· Program dropped from Trump’s inauguration to March of this year by 2.5-million. This, despite...

Penny PressNevada, USA Volume 17 Number 17 JANUARY 2, 2020

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THE PENNY PRESS,JANUARY 2, 2020PAGE 2

By JANE M. ORIENT, M.D.Special to the Penny Press

Democrat presidential candidates are sparring over how much to expand Medicare. Should it be Medicare for all, for people

over 50 and children, or for “all who want it”? Does “all” include veterans, Native Americans, and military dependents, who now have their own government program? Does it include everybody who happens to be in the country, legally or illegally? And do the benefits include just what today’s Medicare beneficiaries get, or everything the candidate can think of—

dental, eyeglasses, hearing aids, mental health treatment, addiction treatment, “sex-change” surgery, etc.? Does it even include long-term care, which the Affordable Care Act had to discard because it was unaffordable?

Who wouldn’t want that?In 1965, a lot of seniors did not

want Medicare. They were happy with their private coverage, which nearly half of them had. They did not trust government. To assure the success of “his” program, President Lyndon Johnson took away their private coverage. Insurers could not, under contract law, cancel an individual’s policy, say because they got sick, but they could cancel everybody’s coverage—and they did. This was a precedent for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which outlawed the coverage many people

had unless it could meet stringent “grandfather” requirements.

“If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” was an acknowledged “four-Pinocchios” lie. Elizabeth Warren doesn’t worry about that because she thinks nobody likes insurance. Possibly true, but that doesn’t mean people would choose the government alternative.

With rare exceptions such as a continuation of policies from employers, seniors do not have and cannot get a private plan that duplicates Medicare coverage. They can only get “Medigap” policies to cover deductibles and things Medicare does not cover.

After a huge percentage of the population got “covered” by the government, did things get better? People did get more treatment.

Great advances in medical technology occurred—likely unrelated to Medicare. But toxic, unrelenting cost-price inflation began abruptly after 1965 for the first time in 90 years, leading to massive government interventions to put a lid on them. Administrative demands burgeoned—there are now at least ten times as many administrators as doctors. And government eroded the value of people’s savings by inflating the dollar. If you had put $10 in a mattress in 1965, it would be worth only $1.24 today.

Did evil, greedy private insurers go away? No, they competed for government contracts to administer Medicare. As one whistleblower discovered, carriers can get away with $200 million in fraud without even triggering an investigation. Or

Penny PressNEVADA USA 16 PAGES VOLUME 17 NUMBER 17 JANUARY 2, 2020

Penny WisdomIf you had told me 30 years ago that I would be this bor-ing stay-at-home house dad and Bill Cosby would be in jail, even I would have took that bet…who’s America’s dad now?! —Eddie Murphy

The Conservative Weekly Voice Of NevadaInsideAs Nancy Reagan said, "Just Say NO!"

See Editorial Page 6

RON KNECHT PAGE 5FRED WEINBERG PAGE 6ROBERT ROMANO PAGE 7DOUG FRENCH PAGE 9DANIEL HONCHARIW PAGE 10RICK MANNING PAGE 11CHUCK MUTH PAGE 14

Medicare For All...But NO Care For YOU

Commentary

Continued on page4


they went into the Medigap business. AARP, which purports to represent seniors, has received more than $4 billion in “royalties” from UnitedHealth since the passage of ACA. According to a lawsuit Krukas v. AARP, AARP effectively acts as an unlicensed insurance agent that collects what amount to illegal kickbacks.

Medicare Advantage plans are widely touted for offering extra services such as gym memberships. But there’s a dirty little secret: once in, if you get sick your costs soar and it can be very expensive to get out. Also, about a third of such plans have a very narrow network of physicians.

But in traditional Medicare, you get worry-free treatment, right? Not exactly. Government controls are constantly tightening. The ironically named Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 provides that clinicians must refer to “appropriate use criteria” (AUC) when ordering advanced imaging studies like CT scans or MRIs. We’re supposedly in a “testing period” during which payment won’t be denied. However, physicians are already receiving notices from their hospital that they now MUST use AUC when ordering out-patient studies.

If you are admitted to hospital, you will be greeted by a worker

checking on advance directives that will enable the hospital to withhold treatment. If your care is expected to cost a lot, and the Prospective Payment System allowed charge won’t cover it, the hospital has every incentive to shunt you off to hospice. This also averts the possibility of a penalty for re-admitting a patient. Hospice is a one-way transfer.

