& EDITORIALS
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publish, and conceal not." - Jeremiah 50:2
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JUST THE WAY IT IS by SIoan Oliver
Despite trade
concerns with
China and a
rollercoaster
stock market, the country's
economic news couldn't
be better. According to the
Depart-
ment of
Labor, the
economy
added
312,000
jobs in
December
bringing
total em-
ployment
to an ALL
TIME high.
Unemploy-
ment is 3.9
percent,
an 18-year
low; black and Hispanic
unemployment continues
at record low levels under
President Trumps eco-
nomic policies; and the
U.S. economy is growing
at a 3 percent rate - some-
thing it never did dur-
ing Obama's eight years.
And during Trumps first
two years in office, the
economy has added close
to five million new jobs.
The best economic news is
that most economists are
forecasting strong growth
and see little chance of a
recession, at least for the
next 12 months. But, does
any of that matter? Of
course not, read on to see
what is consuming our
biased media these days.
REMEMBER THE
2012 presidential election
when Mitt Romney lost to
Obama? Fast forward to
2018, Romney was elected
senator from Utah replac-
ing the retiring Orrin
Hatch. Last week, Ronmey
wrote an Op-Ed for the
ultra-liberal Washington
Post in which he criticized
President Trump. Look no
further than his Op-Ed to
know why Romney lost in
2012. Despite the Dem's
2016 election shenanigans,
despite the dishonesty of
Hillary, Obama, Pelosi,
and Schumer, despite the
Dem's policy of no border
security, despite the hate-
fulness shown toward
President Trump by the
media and the Dems, de-
spite exorbitant spending
by both Reps and Dems,
and despite the Dems'
and Mueller's 2-year witch
hunt against President
Trump; Romney was un-
able to find fault
with any of that.
Instead, even be-
fore he's sworn
in, he attacked
Trump. In his
artide, Rom-
ney said that
Trump wasn't
presidential,
that Allies no
longer trust the
United States,
and Trump
5/00,/9 O/t'V'et" lacksleadership.
Romney went
on to say, "I will
speak out against signifi-
cant statements or actions
that are divisive, racist,
sexist, anti-immigrant,
dishonest or destructive to
democratic institutions"
Romney's Op-Ed implies
that President Trump is all
that. His Op-Ed is a per-
fect example of why Re-
publicans continue getting
their butts kicked. Instead
of uniting, Reps attack and
criticize one another and,
except for Trump, never
attack the dishonest Dems
and never attack the biased
media. It's mindboggling
to us conservatives out
here in "Nowhereswille" at
the Republican's stupid-
ity. Unfortunately, many
Republicans fall into that
stupid category.
THERE'S ZERO chance
that you missed the fact
that Dems are back in
charge of the House of
Representatives and that
Nancy Pelosi is again
Speaker of the House
because the mediacrats
(media+democrats) have
been nauseatingly giddy
for the past week. If you
want to know what lies
ahead for the House over
the next two years, simply
look at the words and
actions of the Dems who
were recently swom in:
* Rep. Reshida Tlaib (D-
MI) said, "We're gonna im-
peach the Motherff****!"
See DEIb Page 5A
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PEACH STATE POLITICS by Kyle Wingfield
The federal government's
recent shutdown had
many people wondering if
Washington can ever return
to functioning properly. In fact, this
is a feature of our system, not a bug:
Congress holds the power of the
purse, and it's well within its rights
to withhold
funding
when at
loggerheads
with the
president
over policies
and priori-
ties.
That
said, these
standoffs
also serve
as good
reminders of
another fea-
ture of our
system: limiting the public functions
managed by one central government.
The Founders created a series of
rivalries within government in order
to restrain it, and one of them is be-
tween Washington and the states.
A benefit of that arrangement
- had we properly maintained it -
would be less disruption in public
services when the rivalries within
the federal government boil over.
Likewise, if the rivalries within a state
government grew too heated, the
effects would be contained to its own
borders.
The past couple of decades have
been a living civics class in why the
original balance should be restored.
Perhaps no greater opportunity for
doing just that exists than in health
care - in large part because the
Trump administration has don
some very good work to help em-
power the states in that area.
The biggest shot in the arm for
health-care federalism is a raft of new
guidelines for how states can tailor
their individual health-insurance
markets to their local needs. It
amounts to making states jump
through some hoops to regain part
of the autonomy they had before
Obamacare, but at least the hoops
are being made easier to navigate.
Specifically, the administration
has offered states four ways to over-
haul the markets that serve more
than 10 million Americans - and
which would likely serve far more,
if Obamacare's overzealous regula-
tion hadn't skewed them so badly
in the first place.
First, states can seek flexibility
to allocate the tax-credit subsidies
differently. This could mean offer-
ing them to more people than today.
It could also mean allocating them
differently based on income, to
provide a more gradual reduction as
people's income rises - and avoiding
a dramatic drop at the end, known as
a "diff. '
Second, states can choose to allow
the subsidies to be used for a wider
range of insurance plans than today.
Plans that offer more limited cover-
age for a much lower premium - to
allow people to stay covered between
jobs, for example, or for a 63-year-
old retiree to bridge the gap until
Medicare kicks in - aren't eligible for
the subsidies now, but could be. The
same goes for health plans offered by
trade associations and other groups
to their members.
q-hird, states can use some of the
money to pay for the expenses of the
very costliest patients separately from
others. Keeping them in a separate
"risk pool" or covering their costs
through re'msurance could prevent
their costs from driving up the cost
of others' insurance. That's basically
the opposite of how these markets
operate today, hoping to force young-
er and healthier people to buy more
expensive insurance than they need,
to bring down premiums for older
and sicker people. It hasn't worked.
