Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20171229

And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. Carnegie corporation of new york. Supporting innovations in education, democratic engagement, and the advancement of International Peace and security. At carnegie. Org. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and individuals. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan at least 41 dead, more than 80 wounded thats the toll in todays bombing attack in kabul, afghanistan. It was the latest in a series of strikes by the Islamic State group. John yang begins our coverage. Yang cries of grieving relatives echoed through the wreckage of a shiite cultural center. Most found only shoes on a bloodstained floor. translated i saw many dead in the area. I was looking for my cousin but i could not find his body. Im not sure what happened to him. Yang officials said a suicide attacker slipped inside and blew himself up. As people fled, more bombs went off outside. Many of the victims were students, attending a conference at the center, in a poor neighborhood of western kabul. Bloody and burned, they flooded into a nearby hospital. translated the conference had started, a blast went off, after that i was unconscious. When regained consciousness the meeting hall was full of flames and smoke. Yang the taliban denied any involvement, and the Islamic State group, made up of sunni extremists, claimed responsibility. Afghan president ashraf ghani called it an attack against islam and all human values. The white house also condemned the bombing, which came despite last weeks claim of victory over the Islamic State from the Vice President during a visit to afghanistan. Isis is on the run. Their capital has fallen, their socalled caliphate has crumbled from iraq to afghanistan and everywhere in between. Yang but the militants have been stepping up their strikes in kabul, and they continue battling u. S. And afghan troops in eastern afghanistan. For the pbs newshour, im john yang. Sreenivasan Laurel Miller was the deputy and then acting special representative for afghanistan and pakistan during the obama administration. Shes now a senior political scientist at the rand corperation and can help us understand todays attack. Whats the status of i. S. I. S. In afghanistan . I. S. I. S. Has proven to be a surprisingly resilient force in afghanistan over the last couple of years. It emerged in early 2015, predominantly composed of former pakistani taliban, that is a Different Group than the Afghan Taliban, though it has undoubtedly attracted some local adherence, as well, including other militant groups such as the Islamic Movement of uzbekistan, which is an afghanistanfocused group. It has suffered considerable pressure from the u. S. Forces in afghanistan, from Afghan Government forces and, indeed, from Afghan Taliban forces as well, but, despite claims of success and the progress against the group in afghanistan over the last year and a half, as you saw in todays events there, it has proven resilient and it has proven able to regenerate its forces. Sreenivasan how much of this is due to the porous and somewhat lawless border with pakistan . Thats certainly a factor that facilitates the endurance of a variety of militant groups in the region. Its not just a question of the porousness of the border, a border of that area that indeed many locals simply dont recognize as an actual border, but its also a question of the lack of any government control on either side of the border and a certain lawlessness and remoteness in this area. Sreenivasan whats the relationship between the taliban and the i. S. I. S. . Theyre philosophically rather different. They are rather different. The Afghan Taliban is a, essentially, nationalist organization in afghanistan. It has political goals. It, from its own selfperception, was illegitimately overthrown by u. S. Forces in 2001, and it believes that it has a claim on legitimate power in afghanistan. It does not have ambitions beyond the border of afghanistan. The i. S. I. S. Branch in afghanistanpakistan area, by contrast, is part of the global i. S. I. S. Movement that has a variety of branches around the world, and that branch sees the Afghan Government as an illegitimate force but in a different way than the Afghan Taliban. The Afghan Taliban and the i. S. I. S. Branch in afghanistan have actively fought each other. They may benefit from some of the same kinds of supply networks in the region, but they are groups that are opposed to each other and have engaged in combat against each other. Sreenivasan so is this the Global Nature of i. S. I. S. That keeps it funded . I mean, where do they get their support . Thats difficult to say. I mean, early on, there were some indications of financial support, Material Support from the core of i. S. I. S. In iraq, syria, but that has no doubt dwindled as the fortunes of core i. S. I. S. Have dwindled as well. But like other militant groups in the afghanistanpakistan region, i. S. I. S. Is able to generate revenue locally to keep its fight going. Its able