Medicare for All means government-directed, corporate-managed care. The managed-care “insurance” cartel, giant hospital chains, and private-equity-owned medical practices will make sure that you get your flu shot (likely mandatory), your anti-tobacco lecture, your silver sneakers, your 15 profitable “preventative” drugs, cross-sex hormones, abortion on demand—and eventually your terminal sedation.

Beyond that, you’re on your own—if there are any private options left and if you still have any after-tax money.

Is that what Americans want?

Jane M. Orient, M.D. obtained her undergraduate degrees in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Arizona in Tucson, and her M.D. from Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1974.

Get Them Out of the Hospital...And Into the HospiceContinued from page 3

2019 Good News: Thanks, America and Pres. Trump

There’s much to celebrate from 2019. Let’s hope for more of the same in 2020.

First, this from a recent Wall Street Journal article:

“Wages for rank-and-file workers are rising at the quickest pace in more than a decade, even faster than for bosses … Gains for those workers have accelerated much of this year, a time when the unemployment rate fell to a half-century low. … Pay for the bottom 25 percent of wage earners

rose 4.5 percent in November from a year earlier … Wages for the top 25 percent of earners rose 2.9 Percent.”

Thank you to the American economy and people, and to President Donald J. Trump for his tax cuts and reining in excess regulations and the administrative and deep state. In three years, he’s achieved what Barack Obama could not in eight years. And Democrats wonder why people find their rage and hate-driven impeachment fantasies turning folks off.

More from John Merline in “Government Dependency Plunges Under Trump – Why Aren’t We Celebrating?” He emphasizes that under Trump, dependency is down, after rising during the Obama years.

The most important thing is that employment increased by 6.2-million jobs in President Trump’s first 34 months. When

he took office, many economists claimed we were already at full employment.

Merline notes: “The healthy labor market has resulted in something even more important yet little noticed: A sharp trend away from dependency on federal welfare and other benefits.”

Through the first half of this year, enrollment in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (food stamps) declined nearly 1.2-million. Better yet, the decline in Trump’s first 34 months was 6.4-million – to a level lower than Obama’s in late 2009.

Democrats, progressives and statist liberals like to brag when dependency rises on their watch, as if that demonstrates their compassion. It does no such thing. It only shows their policies retard economic growth and diminish overall human wellbeing. Lower dependency numbers point to a vigorous economy and society and human flourishing.

On another front, the number of workers drawing Social Security Disability Insurance benefits dropped from 8.8-million in January 2017 to 8.49-million as of May 2019 – the lowest level since August 2011.

My first reaction was: The drop reflects the retirement of Baby Boomers, who then move from Disability to Retirement. That’s true. However, new disability applications are also down, nine percent lower this year than in 2016. Hence, the Boomer effect does not explain the whole trend, which again shows more people being productive and thus contributing to a better society.

What about Medicaid, which poses an even bigger threat in the future than Social Security? Enrollment in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program dropped from Trump’s

inauguration to March of this year by 2.5-million. This, despite the fact Virginia has expanded its program by 300,000 people under ObamaCare.

And ObamaCare overall? Its enrollment has declined every year since Trump took office, and it is now over 1-million below what it was at the end of 2016. Recent Supreme Court rulings vacating taxes for those without insurance will accelerate this good trend.

Finally, the need for federal welfare, either Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or what are called “separate state programs.” These numbers have dropped more than 800,000 under Trump.

Our society rightly takes care of folks who, through no fault of their own and despite their own reasonable efforts, cannot provide for themselves. But fewer, not more of such cases is a good thing and the mark of better policy. Most Republicans and limited government conservatives understand this. Folks trying to signal their virtue by spending other peoples’ money via higher taxes don’t get these fundamentals.

What about the larger picture for freedom and prosperity compared to the rest of the world? The 23rd edition of Economic Freedom of the World, a joint project of the Cato and Fraser Institutes, shows the United States has risen from sixth to fifth among 162 countries and territories.

We still trail Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand and Switzerland in the combined 42 data points over five broad areas. But during Obama’s tenure, we sank as low as twelfth.

Thanks to the American people and President Trump. And Happy 2020!!!


The Penny Press Tips Its Cap To:Former Nissan Renault Chief Carlos Ghosn for escaping to Lebanon from Japan followed weeks of planning by associates aimed at getting the former auto executive to a country they believed would provide a more friendly legal environment to try the claims of financial wrongdoing against him. People forget that countries like Japan simply don’t have the legal protections we enjoy here. This case was particularly egregious. Good thing he has a lot of money.