I% saved the best for last. The
fourth option is to allow the subsi-
dies to flow into individual health
accounts (similar to Health Savings
Accounts) rather than all of the
money going directly to insurers.
Today, an individual's only incentive
is to use all of the subsidies to buy
the most lucrative insurance plan at
the lowest cost out of his own pocket.
qhis change would allow people to
shop for insurance plans - includ-
ing some of the new options I've
described - and save any unspent
money to cover expenses beyond
premiums, such as deductibles and
co-pays. That would do far more to
drive down total costs for consumers,
not just their premiums.
Georgia is well-positioned io take
advantage of this new flexibility. Do-
ing so could be a big step toward a
new federalism.
The president and CEO of the Geor-
gia Public Policy Foundation, Kyle
Wingfield's column runs in papers
around the state of Georgia.
TAKING A LIKENS TO YOU by Dale Likens
The other day I
picked up a bag
of things that
needed to go
to the recycling center.
"Bring a bottle of water
when you come to the
car!" I called to my wife as
I proceeded
to the door.
"I just gave
you a bottle of
water to take
with us" she
called back.
"Well, I
don't know
where I put
it; so you
might as well
bring another
bottle." Then
I began to
reach into my
pocket to get
my car keys. "Hey, Hon,
forget that bottle of water!
I just found the other
bottle!"
"Okay! Where did you
find the other bottle?" she
called back as she entered
the room.
"In my left hand!" I
answered as I held the
bottle so she could plainly
see it. "I guess I was more
concemed about the bag
in my right hand"
Of course we both had a
good laugh over that one.
The truth is, I think
Karen's family is having a
bad effect on me. It's taken
a long time, but I think her
family has cast a spell on
me. One evening Karen's
sister got out of her car,
stepped into her house
and dosed the door be-
hind her. Then she turned
and locked the door before
setting her pocketbook
on the table. Suddenly she
heard someone kicking on
the door. "Oh, my good-
ness!" she remembered as
she unlocked the door and
quickly opened it. There at
the door was her hus-
band holding two bags of
groceries. "Did you forget
something?" he laughed as
he walked into the kitchen.
As Lee Corso, an Ameri-
can sports
broadcaster
and football
analyst always
says, "Not
so fast my
friend! Not so
fast!" Don't
start laugh-
ing about
what I did. If
it hasn't hap-
pened to you
yet, itwill. If
you married
into a family
like I did, it
will happen!
That's what I love about
my wife. She has a great
sense of humor, as does
her entire family. She and
I will laugh at the dumb-
est things she and I say to
each other. If other people
heard us say these dumb
things, they might not
catch our humor. They
might even wonder about
our sanity! We don't care.
We're having fun and en-
joying life the best we can.
We love humor. We think
it's medicinal; plus it takes
our minds offthe serious
problems this world pres-
ents to us each day.
One time I was listening
to Helen Hayes, a famous
actress of many years ago,
explaining how humor
had had a great effect on
her life and her career. She
explained to the person
who was interviewing her,
and to a vast television
audience, about an inci-
dent that happened while
she was acting on stage in
New York City. "One time
while another actor and I
were on stage together the
phone began to ring unex-
pectedly" she began. "The
phone call was certainly
not written into our script.
The ringing was so loud
and so annoying we just
couldn't go on. So there
we were, standing there,
wondering if the phone
would stop ringing so we
could go on with the play.
But it didn't"
' a nswer the phone!" the
other actor yelled across
the stage. "I'm too busy!"
"Thinking he scored
one on me, I just calmly
walked to the phone, said
hello, and politely set the
phone on the table. 'It's for
you!' I called to the gentle-
man on stage with me"
After a moment's silence,
while the other actor stood
there, completely stunned,
the audience caught on
to what was happening. It
was the longest laugh we
had that night!"
Billy Graham had a
wonderful sense of humor
and often used his humor
in his speeches. "I remem-
ber a man who was ready
to jump from the famous
London Bridge into the
Thames River to commit
suicide" Billy Graham
said. police officer ran
quickly to the bridge beg-
ging him not to jump into
the river. Finally, he talked
the man into sitting down
and discussing his prob-
lems. When the man fin-
ished telling the policeman
why he was going to jump
into the river and commit
suicide, he and the police-
man both jumped into the
river"
Everyone knows the
humor President Reagan
had. It seemed every time
a reporter had some seri-
ous question to ask Presi-
dent Reagan, he would
spin offwith another story.
"That reminds me of
a story about ----!" he
would begin. Soon the en-
tire audience of reporters
was laughing and quickly
settled into a relaxed and
comfortable mood. He
didn't always have the
answer the reporter was
looking for, but he knew
how to calm America and
enjoy life just a little more.
It is said that Ronald Rea-
gan read the comics every
morning, remember-
ing each of the previous
exploits. "why not?" he
smiled. "They reveal the
ironies of life in a light and
entertaining way"
How true! Humor has
such a calming effect on
each of us!
Once, President Lin-
coln was told that the
Confederate army had
raided a supply train and
the rebels had captured a
brigadier-general and 12
army mules. "How un-
fortunate!" he responded
quickly. "Those mules cost
us $200 a piece!" That was
his only reply as he walked
away. It was his humor,
even in a time of such
great distress.
Each of us can find a
little humor all around us
if we simply try.
Just like I did something
stupid to make my wife
laugh about the missing
water maybe you will
do something as stupid.
Laugh about it! Even if
that person has to laugh at
you! Try it! You might like
it! God bless!
Dale Likens is an au-
thor who lives in Monroe
County.
