Senator Chuck Schumer repeatedly claimed that President Trump was under investigation even though he knew that was false

Senator Grassley (R-Iowa) points out that Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) repeatedly made false statements that he knew were false about President Trump being under investigation.

On the Larry O'Connor Show to discuss the aftermath of the Alexandria shooting, covering a wide range of issues

Dr. John Lott on the Larry O'Connor Show to discuss the aftermath of the Alexandria shooting.  Despite being just 15 minutes long, the interview covered a wide array of issues from DC gun laws to reciprocity to the difficulties face in stopping mass public shootings.
(Thursday, March 15, 2017, from 3:35 to 3:50 PM)

The audio is available here.

More states lose insurers: Anthem pulls out of Wisconsin and Indiana

From Bloomberg 

Anthem Inc., the stalwart that has stuck with Obamacare longer than most other large health insurers, is shrinking its participation in the program and pulling out of two more states’ marketplaces. 

Anthem announced its exit from Wisconsin and Indiana on Wednesday, the deadline in many states for U.S. insurers to file their premium rates if they wish to participate in the Affordable Care Act next year. . . .

Earlier this month, Anthem said that it would pull out of Ohio’s ACA market . . . .

Companies have been leaving the Obamacare insurance market for some time, 

According to Haislmaier, there are now only 287 “exchange-participating insurers,”down from 307 in 2015 and significantly less than the 395 insurers Haislmaier says were in operation in the 50 states and Washington, DC in 2013, only one year prior to the opening of the ACA health insurance marketplace.

Haislmaier also says 22 states and Washington, DC, representing 45 percent of all states, now have fewer health insurance providers offering plans than they did just one year ago. Only 10 states have managed to increase the number of insurers in their health insurance marketplaces. . . .

But Democrats are blaming the companies leaving the market on Republicans.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee issued this statement:“Today’s decision by Anthem and MDwise to pull out of Indiana’s individual insurance market is devastating news for Hoosiers across the state. Congressmen Messer and Rokita are actively sabotaging their constituents’ health care by creating uncertainty in the marketplace and supporting a toxic health care plan: decimating HIP 2.0 –  hailed as ‘one of the biggest success stories in Indiana health care,’ – leaving more than 310,000 Hoosiers without care, and causing premiums to rise by $2,455 a year. Hoosiers will know who’s to blame when they no longer have access to affordable care and we will hold them accountable.” 

My newest piece at Fox News: "Why our heated political rhetoric will only get worse, not better"

My latest piece at Fox News starts this way:

Some hope that the shooting of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and others last Wednesday will lead to more civility in politics.  It’s clear that the attack was politically motivated — the Democratic shooter even carried a hit list of Republicans.  The political viciousness has been everywhere. 

While some will blame the violence on the grotesque picture of Kathy Griffin holding the President’s severed head or a play where the president is being stabbed to death, this Sunday Jill Abramson, the former chief editor of the New York Times, told CNN that it was “President Trump and the congressional leadership on the Republican side [who] are extremely divisive.” 

But all these discussions miss something more fundamental that is driving all this, and, unfortunately, the viciousness isn’t likely to abate. 

One reason that previous generations didn’t treat their presidents with similar levels of hated is because so much is at stake today.   As government has grown, so too have the stakes.  This simple point explains everything from increases in campaign spending to increasingly heated judicial confirmations.  It explains why political discourse has grown generally more vicious. 

Two baseball teams playing in the seventh game of the World Series are probably going to play a lot harder than two teams competing in August with no chance of making the playoffs. In the same way, as the size and scope of the federal government increases, interest groups will spend more on elections in an effort to influence the levers of government. 

If federal spending still amounted to two percent to three percent of GDP — as it did a century ago — people likely wouldn’t care as passionately about election outcomes.
In the Journal of Law and Economics in 2000, I studied spending on gubernatorial and legislative races from 1976 to 1994.  The growth of state governments could explain almost 80 percent of the increase in campaign spending over those years. . . . .

The rest of the piece is available here.

Newest piece the New York Daily News: The shooting of Steve Scalise is an argument for concealed-carry reciprocity

My newest op-ed in the New York Daily News discussing what we can learn from the public shooting in Alexandria, Virginia yesterday morning.

Although he was seriously wounded, it is a lucky thing that Rep. Stephen Scalise made it to baseball practice on Wednesday morning. Due to his position as majority whip, armed Capitol Hill Police accompanied Scalise. This security detail saved the lives of his House colleagues and two senators. 

As Rep. Mike Bishop (R-Mich.), told WWJ radio in Detroit, “The only reason — the only reason — why any of us walked out of this thing: By the grace of God, one of the folks here had a weapon to fire back and give us a moment to find cover. Because we were inside the backstop and if we didn’t have that cover by a brave person who stood up and took a shot themselves, we would not have gotten out of there and every one of us would have been hit. Every single one of us.” 

Many Republican representatives have concealed handgun permits from their home states, but carrying in the District of Columbia is illegal for all but a select few D.C. residents. The attack occurred in relatively gun-friendly Virginia, though that is irrelevant to a representative going directly between baseball practice and Capitol Hill.
Representative Barry Loudermilk (R-Ga.) thinks that he has a solution: allow congressmen to carry in D.C. if they have a permit to do so in their home state. Of course, congressmen still aren’t likely to be carrying guns while out in the field, practicing baseball. 

And what about their staffs? Why limit concealed carry only to congressmen?
Other Republican lawmakers are proposing nationwide reciprocity bills for all permit holders. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is introducing such legislation this week. Reciprocity would make life simpler for permit holders who travel. 

It’s not easy for a truck driver to avoid troublesome state and city gun laws as he drives across the country with valuable merchandise. He can quickly run into trouble in “may issue” states such as New York, New Jersey, Illinois or California, which give out few permits and require applicants to demonstrate sufficient “need.” Or imagine a single woman driving across state lines at night, hoping that her car won’t break down along the highway. 

For most of the country, reciprocity is already a fact of life. The average state allows people with concealed handgun permits from 32 other states to travel freely. But the eight “may issue” states and D.C. pull down that average; only one of those eight states, Delaware, recognizes permits from any other state. 

Only about 100 people in all of D.C. have concealed handgun permits. To even have a chance of getting a permit, an applicant has to be able to point to a specific threat. That’s something that even Scalise may not have been able to do before Wednesday’s attack.
There’s no good reason not to issue permits much more generously. Permit holders are extremely law-abiding, losing their permits for firearm-related violations at rates of thousandths of one percentage point. 

Some say that we should just rely on the police to protect us. . . .

The rest of the piece is available here.