The Trump administration for its various crackdowns on smoking and vaping. You can still kill yourself if you want but you are going to have to work at it a little harder and not make the rest of us pay for it.

The Penny Press Sends A Bronx Cheer And A Bouquet of Weeds To:

California, for its attack on the gig economy by trying to redefine independent contractors as employees. Their morons in the legislature passed a bill which may destroy Uber and Lyft but what’s worse, they are trying to kill free lance writing which could kill Hollywood. Maybe they’ll all move to Nevada. www.pennypressnv.com

Tips Of Our Capand

Bronx Cheers

RON KNECHT

Commentary: Ron Knecht

I got a lot of phone calls last week from the many people who have one of my numbers, not about the content but about the word I used to describe the House Democrats. Retards.

Frankly, it was the only printable term I could think of at the time.

I certainly mean no disrespect to those who have, what we call today, learning disabilities. Even the thought of comparing any of those folks to the vast majority of House Democrats—who are just plain stupid and unpatriotic—places an innocent person with a low intelligence quotient in a bad light and I certainly don’t wish for that. You see, a person with learning disabilities, a low IQ and other issues can usually go on to live a good life and become a productive member of society. They just have to work at it. And many—if not most—of them do.

Not so much for the House Democrats who participated in the impeachment scam.

They and their faux leader are just plain stupid. As we say in rural America, dumb as a box of rocks. Also, mean.

Want to know how stupid?

Let’s take Tom Styer from the billionaire left wing.

Here’s a guy who is real proud of his business experience as long as he doesn’t specifically tell the lefties whose vote he is courting exactly what that experience is. The truth is he got rich the same way a lot of people do—private equity and hedge fund management. You know those private prisons which ICE uses. His funds invested early.

Yet he calls President Trump, who got rich building things, a “criminal in the White House”.

Seriously?

Also, he says that climate change is the biggest problem we’re facing.

As Kellyanne Conway would say, that’s a load of crap. To put it in the words of the late George Carlin, “The planet has been through a lot worse than us. Been through

earthquakes, volcanoes, plate tectonics, continental drift, solar flares, sun spots, magnetic storms, the magnetic reversal of the poles … hundreds of thousands of years of bombardment by comets and asteroids and meteors, worldwide floods, tidal waves, worldwide fires, erosion, cosmic rays, recurring ice ages … And we think some plastic bags and some aluminum cans are going to make a difference? The planet isn’t going anywhere. WE are!”

But people will get rich on the hysteria. And guys like Steyer think that’s enough to get them elected President.

Then, take Joe Biden.

When he was Vice President to Barack Obama, his portfolio included the Ukraine. Yet he doesn’t understand why his neer’do well son, Hunter, suddenly popping up with a huge paying job with a suspicious Ukrainian gas company raises any red flags at all.

What a schumck.

Where do these people come from?

Well, trust me, it’s NOT like they are inspired by the concept of public service. Many if not most of them simply look down on their fellow Americans. They are under the misapprehension that we are too stupid to live our lives without their divine intercession. They also like the money and the notoriety.

That’s where the Adam Schiffs, the Eric Swalwells and, God help us, the Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’ come from and they will decide they have what it take to be the top dog soon. (Swalwell already has.)

What can America do?

To quote Nancy Reagan, “just say no”. These folks may be worse than street drugs. And the media will drop them like a hot rock if they lose a few elections. The media may have its favorites, but at the end of the day, it’s a business. No ratings, no money goodbye AOC and friends.

FRED WEINBERG


OPINIONFrom The Publisher...

Just Say No To the Moronic Democrats


Start the Damn Trial—With or With Pelosi’s “Permission”

Does House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) have a heretofore unnoticed, unconstitutional power to hold up an impeachment that has already been voted on?

That appears to be what she wants the American people to believe. That, articles of impeachment passed by the House, including H. Res. 755 that impeached President Donald Trump, are not actually “passed” unless and until she transmits it to the Senate.

The Speaker of House of Representatives — a constitutional office in Article I of the Constitution — cannot unilaterally defy the will of the House, and prevent legislation from being submitted to the Senate after it has been duly passed by the House.

This is a work of fiction. Nothing in either the Constitution or House or Senate rules grants such power to the Speaker to “sit” on impeachment, thereby would prevent Senate action on such. It exists in the imaginations of liberal law professors.

