in spades as Democrats cry crocodile tears over the coming repeal of Obamacare.

You hear it over and over again: “This will be catastrophic for the 20 million people who were previously uninsured but now have coverage! You can’t take away their health care!”

First of all, no one is talking about doing that. Any repeal legislation will have a transition period for those who got coverage through Obamacare to move to new plans. And second, they will have more choices and better options. Win. Win.

But liberals would rather focus on quantity, how many millions we’ve given something to, versus quality, what does that “gift” mean for individual people.

The Obama administration claims 20 million more Americans today have health care due to Obamacare. The reality is that when you look at the actual net gains over the past two years since the program was fully implemented, the number is 14 million, and of that, 11.8 million (84 percent) were people given the “gift” of Medicaid.

And new research shows that even fewer people will be left without insurance after the repeal of Obamacare. Numbers are still being crunched, but between statistics released by the Congressional Budget Office and one of the infamous architects of Obamacare, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Jonathan Gruber, it’s estimated that anywhere from 2 to 7 million people now on Medicaid would have qualified for the program even without Obamacare.

That further discredits the administration’s claim of 20 million more Americans having health insurance because of Obamacare.

Multiple studies have also shown that even those who are uninsured often have better outcomes than those with Medicaid. A University of Virginia study found that for eight different surgical procedures, Medicaid patients were more likely to die than privately insured or uninsured patients. They were also more likely to suffer complications.

And it is important to note that this study focused on procedures done from 2003-2007, prior to the geniuses in Washington deciding it was a good idea to put even more people on the already overburdened Medicaid system.

Additionally, despite what proponents of the law promised, there is little evidence to show that the use of emergency rooms, which have a higher level of medical errors, has decreased due to Obamacare.



Then there is this reality: While Obamacare has handed out millions of new Medicaid cards, that does not mean the recipients now have quality health care. In fact, it doesn’t ensure they have health care at all. That’s because increasing numbers of doctors aren’t accepting Medicaid.

As a Louisiana woman told The New York Times, “My Medicaid card is useless for me right now. It’s a useless piece of plastic. I can’t find an orthopedic surgeon or a pain management doctor who will accept Medicaid.”

Keep that in mind every time liberal Democratic senators pull out the Kleenex boxes bemoaning the fact Republicans are the ones trying to take people’s health care away.

Speaking of which, a much underreported fact of Obamacare is how many truly needy and disabled Americans are NOT getting the services they need because of the expansion of Medicaid for able-bodied adults (aka healthy) of prime working age, 19-54.

So while the left talks about all the new people Obamacare is helping, it neglects to mention that over half a million disabled people, from those with developmental disabilities to traumatic brain injuries, are on waiting lists for care.

And many of them are on waiting lists because Obamacare gives states more money to enroll able-bodied adults than it does to take care of disabled children and adults who qualified for Medicaid prior to Obamacare.

If you think that doesn’t have a real-world perverse impact, note this. Since Arkansas expanded its Medicaid program under Obamacare, it’s rolls have grown by 25 percent. During that same time, 79 people on the Medicaid waiting list who suffered from developmental disabilities have died. I would encourage you to read my former Heritage Foundation colleague Chris Jacob’s full piece on this.

Finally, it’s not just those enrolled in Medicaid that are finding fewer health care provider options. For people who now have health plans through the Obamacare exchanges, new Heritage Foundation research shows that this year, in 70 percent of counties across the country, those consumers will have only one or two insurers to choose from.

Add to that the millions of people who lost the doctors and health plans they liked and are now paying higher premiums for less coverage, and you can see that quality health care and anything resembling “choice” has quickly disappeared for an increasing number of Americans due to Obamacare.

So the next time a defender of Obamacare tries to take the moral high ground about the millions of people the law has helped, ask them to define what “help” looks like.

Commentary by The Daily Signal's Genevieve Wood. Genevieve Wood advances policy priorities of The Heritage Foundation as senior contributor to The Daily Signal. Send an email to Genevieve.

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Trump team doubles down on rebuke of civil rights leader

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump greets Vice President-elect Mike Pence during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

By Lucia Mutikani

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Donald Trump's vice president and top aides on Sunday joined the U.S. president-elect in criticizing an historic civil rights activist and lawmaker for questioning the legitimacy of his election win, opening up a new divide days before the inauguration.

U.S. Representative John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat, told NBC's "Meet the Press" he thought hacking by Russians had helped Trump, a Republican, get elected in November. Lewis said he does not plan to attend Trump's swearing in on Friday, the first time he would miss such an event since being elected to the House in 1986.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence, incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and Trump spokesman Sean Spicer characterized Lewis' remarks as disappointing and damaging to the reputation of U.S. democracy.

"We honor the sacrifice that he made," Pence said on CBS' "Face the Nation." "For someone of his stature not just in the civil rights movement but in voting rights to make a comment that he did not consider Donald Trump to be a legitimate president I think is deeply disappointing. I hope he reconsiders both statements."

Pence said he had attended both of President Barack Obama's inaugurations. He said at a time when the country was facing challenges both at home and abroad, Americans should look for ways to come together and work together.

