Medicare and Medicaid Spend More on Native-Born Americans Than Immigrants

“What this allows the survey to demonstrate is that between 2002–2022—with the exceptions of 2004–2006 and 2013, in which no birthplaces were recorded—foreign-born respondents accounted for 18.6 percent less Medicare and Medicaid spending than their native-born counterparts. On average, this amounted to $1,775 per person in 2022 dollars, compared to $2,180 per person among those born in the U.S.
Bier breaks down the numbers even further to demonstrate that this trend holds across each year in the sample for which data was available: In 2022, the most recent year recorded, U.S.-born patients cost the health agencies $2,691 apiece, while foreign-born cost $2,116 each. The closest the two groups ever came to parity was in 2015, when the U.S.-born cost $2,312 and the foreign-born cost $2,233.

“Despite their lower incomes, immigrants are less likely to use publicly funded health care for several reasons,” Bier writes. “Most importantly, they are younger, but even controlling for age, immigrants tend to be healthier and participate in fewer high-risk activities. In addition, their eligibility for Medicare and Medicaid is more limited than for the US-born population….Finally, some eligible immigrants also do not enroll in these programs out of ignorance or fear about its immigration effects.””

“The survey only notes a respondent’s birthplace, not their immigration status.”

https://reason.com/2024/09/18/medicare-and-medicaid-spend-more-on-native-born-americans-than-immigrants/

Can China Innovate in Advanced Industries?

China is innovative and excellent at diffusing new technology throughout its economy.

The U.S. innovates to make money. China innovates to enhance China’s global power. The U.S. must adapt to this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlM0hfBs9_E

States Are Trying To Force the Bible Into the Classroom

“In June, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, signed a bill mandating that all public school classrooms display a poster of the Ten Commandments. Just over a week later, Oklahoma’s State Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters declared that “every teacher, every classroom in the state will have a Bible in the classroom and will be teaching from the Bible in the classroom,” later telling PBS News Hour, “the separation of church and state appears nowhere in the Declaration of Independence or Constitution.”

Since 2023, four states have attempted to mandate or are considering legislation mandating the display of the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms.”

“Even if a bill mandating that schools display the Ten Commandments gets struck down, legislators supporting the bill still get to tout their record as strident Christian conservatives.”

https://reason.com/2024/09/19/battle-of-the-bible-bills/

No, Trump-Style Tariffs Do Not Grow the Economy

“Also overlooked by those claiming that 19th-century tariffs made America great is that the country’s biggest import at the time was immigrants, who incurred no tariffs. As economists Cecil Bohanon and T. Norman Van Cott argue in “Tariffs, Immigration, and Economic Insulation,” weighing the impact of tariffs on economic growth without accounting for massive immigration—which increased from about 200,000 individuals a year in 1865 to more than 1,000,000 in 1910—can only lead to questionable conclusions. They explain that “the impact of high tariffs, clearly an insulating policy, was swamped by free immigration, a quintessential policy of economic openness.”
Trump is an avowed restrictionist on both immigration and trade. And so, if a second Trump presidency brings higher tariffs and further immigration restrictions, we won’t be as fortunate as were our 19th century forebears.

Making matters worse is that today’s economy is vastly different from that of a century ago. Globalization has interconnected markets and supply chains in unprecedented ways. Half of what Americans import are inputs they use to produce goods domestically. Tariffs on these imports increase production costs, making American products less competitive both at home and abroad.

Furthermore, the service sector—comprising industries like technology, finance, and health care—now represents nearly four-fifths of the U.S. economy. These sectors thrive on innovation, skilled labor, and access to global markets, rather than on protectionist policies.”

https://reason.com/2024/09/19/no-trump-style-tariffs-do-not-grow-the-economy/

Venezuela Opposition Leader Forced To Sign Letter Backing Maduro

“Venezuelan opposition leader Edmundo González claims the regime forced him to sign a letter recognizing Nicolás Maduro as the winner of July’s disputed presidential election.
“Either I signed or I would face consequences,” González explained in a video posted to social media. “There were very tense hours of coercion, blackmail and pressure.” The letter, according to González, was a condition for his escape to Spain, where he arrived on Sunday after weeks in hiding.”

https://reason.com/2024/09/19/venezuela-opposition-leader-forced-to-sign-letter-backing-maduro/

Did the Abraham Accords Pave the Way for Total War?

“In 1982, before Hezbollah existed, Israel invaded Lebanon to root out Palestinian guerrillas. Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon envisioned an operation aimed at “transforming Lebanon into a reliable ally,” assassinating Palestinian leadership, expelling Palestinians, and eventually overthrowing the government of Jordan, according to Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergman.
After Israeli forces stormed Beirut, the Lebanese capital, they successfully installed their ally, Bachir Gemayel, as prime minister and forced the Palestine Liberation Organization to withdraw from the country. (U.S. Marines were sent to oversee the Palestinian withdrawal.) But Gemayel was assassinated by one of his own countrymen, and a new militia called Hezbollah emerged to fight both the Israeli and U.S. presence.”

https://reason.com/2024/09/30/did-the-abraham-accords-pave-the-way-for-total-war/

AoD Podcast | Xi Jinping Is Preparing Belt & Road for Phase Two: Militarization (w/ Michael Sobolik)

China is militarizing the belt and road initiative.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSbBgr8rvs4