In fact, House rules are very clear that the Clerk of the House must certify passage of legislation by the House, under Rule II(2)(d)(1): “The Clerk shall… certify the passage of all bills and joint resolutions.”

Similarly, the Clerk under Rule II(2)(d)2) “shall examine all bills, amendments, and joint resolutions after passage by the House… to see that they are correctly enrolled…”

However, the Articles of Impeachment were neither a bill nor a joint resolution, they were included in a simple resolution, H. Res. 755.

According to Congress.gov, a simple resolution is “[a] matter concerning the rules, the operation, or the opinion of either House alone… Simple resolutions are considered only by the body in which they were introduced. Upon adoption, simple resolutions are attested to by the Clerk of the House of Representatives or the Secretary of the Senate and are published in the Congressional Record.”

Nonetheless, the Clerk of the House did certify the passage of H. Res. 755 when it was posted at clerk.house.gov in the form of roll calls 695 and 696 on Dec. 18.

Which is all the Constitution requires. The Constitution, under Article I, Section 2 states: “The House of Representatives… shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.” By that standard, President Trump is impeached.

Article I, Section 3 states: “The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two-thirds of the Members present. Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States; but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”

So, very clearly, under the Constitution, the House has sole power to impeach, and the Senate has sole power to try all impeachments. There is nothing in there about transmitting anything to the Senate. All that is required for there to be a trial in the Senate is for the House to have acted

to impeach an official, including the President, and, semantics aside, that threshold has clearly been met.

Now, Senate rules on impeachment are a lot more specific about receiving articles of impeachment from the House. Rule I states: “Whensoever the Senate shall receive notice from the House of Representatives that managers are appointed on their part to conduct an impeachment against any person and are directed to carry articles of impeachment to the Senate, the Secretary of the Senate shall immediately inform the House of Representatives that the Senate is ready to receive the managers for the purpose of exhibiting such articles of impeachment, agreeably to such notice.”

Rule II outlines the ceremony for the managers to present the articles, which when completed, “the articles shall be exhibited, and then the Presiding Officer of the Senate shall inform the managers that the Senate will take proper order on the subject of the impeachment, of which due notice shall be given to the House of Representatives.”

Pelosi’s theory of “holding” up the Senate trial, if there is one, is that under the aforementioned Senate rules, a Senate trial theoretically cannot begin until it receives this notice from the House. But that is not what the rule says. It says when the Senate receives notice from the House that it has appointed its impeachment managers — the traditional form for presenting the articles to the Senate — then the Senate shall inform the House that is ready to receive them for the purpose of exhibiting the articles and then conduct the ceremony.

But the Senate does not have to play along. Even if the rule precluded a Senate trial without the House naming managers or the ceremony being conducted — it doesn’t, but let’s pretend that it does — the Senate could just override the rule in the same manner it has overridden a 60 vote requirement on reaching cloture on confirming judges and executive branch officers.

Either way, the Senate can sidestep Pelosi’s ploy by simply informing the House that is ready to receive the articles, or the Senate could just declare it is proceeding to consideration of impeachment via the trial and notify the House of such and that it downloaded the articles off of the House’s website. For it to be otherwise would be for the Senate to convey, via its own rules, new powers upon the Speaker to keep the nation under the specter of impeachment for months or even years like a Sword of Damocles, proceeding to a trial a time of her choosing.

Now, this could all be a delaying tactic to forestall a Senate trial until after the New Year, giving members time to enjoy their vacations. Or it could be Pelosi’s intent is to delay the trial indefinitely because the case is too weak and the prospects of conviction too slim. In that case, then the tactic would appear to be to allow more time for the House to amass information that might be beneficial to their side at trial, or more time to apply pressure on weaker Republican Senators.

Suffice to say, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) would be unwise to help create such an awful precedent. He should just proceed to the trial, whether Pelosi is ready or not. The fact is, for better or for worse, the House has already voted to impeach President Trump. What’s done is done. If the case is that weak, then moving for a swift dismissal should be a short order. Let’s get this trial over with. ROBERT ROMANORobert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.

Commentary: Robert Romano

The Coming Ice AgeGreta Thunberg, at the tender age of 16, has become the voice of global

warming, climate change, environmentalism, or whatever it’s being called this news cycle. She’s TIME’s person of the year, annoying the President of the United States to distraction. Mr. Trump believes he is the person of the year, every year. “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!” Trump wrote.