to extort the local pop population, extort them in a variety of ways and, of course, were talking about a region thats awash in weaponry and not terribly difficult to obtain. Sreenivasan Laurel Miller, thank you so much. Thank you. Sreenivasan in the days other news, the u. S. Military says an air strike near somalias capital killed four alshabab militants and blew up a vehicle packed with explosives. According to the u. S. Africa command, the targets were hit 15 miles west of mogadishu, on wednesday night. Alshabab was behind octobers massive truck bombing that killed 512 people in the somalia capital. A deep freeze gripped the u. S. Midwest and northeast again today. It was 32 degrees below zero this morning in watertown, new york, and thats not factoring in the wind chill. In buffalo, the arctic air froze the spray from lake erie, encasing nearby benches and railings in a thick layer of ice. And in philadelphia, this fountain froze into an icy sculpture, in 14 degrees. The cold is expected to last through the weekend. Alabama Democrat Doug Jones was certified today as the winner of a special u. S. Senate election. He beat republican roy moore by 22,000 votes amid accusations that moore preyed on teenage girls, decades ago. Today, state officials signed documents, making the results official after a judge rejected moores claim of voter fraud. I dont think theres any doubt in the minds of anyone whos in this room or hears the sound of my voice, but if it were ever a question of whether or not the state of alabama conducts honest and fair, safe and secure elections, that question has been eliminated. Sreenivasan jones will be sworn into the senate on january 3, leaving republicans with the slimmest of majorities 51 to 49. President trump charged today that china has been caught red handed, allowing Illicit Oil Shipments to north korea. He said in a tweet there will never be a friendly solution to the north korean problem if that continues. A south korean newspaper has reported chinese ships are transferring oil to north korean ships at sea, in violation of u. N. Sanctions. And on wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained 63 points to close at 24,837. The nasdaq rose 10 points, and the s p 500 added almost five. Still to come on the newshour will the new tax law turn employees into owners . Maines governor and maine voters fight over expanding medicaid. The trump agenda reviewing the year of the president s Foreign Policy shift, and much more. Sreenivasan now, Additional Details of the new tax laws. The rewrite of the tax code, signed by the president last week, takes effect on monday. One of its central features and biggest changes involves a tax rate known as the passthrough rate. Many experts are watching to see how businesses, employers and individuals adjust, and what kind of loopholes it may offer. Correspondent Lisa Desjardins reports on what that pass through rate is and who might be affected. Desjardins in the tax code, not all business is created equal. Corporations, defined by the fact that they pay direct corporate taxes, saw the biggest tax cut in the republican law. That led republicans to create a another tax break for smaller companies. Historic smallbusiness tax cuts and passthroughs now are made really, really good for the business owner. The smallbusiness tax cut and the passthroughs are now really incentivizing people. Desjardins so, what is a passthrough . First, its not necessarily small, put that out of your mind. Instead, passthroughs are any of several business partnerships, limited liability or sole proprietorships, where the business is not taxed on its own. No corporate tax. Instead, profits passthrough to individual owners and they are taxed for those profits as their own individual income. These can be smaller businesses, like local Hardware Stores and doggy care, or passthroughs can be much larger highdollar businesses like sunoco l. P. Thats why the g. O. P. Tax bill is so dramatic it gives millions of passthrough owners a new 20 deduction. So could anyone suddenly set up their own passthrough and get this deduction . To try to avoid that congress one the deduction starts lowering and phases out for income over 157,500 for individuals and 315,000 for married couples. Two congress blocked a range of whitecollar or wellpaid professions, including, doctors, attorneys, even professional athletes, from getting this deduction. Also blocked, tax experts and accountants, who lose a deduction but seem certain to gain more business they can handle from this complex part of the law alone. For more on the pass through rate, and changes in the tax law, adam looney watches this closely for the Tax Policy Center run by the Brookings Institution and urban institute. Thank you so much for joining us. I want to ask you right off the bat, adam, how big of a change is this really in tax law . Its huge. So weve never had a system where business income was taxed at a lower rate than wage income, and weve never had a system where the selfemployed paid lower taxes than ordinary employees. So for those