The 76-year-old Lewis, who has been a civil rights leader for more than half a century, was beaten by police during a march he helped lead in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, drawing attention to hurdles preventing blacks from voting.

He protested alongside leader Martin Luther King Jr. that day and on other occasions. The spat comes ahead of Monday's federal holiday that honors King.

Speaking on ABC's "This Week", Priebus said Lewis' comments, given his position in society, were irresponsible.

"We need folks like John Lewis, and others who I think have been champions of voter rights, to actually recognize the fact that Donald Trump was duly elected," said Priebus. "I think putting the United States down across the world is not something that a responsible person does."



CONCERNS NOT TRIVIAL

Outgoing White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough said Obama believed that Trump was the freely elected president. McDonough, however, said concerns raised by Lewis and other Democrats about Russia's interference in the election were not trivial.

"My hope would be that the president-elect will reach out to...John Lewis, who has done so many things over the course of his life, to try to work this out," McDonough said on CNN's State of the Union.

Such a gesture, he said, would show Americans that the nation is united and send a message to the Russians that "their efforts to divide us, to weaken us, to advance their own interests, at the expense of ours, are going to fail."

Trump's aides defended his hard-hitting response on Twitter on Saturday that Lewis "should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested)," instead of complaining about the Nov. 8 election results.

Lewis' district encompasses Atlanta and the city's main newspaper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, told Trump he was "wrong" in his characterization of the area, which includes "many of Atlanta’s crown jewels as well as pockets of poverty."  

"It was John Lewis that attacked Donald Trump. Donald Trump has a right to respond to that, and he did. And forcefully," Spicer said on Fox News.

But other Republicans and conservatives, like Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, had voiced support for Lewis on Saturday and his contribution not just to the United States, but to the world.  

At least 10 other Democratic U.S. politicians have said they also plan to skip the inauguration.



 (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani and Doina Chiacu; Editing by Phil Berlowitz and Mary Milliken)

Trump vows 'insurance for everybody' in replacing Obamacare

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in the lobby of Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., January 11, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President-elect Donald Trump aims to replace Obamacare with a plan that would envisage "insurance for everybody," he said in an interview with the Washington Post published on Sunday night.

Trump did not give the newspaper specifics about his proposals to replace Democratic President Barack Obama's signature health insurance law, but said the plan was nearly finished and he was ready to unveil it alongside the leaders of the Republican-controlled Congress. The Republican president-elect takes office on Friday.

"It’s very much formulated down to the final strokes. We haven’t put it in quite yet but we’re going to be doing it soon," Trump told the Post, adding he was waiting for his nominee for health and human services secretary, Tom Price, to be confirmed.

The plan, he said, would include "lower numbers, much lower deductibles," without elaborating.

“We’re going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump said. “There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can’t pay for it, you don’t get it. That’s not going to happen with us.”

Trump was also quoted as saying in the interview that he would target pharmaceutical companies over drug pricing and insist they negotiate directly with the Medicare and Medicaid government health plans for the elderly and poor.

U.S. House Republicans won passage on Friday of a measure starting the process of dismantling the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, despite concerns about not having a ready replacement and the potential financial cost of repealing the law.

With the vote, Republicans began delivering on their promise to end Obamacare, also a campaign pledge of Trump, who has called the program a "disaster."

The law, which expanded health coverage to some 20 million people, has been plagued by increases in insurance premiums and deductibles and by some large insurers leaving the system.

Republicans have called Obamacare federal government overreach and have sought to undermine it in Congress and the courts since it was passed by Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in 2010.

Democrats say Obamacare has allowed growing numbers of Americans to get medical insurance and helped slow the rise in healthcare spending.


 (Writing by Mary Milliken; Editing by Will Dunham and Peter Cooney)

Fight Off the Flu

(Family Features) Colder weather and cold and flu season go hand-in-hand. While you may not be able to completely avoid getting sick, you can take some steps to protect yourself and minimize the chances of a serious illness.

The flu is a highly contagious illness that can result in hospitalization and even death. Managing your own risk of exposure to the flu not only protects you, but can help minimize the chances of passing on a potentially dangerous illness to those in higher risk groups. Those with compromised immune systems and risk factors such as age (both the elderly and young babies and children) and other health conditions are at an elevated risk.

Know the signs
It can be easy to confuse whether you’re fighting off symptoms of a common cold or a more serious bug like the flu. A common misconception is that the flu is defined by fever, vomiting and diarrhea. While these symptoms may be present with a case of the flu, the flu is primarily a respiratory illness. A variety of tests can help verify whether you have the flu, with varying degrees of reliability. Unless a definite determination is required and may affect your treatment (for example, if you are pregnant and need to avoid certain medications), chances are your doctor will not administer a test and will instead treat your symptoms.

Get vaccinated
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone 6 months and older get a yearly flu vaccine. Getting the vaccine early in the season is advisable because it can take as long as two weeks to be effective. Although the vaccination may not completely eliminate your chances of contracting the flu, it can minimize the severity of symptoms and reduce the likelihood of hospitalization due to the flu. Although the vaccine is available in both shot and nasal spray forms, the CDC recommends the shot as the preferred preventive method.