Instead of chilling, the young activist’s public statements consistently communicate a few key points:

• The planet is warming, we are responsible, and we need to fix it.• Hope is fine, but it is pointless without action.• Economic concerns are irrelevant in the face of collapsing ecosystems.• If we do not fix this, future generations will remember us for our failures.There are people who study the weather to make money on climate trends

and what it will mean for the commodity markets. Leigh Goehring and Adam Rozencwaig (@gorozen) are in such a business. In their Q1 Commentary Messrs. Goehring and Rozencwaig make the point that corn yields have risen seven-fold while average temperatures have increased over the same 80-year period.

And while CO2 concentrations have increased, causing Ms. Thornberg to lose sleep, “one cannot help but notice that a large part of the warming trend over the last 120 years took place prior to 1950, a period where CO2 concentrations in the earth’s atmosphere remained relatively low,” wrote the natural resource investing pair.

While Greta claims warming is the fault of humans, @gozen believe, and invest money based upon, a different point of view: “we put forward our belief that we are on the cusp of a major change in weather patterns. We believe global weather patterns are influenced by solar activity and our research tells us we are entering into a long period of declining energy released by the sun.”

Ms. Thornberg is merely acting human. As Matt Lampert wrote in the July edition of The Socionomist, “humans, as they do in financial asset manias, are linearly extrapolating a phenomenon just as it’s reaching its natural peak.”

If Goehring and Rozencwaig are correct, sunspot activity has been very high,

making the climate warmer. But that is beginning to change. Sunspot activity is decreasing and colder weather is on its way.

The sun’s magnetic field reverses its polarity every eleven years, causing sunspot activity to peak and trough predictably. But not all peaks and troughs are the same. The Maunder Minimum had “minimal sunspot activity and occurred between 1645 to 1715 in conjunction with the second half of the Little Ice Age, a period of intense cold which lasted from approximately 1300 to about 1850,” according to @gorozen.

The Modern Maxium began at the turn of the century and continues to this day, giving Al Gore, Tom Steyer and Greta something to worry about. But, while Greta enjoys her 15 minutes of fame, “The 24th sunspot cycle began in 2008, peaked in 2014 and has most likely ended as we write today. Sunspot activity has declined significantly over the previous two cycles. Although open to debate, many sunspot observers believe that sunspot-cycle 23 will have ended up being the last sunspot cycle of the Modern Maximum cycle.”

The guys at @gorozen wrote,“There is mounting evidence indicating we are entering a potential period of

very low sunspot activity, caused by a confluence of overlapping Gleissberg and Suess-DeVries Cycles. If this is indeed the case, the impact on the earth’s climate and by extension growing conditions could be material.”

High sunspot activity and increased magnetic output serve to deflect cosmic rays, hindering cloud formation. Low activity does just the opposite.

So, the worst thing politicians could do is use the ham hand of government to hinder the exploration and extraction of fossil fuels, because we are going to need to burn something to stay warm. These cold eras also feature large increases in volcanic activity. The @gorzen report anticipates increased volcanic activity over the next two decades. This increase looks to have already begun.

“Commodity price spikes in the 1970s coincided with a huge advance in the environmental movement,” Alan Hall wrote in the July Socionomist. “Will history rhyme again? We will keep an eye on commodity prices, our bellwether for environmentalism.”

Goehring and Rozencwaig believe grain, oil, and metals markets are on the verge of a huge bull market, given the lack of sunspot activity. Politicians pandering to youth with new regulations will leave all of us out in the cold.

DOUG FRENCH


Commentary: Doug French


Commentary: Daniel HonchariwTaxpayers Shouldn’t Foot the Bill for Political Union Activity

Should taxpayers be required to subsidize the activities — including the political activities — of private labor organizations like the Service Employees International Union?

Unsuspecting Nevadans may be surprised to learn their hard-earned money is being taxed to do just that — advance the interests of government unions, including the SEIU among others, who continuously lobby for more public spending, higher tax burdens and larger government.

Through so-called “union leave” policies, agreed to by government officials and enshrined in union-negotiated labor contracts, government employees are paid their typical wages while performing duties on behalf of their workplace union. Taxpayer-funded union work can take the form of attending educational conferences, lobbying elected officials and preparing for collective-bargaining negotiations, but all such activities are undertaken specifically to advance the union’s political and financial goals — not those of taxpayers.

This means taxpayers across Nevada — who typically earn less than government employees — are effectively funding the efforts of labor activists whose interests diverge considerably from their own.

