Immigration and Trade: It Is a Shrinking World – Deal with It

Bruce Bialosky / Townhall Columnist

A few years back we traveled to New Zealand on a non-stop flight from Los Angeles. When we got off the plane I saw a man from the flight as I was entering the men’s room. He complained about the length of the flight. I told him “We are half way around the world in 11 hours. This is marvelous.” The world continues to shrink; we cannot stop it and we have to adapt to that reality with our trade and immigration policies.

Two of the biggest topics of discussion in our presidential election are immigration and trade.

Candidates from both parties seem to want to revert to the 19^th century when schooners dominated ocean travel. Having been all over the world and seen how people from all 196 countries managed to end up in faraway places to provide services and earn a living, it is quite apparent our modern means of travel, communication and shipping are making the march of progress toward an ever-shrinking world insurmountable.

Trump has taken hits for his positions against trade and suggestions to impose tariffs against China and Mexico, but Clinton, Sanders and a large number of Democrats are openly hostile to free trade.

There could not be a more myopic view of the world.

First, free trade creates positive relations between countries and encourages them to participate in capitalism. As bad as China is -- and I have been there and seen it -- they are a whole lot better because of the opening up of their markets and their move toward a freer economy. If we are exchanging goods and services with another country, the focus will be on commerce versus a belligerence on other issues. Any time we have closed our markets to protect targeted industries, it has failed and created ill-will in addition to hurting our citizens.

Sticker Shock: Obamacare Premiums Could Rise By Double-Digits

Matt Vespa / Townhall Tipsheet
 

Guy mentioned this earlier this week, but Obamacare’s premiums are going to rise—and it’s an absolute nightmare. The groundwork for health providers re-entering the Obamacare market all point to steep premium hikes. This, plus the rather shoddy quality of coverage, has many Americans opting to pay the penalty to remain uninsured because it’s better for them economically. Americans would rather gamble on possible bankruptcy due to a medical emergency than buy into Obamacare.

UnitedHealth posted more than $1 billion in losses before pulling out of the Obamacare market in two states. In fact, the 2016 projections for Obamacare enrollees by the Congressional Budget Office were off by 24 million. In the process, millions have lost their health insurance. There’s also the serial failure of the Obamacare exchanges, which has cost taxpayers billions of dollars. It gets worse—we’re looking at double-digit premium spikes for this year (via Associated Press):

Insurers will seek significant premium hikes under President Barack Obama's health care law this summer - stiff medicine for consumers and voters ahead of the national political conventions. 

Expect the state-by-state premium requests to reflect what insurers see as the bottom line: The health law has been a financial drain for many companies. They're setting the stage for 2017 hikes that could reach well into the double digits, in some cases.

Obama pursuing under-the-radar ways to bring in more Muslim migrants
By Robert Spencer / Jihad Watch

 

What could possibly go wrong? “US weighing under-the-radar routes for Syrian refugees?,” by Adam Shaw, Fox News, April 29, 2016: The Obama administration appears to be bowing to international pressure and pursuing under-the-radar “alternative” ways to bring in more Syrian and other refugees — as soon as this year. The latest indication that the administration […]
 
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Pakistan’s ISI controlled Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound: Book

Pamela Geller / Atlas Shrugs

Pakistan is no ally of the United States. But Obama throughout his presidency has treated allies as enemies and enemies as allies, and so Pakistan is still officially on our side, when in reality it is a chief enabler of the global jihad.

“ISI controlled Osama bin Laden’s Abbottabad compound: Book,” PTI, April 28, 2016:

WASHINGTON: The Abbottabad hideout of Osama bin Laden was under ISI control and a Pakistan Army doctor treated the most dreaded terrorist in the world before he was killed in a daring raid by US commandos in 2011, according to a new book.

In fact, the doctor Amir Aziz, of the rank of major, who lived in a compound near bin Laden’s hideout in Abbottabad, was rewarded by the CIA with a share of the $25...

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