taxpayers, it is a really big deal. Desjardins so businesses have never been cut up like this, its been a corporate or individual rate . Yes, and its been a better deal to be a wage earner than a corporation at least for the last 40plus years. Desjardins congress is trying to put guardrails in here, worried perhaps everyone including you and me might rush to establish their own passthrough business. But how clear are those . Do we know those are going to be effective limits at this point . There are two issues. One, in order to get the passthrough deduction you have to be passthrough or selfemployed. So there are hurdleles to jump over to get to be selfemployed. A lot of those are practical issues, not so much legal ones. In fact, the difference between being selfemployed and an employee is a legal grey area that the i. R. S. Really doesnt have authority to issue regulations about. So that will continue to be a grey area. The second issue is that, once you are if you are a selfemployed person or a Small Business owner, then your income has to qualify in order to receive the deduction. If you make less than 315,000 and married, then you get the deduction. Above that level, depends on whether youre a doctor, lawyer or different trade. Desjardins or professional sports stars, all kinds of highincome exceptions in here. Thats right. Desjardins we see a lot of specific carveouts in this law. Can you give us an example of someone who would benefit in this deduction next year. A lot of selfemployed will benefit. If youre a plumber that makes 16,000 a year and selfemployed, you get a pretty big break. If you had, instead, been paid wages of 60,000, the wage earner is going to pay Something Like 45 more in income taxes, several thousand dollars a year on the same income for doing the same job. So in that case the passthrough deduction benefits that person a lot. Desjardins for a plumber to make 60,000 a year, the passthrough will mean how much . A couple thousand dollars a year every year its in effect. Its a big bonus for the selfemployed person. Desjardins any concerns what this will do for the revenue of the federal government especially if we see many more people deciding to be selfemployed . If people switch their classification but change from being a wage earner to a passthrough business owner, revenues will fall without contributing much to Economic Growth because that person will be doing the same job. So we actually had an experiment much like this in kansas where kansas reduced its tax rate on passthrough businesses. Tax revenues fell below projections. There was little Economic Growth. They had a budget crisis and ultimately reversed those changes. Its always risky when you make the big changes in the tax code. Thats right. Desjardins briefly, the i. R. S. , do we know theyre ready to put out the rules for Something Like this . The bill passed very quickly. It goes into effect in basically a week. I think they will be scrambling for quite some time to get the rules and regulations in place and to issue guidance to taxpayers so that they can get ready and take advantage of these new provisions. Desjardins adam looney, thank you for trying to clear up a very complicated area of this tax bill. Appreciate it. Sure. Sreenivasan the battle over repealing the Health Care Law occupied much of the National Political agenda this year. The individual mandate for coverage was repealed through the tax bill starting in 2019. But republican efforts to repeal the expansion of medicaid failed, at least for now. Yet even as that debate played out, voters in maine overwhelmingly approved a ballot measure last month to expand medicaid there to most low income adults. The victory has reinvigorated advocates looking to expand medicaid in other states. But as special correspondent sarah varney reports, the battle is not yet over in maine. Our story was produced in collaboration with our partner, Kaiser Health news. Reporter donna wall cares for her three adult autistic children at her home in lewiston, maine. Its a fulltime job. Her sons christopher and brandon have frequent outbursts and the stress of tending to them can be overwhelming. When her sons turned 18 a year and a half ago, maines Medicaid Program dropped her Health Insurance. Wall is considered a childless adult in maine and other states that didnt expand medicaid, and so she isnt eligible for coverage. She can no longer get her anti depression and anxiety medications. She cant see her psychologist or a doctor to check up on a troubling spot on her eye. She needs to stay whole, she says, for her kids. I mean im 60 years old, things start going wrong when you get older, and i havent had a pap smear, or breast exam in two years, you know . Im just worried something will happen to me because who is going to take care of them . Its a big job, it really is. I mean, if i put the boys in a home it will cost the state a lot more to take care of them than it would be to pay my medical, theyd be getting off reporter even on frigid wintry nights, wall delivers newspapers, earning 150 a week when her kids are