And it’s costing millions of public dollars.A 2012 NPRI analysis found that collective bargaining agreements explicitly

granted nearly 70,000 hours of paid union-leave time in Clark County alone. Other agreements simply authorized a “reasonable amount” of union leave, without defining that term or setting upper limits. In total, on-the-record costs to Clark County taxpayers approached $5 million that year.

Guided by that analysis and others, a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers during the 2015 legislative session appropriately sought to minimize the taxpayer impact of union leave.

Senate Bill 241 (2015), however, though rooted in noble intentions, accomplished very little on that front. Instead of prohibiting the practice outright, it merely clarified that union-leave time is permissible if the amount of

leave granted by the labor agreement “is offset by the value of concessions made by the employee organization” during negotiations.

The problem with that approach is unions had historically treated leave time as an asset of value during negotiations. Thus, rather than implementing real, taxpayer-friendly reform, SB241 merely codified the status quo.

Unsurprisingly, taxpayers in 2019 continue to be fleeced by leave time. Public records requests have revealed, for example, that Reno firefighters were granted nearly 2,500 hours of union leave at a public cost of $73,000 for the most recent fiscal year.

Grandiose amounts of leave time likely apply to Reno police officers and members of Sparks’ public-safety unions as well, but unfortunately there’s no way of knowing. According to the city clerks of both jurisdictions, union leave is neither specifically tracked nor recorded for those departments. Apparently, the fact that Washoe County residents are required to fund these special interests doesn’t entitle them to basic information regarding how their tax dollars are being utilized, and to what extent.

But one can imagine what those costs might be by referring again to Clark County, where the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department authorized more than 23,000 hours in total leave time for its union employees during Fiscal 2019, costing the public nearly $2 million.

Absent meaningful reform, taxpayers can expect to foot the bill for unions’ private activities in the years ahead — and likely at an accelerated rate, given the recent authorization of collective bargaining rights via Senate Bill 135 (2019) for Nevada’s 20,000-plus state-level workers.

But there is no public-policy justification for our elected officials to bargain away public funds for the benefit of politically connected special-interest groups. Taxpayers never should be expected to subsidize the efforts of organizations that lobby against our interests.

Our elected officials should affirm their loyalty to taxpayers — not organized labor — by outlawing publicly-subsidized union leave during the 2021 legislative session.

DANIEL HONCHARIWDaniel Honchariw, MPA is the director of legislative affairs for NPRI.

Fair and Reciprocal Trade Will Be President Trump’s Legacy

As we embark upon 2020, with the third year of Donald Trump’s presidency in the can, the American economy is as good as it has been in at least 70 years, and after what many economists predicted would be a mid-year downturn, 2019 has turned into a boon year for all Americans.

Three economic drivers over the past year will be examined, the labor market, American consumer spending power and the state of international trade as the first two directly reflect the economic situation over the year and the latter sets the stage for the economic environment which our nation will compete in for the future.The Labor Front by the numbers

The unemployment is at a 50-year low of 3.5 percent. The January, 2019 unemployment rate was 4.0 percent, meaning the unemployment rate has continued dropping even as some economists claimed that the country was at full employment.

7.3 million jobs were available in Oct. 2019 according to the Dec. 20 released report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

5.8 million unemployed Americans are in the workforce seeking job. In January, 2019, there were 6.535 million unemployed, meaning that there are approximately 720,000 fewer Americans unemployed at the end of 2019, than there were at the beginning of the year.

Note that there are 1.5 million more jobs available then people looking for jobs, and while the skills required and location of the available jobs and workers don’t match evenly, the 1.5 million

1.4 million more Americans are employed in Nov. 2019, than were employed in January 2019.

1.2 million more Americans entered the labor force between Jan. 2019 and Nov. 2019. This means that more people got jobs in 2019 than entered the workforce.Why these matter?

Many economic doomsayers were predicting that demand for workers would diminish as the economy inevitably slowed, yet over the course of 2019, we have seen the unemployment rate dive to the lowest rates since the Vietnam War was raging and Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

Fewer Americans are unemployed than at any time since Dec. 2000, when there were 21 million fewer people in the workforce.

In practical terms, the number and percentage of people who are unemployed reflects the economic anxiety in the country. When neighbors and family members are unemployed and struggling to find work, those who have jobs worry that they too may be in jeopardy of financial hardship. Conversely, when everyone you know has a job and there are help wanted signs up all over town, you feel secure not only in your job but in the idea that you can risk quitting your job to get a better one if you want.