Other preventive steps
Although it is not always practical or possible, avoiding contact with those infected with the flu virus is an important preventive measure. The flu is very contagious and is thought to be transmitted in the droplets of saliva or nasal mucus that occur from coughs and sneezes. Encouraging those who are ill to cover their mouths with their sleeves or elbows (not hands, where germs are most easily transmitted) and regularly and thoroughly washing your hands can help reduce your risk, as well.

Treating the flu
Difficulty breathing, pain in the chest or abdomen, confusion, dizziness, severe vomiting and seizures are all indications that your illness requires immediate medical attention. Even if you aren’t experiencing these serious symptoms, you may benefit from a visit to the doctor, who can provide prescription antiviral drugs to shorten the length of your illness and help minimize the severity of symptoms. Other treatments include getting plenty of rest and preventing dehydration by drinking plenty of water or other clear fluids.

Find more cold weather tips for healthy living at eLivingToday.com.

4 Ways to Stretch Your Health Benefits
Often, employees enroll in medical insurance plans for protection against unpredictable events, sudden illness or serious health concerns that may result in expensive medical bills. Getting the most from your benefits requires understanding coverages and deductibles, as well as taking advantage of voluntary benefits, like dental, vision and hearing, to stay healthy and save money.

Avoid surprises. About 91 percent of adults in the United States are confused about what their benefits cover, according to a recent Harris poll. The best starting point is to review your plan so you understand the care and services covered. If you have a high-deductible plan, you will need to pay for most or a percentage of the health costs until reaching the individual or family deductible. Be prepared to pay any copayments or deductibles the plan requires before receiving care. Also, before scheduling appointments, ask for a cost estimate for the appointment, tests or service.

Preventive dental and vision. Many voluntary plans, such as dental and vision, offer preventive exams, such as routine cleanings and vision exams, that are fully covered. That’s because these preventive exams help to maintain and improve overall health and help reduce health costs. Voluntary coverage is affordable and many plans offer added incentives. For example, coverage for LASIK, dental, vision and hearing benefits can increase from one year to the next for those who continue to enroll and use their benefits. Members could earn monetary rewards to use for dental, vision, LASIK, orthodontia and hearing benefits, care materials and services simply by using their benefits and keeping the benefits paid out under a specified amount.

Medical screenings. Routine health screenings, such as mammograms, immunizations, colonoscopy procedures and prostate cancer screenings, which may be covered fully or in part by your medical coverage, can help you stay healthy and lower health care costs.

Get paid to save. Many employers encourage employees to save money by matching a percentage of the amount the employee contributes to the plan. If available, enroll in a Health Savings Account or Flexible Spending Account to set aside money to pay for health care costs.
Remember that these accounts are not a substitute for the coverage provided by voluntary benefits.

Learn more about the questions to ask when reviewing benefit plans at ameritasinsight.com.

Photos courtesy of Getty Images

SOURCE:
eLivingToday.com

4 Ways to Stretch Your Health Benefits

(Family Features) Often, employees enroll in medical insurance plans for protection against unpredictable events, sudden illness or serious health concerns that may result in expensive medical bills. Getting the most from your benefits requires understanding coverages and deductibles, as well as taking advantage of voluntary benefits, like dental, vision and hearing, to stay healthy and save money.

Avoid surprises. About 91 percent of adults in the United States are confused about what their benefits cover, according to a recent Harris poll. The best starting point is to review your plan so you understand the care and services covered. If you have a high-deductible plan, you will need to pay for most or a percentage of the health costs until reaching the individual or family deductible. Be prepared to pay any copayments or deductibles the plan requires before receiving care. Also, before scheduling appointments, ask for a cost estimate for the appointment, tests or service.

Preventive dental and vision. Many voluntary plans, such as dental and vision, offer preventive exams, such as routine cleanings and vision exams, that are fully covered. That’s because these preventive exams help to maintain and improve overall health and help reduce health costs. Voluntary coverage is affordable and many plans offer added incentives. For example, coverage for LASIK, dental, vision and hearing benefits can increase from one year to the next for those who continue to enroll and use their benefits. Members could earn monetary rewards to use for dental, vision, LASIK, orthodontia and hearing benefits, care materials and services simply by using their benefits and keeping the benefits paid out under a specified amount.

Medical screenings. Routine health screenings, such as mammograms, immunizations, colonoscopy procedures and prostate cancer screenings, which may be covered fully or in part by your medical coverage, can help you stay healthy and lower health care costs.

Get paid to save. Many employers encourage employees to save money by matching a percentage of the amount the employee contributes to the plan. If available, enroll in a Health Savings Account or Flexible Spending Account to set aside money to pay for health care costs.
Remember that these accounts are not a substitute for the coverage provided by voluntary benefits.

Learn more about the questions to ask when reviewing benefit plans at ameritasinsight.com.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

SOURCE:
Ameritas