This is the liberating effect of the current economic situation, and the fact that the number of unemployed Americans dropped by 720,000 since Jan. 2019 tells a story of historic levels of job security as we 2020 gets underway.What happened to wages and spending power in 2019?

The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis released personal disposable income information for the third quarter of 2019 which ended on Sept. 30. Since Sept. 30, 2018, Americans’ disposable, after tax, income has gone up by $1,811 to $50,184.

The Labor Department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that average hourly earnings continues to grow at 3.1 percent with real earnings, which account for the bite that inflation takes out of a paycheck, continue at 1.1 percent in November. The net effect is that wage increases are outpacing inflation allowing American workers to have more real disposable income at the end of November than they had in Jan. 2019.

The old adage that the harder I work, the further I get behind was driven by high inflation rates combined with minimal wage growth, so the only way to even keep even was to work longer hours to offset the hidden tax bite of higher prices at the grocery store, gas pump and elsewhere. This was turned on its head in 2019 as on average, people earned more money in November than they did in January, and the increased earnings were only partially offset by a stable, low inflation rate.

While the real raises are not astronomical, they are a welcome respite from the hamster wheel feeling that has afflicted Americans for a generation, where no matter how hard you run, at best, you end up in the same place.2019 has been dominated by trade talk, has Trump’s focus on trade mattered?

President Donald Trump’s legacy will be determined by his trade agenda. The President has not been shy rhetorically on trade, but 2019 marked major progress in not just undoing 75 years of outdated policy, but in creating 21st century trade deals which put America’s interests first.

Negotiating a trade deal with Japan has been at the top of many administrations’ agenda, President Trump announced the first phase of an agreement with the Japanese had been agreed to in October, which includes increased U.S. farm sales to Japan at low to no tariff levels, and a digital section which should increase U.S. exports of digital products to Japan.

The U.S. Trade Representative office notes that the digital section of the first stage Japanese agreement, “meets the gold standard on digital trade rules set by the USMCA.”

And while the House of Representatives was playing smoke and mirror games on impeachment, they finally passed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada (USMCA) trade agreement replacing the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). USMCA not only has digital protections in it, but creates both an intellectual property barrier and transparency rules against currency manipulation which has the effect of driving the costs of U.S. produced goods higher vis-à-vis foreign made goods.

The intellectual property protection provisions of USMCA are one of the foundational changes that is the benchmark of the Trump trade agenda, and can be expected to be replicated and even strengthened in future negotiations with Japan, South Korea, Australia, Chile, the United Kingdom, EU, India and Brazil.

The goal is simple. Recognizing intellectual property rights is a fundamental aspect of capitalism, after all, if a person doesn’t own the product of his/her own mind than any other case for private property ownership pales. By creating a IP trade wall around China, President Trump will force the Chinese to choose whether to accept private property rights in their country, and abandon communism, or return to living in economic isolation behind their “Great” wall while the rest of the world’s economies thrive.

The much talked about China trade deal is an initial foray into this decision, but the tariff increases of 2019 merely set the stage for future discussions as the Chinese government is unlikely to follow the agreement to any great degree.

However, as Brexit and other world events unfold, the Trump trade plan will take center stage and the finely honed globalist trade system will be replaced by a mutually agreeable one between countries determined to meet their citizen’s interests. However, the President must win a second term to finish this job and create a capitalist trade wall which resets the global trading partnerships for the next fifty years.

A great American jobs economy makes reconfiguring the world’s trade economy a possibility as the Trump team negotiates from a position of strength, and 2019 will be marked as the year when the Trump promises became the world’s reality.

Only a non-politician who builds structures where no one else dreamed they might be could tackle and remake the global economy to benefit American citizens. President Trump’s entire presidency will be judged for generations on whether he succeeds or fails in making this vision of fair and reciprocal trade a reality. RICK MANNINGRick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.


Commentary: Rick Manning

Every Swamp Needs an Ogre; Meet the Badlands’ “Schreck”

Back in October I wrote a detailed explanation of the ongoing brouhaha and bitter feud over development of the now-defunct Badlands golf course adjacent to a luxury gated community in northwest Las Vegas.

In the column I noted that the “Queensridge Quagmire” – if it continues on the current path – could potentially bankrupt the city of Las Vegas thanks to a “land snatch” ordinance adopted at the behest of former and disgraced City Councilman Steve Seroka.

The “Seroka Screw-Job” essentially used the power of government to “take” the land of developer Yohan Lowie and block him from building residential homes on it even though the land is zoned for…um, residential homes.

Mr. Lowie has, rightfully and understandably, sued the city over the ordinance – and everyone I’ve spoken with believes he’s going to win.

The city has spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars already on the lawsuit and could lose MILLIONS of dollars in damages if, as expected, Mr. Lowie prevails – money the city does not have.

A municipal bankruptcy like Detroit is not out of the question. That’s how serious and dangerous this mess is if someone doesn’t step in and fix it.

Enter Las Vegas City Councilwoman Victoria Seaman.Ms. Seaman won the city council seat that represents the Queensridge

community last June. And she has proposed repealing and replacing the Seroka Screw-Job ordinance with something that could potentially mitigate the financial threat to the city.

On Tuesday night she entered the lion’s den and attempted to explain the ordinance change to several dozen Queensridge home-owners at a town hall meeting held at the West Sahara Library.

“I wanted an opportunity to show them exactly what we’re doing,” the councilwoman explained to Las Vegas Sun reporter Miranda Willson.

It didn’t go well.The unruly mob that showed up – gratefully without torches and

pitchforks – couldn’t care less about the financial threat to every other taxpayer in the city. Damn it, they want their golf course view back!

Well, they ain’t gettin’ it. That ship has sailed. The Badlands Golf Club was bleeding red ink for years, and no one’s

stupid enough to reopen it as a golf course – including the wealthy home-owners who are doing all the belly-aching.

And Mr. Lowie, rightfully and understandably, isn’t going to “repurpose” the shuttered golf course into an open-air park, especially if neither the city nor the home-owners are willing to pay him a fair and equitable price for the land.

The city doesn’t have the money, even if it wanted to. And the home-owners, who feel “entitled” to the land, won’t cough up the dough. Their

attitude is: “I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.”But back to Councilwoman Seaman’s town hall meeting…Every swamp needs an ogre. And in the case of the Queensridge

Quagmire that role is being played by a high-powered lawyer named Frank A. Schreck of Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck.

But that’s too long, including the name. So let’s just shorten the whole thing and refer to him as “Shrek.”

Get it?Anyway, Shrek has been actively involved in the lawsuits against the

city on behalf of the home-owners and was at the meeting. I’d never met him before. Never heard him speak before. But I attended the town hall…and took an immediate disliking to the guy.

He was rude, obnoxious, belligerent, confrontational and insulting to the city staff who were with Councilwoman Seaman in an effort to explain the need for the repeal-and-replace ordinance proposal.

But the crowd loved him.The cultish atmosphere was like a Branch Davidian reunion. And the

insufferable Shrek clearly reveled in the adoration. The Ringmaster General constantly interrupted the conversation from

his seat in the peanut gallery; not only when Councilwoman Seaman and city staffers were speaking, but even when other attendees tried to ask questions from the microphone set up at the back of the room.

This bully clearly has a Pied Piper complex. But remember what happened. When the Pied Piper didn’t get his

way, he used his magical flute to lure the town’s children into the river where they all drowned.

And if the residents of the Queensridge Quagmire aren’t careful, Shrek is liable to lead them right off a financial cliff. Indeed, the people of Queensridge should take this warning into consideration…

What if they continue to follow Shrek blindly? And what if they lose? And what if Mr. Lowie is awarded millions of dollars in damages?

And what if the city creates a “special taxation district” just in Queensridge and forces the home-owners there to pay the bill rather than stick ALL of the city’s taxpayers with it?

How much would THAT cost them?It’s long past time to resolve this mess. And it’s a no-win situation for

everyone concerned – except, perhaps, Mr. Lowie. Cooler heads need to prevail.

But for that to happen, the villagers of the Queensridge Quagmire probably need to banish the Badlands Ogre and send Shrek off to terrify some other swamp.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS“Las Vegas so far has hired five private law firms for defense and

allocated nearly $2 million in taxpayer dollars to the cause, spending nearly $963,000 in legal fees as of this month, according to city spokesman Jace Radke. ‘There’s no end in sight,’ Councilwoman Victoria Seaman said.” – Las Vegas Review-Journal, 10/11/19 CHUCK MUTH(Mr. Muth is president of CitizenOutreach.org and publisher of NevadaNewsandViews.com. He blogs at MuthsTruths.com. His views are his own.)


Commentary: Chuck Muth


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