asleep. I go out about 2 00 in the morning. And they usually take me four to five hours. And i try really hard not to fall. But ive had a few accidents. One of them was on black ice, last winter. Reporter at one point, wall thought she might have broken a rib. But she stayed away from the emergency room for fear of a costly medical bill. At least 70,000 lowincome maine residents, like donna wall, should gain Medicaid Health insurance because of the ballot measure that passed last month. Advocates collected signatures to put the question to voters, and in november maine became the first state to get approval at the ballot box to expand medicaid, passing with 59 approval. But even though voters here in maine decided to expand medicaid, the laws fate is still unclear. Republican Governor Paul Lepage says opening up the program to more poor adults threatens the states Financial Stability and that lawmakers shouldnt raise taxes to pay for it. You have to pay for the law, its going to cost money, and i intend to implement it, and the legislature is required to fund it. If they do not fund it, it will not be implemented. Reporter lepage has been in power for seven years and, because of term limits, is heading into his final year in office. He vetoed five Medicaid Expansion bills passed by the legislature before voters approved it at the ballot box. Lepage says lawmakers must now pay for the new law without raising taxes or dipping into the states rainy day fund. And he warns that the expansion could threaten services for people with disabilities and the elderly. When able bodied people, who are able and should be working, choose not to work, then i dont think its societys responsibility to cover their insurance at the expense of our mentally ill, our disabled, and our elderly. Were asking hard working maine families to pick up the extra tab for people who should be working, but elect not to be. Wow, well thats just simply not true. Reporter sara gideon, a democrat, is the speaker of maines house of representatives. I mean, first of all, lets start with the population of people who will actually be eligible for Health Insurance now. Were talking about people, almost 70 of whom, are people who are actually in the workforce, who are earning a living, but not actually able to afford health care with the low income that they earn. Reporter gideon says lepage must follow the law. Moreover, shes confident the legislature will find a way to fund the states share of 54 million and keep its promises to the elderly and disabled. Its not a choice between people, one group of people over another, its a false choice that this governor is trying to present, and we say were not going to make that choice. Our rural hospital is struggling. We dont make money. We lost a million and a half dollars the last two years. Reporter marie vienneau, c. E. O. Of Mayo Regional Hospital in doverfoxcroft, says money from the Medicaid Expansion cant come fast enough. Maines rural towns, and their hospitals, have been hard hit. Factories have closed and many residents have moved away. Were going to go by what was moosehead manufacturing. They made furniture that was very wellknown throughout the country as well and dover and then of course paper mills were huge in all of this area. Reporter as workers lost their jobs, more uninsured patients turned to rural hospitals desperate for medical care but unable to pay. While mayo is facing financial uncertainty, at least three rural hospitals in maine have closed in recent years. Deanna chevery was laid off after 25 years when the dexter shoe factory closed in dexter, maine. Now 60 years old and uninsured, shes recovering from an addiction to pain pills prescribed by her doctor for back pain. She overdosed five times, costing Mayo Regional Hospital over 200,000 in unreimbursed care. Before chevery found the charity Recovery Program at mayo regional, she says she was turned away when she sought help because she couldnt pay. You can only go so many places, nobody will take you. I mean they dont care if youre crawling on the ground. Im just fortunate that dover helps me. Reporter but vienneau says the hospital cannot keep up with maines growing Opioid Epidemic, and ever rising costs, without expanded medicaid. You can only go so many years in a row where your business doesnt lose money, before you depreciate to the point that you have to start closing services, decreasing services, and then access goes away. Reporter medicaid advocates, like maine equal justice partners, are pressuring lawmakers to put the new law into effect quickly. The laws on our side. The facts are on our side. The reality of peoples lives are on our side. Did i say the law is on our side . Reporter Victoria Rodriguez says people like donna wall, with her autistic children, need help quickly. Its really stressful to hear these stories from people who are literally just one accident away from being buried in medical debt and their families devastated by that. Reporter the group has been receiving postcards from around the country congratulating them on becoming the 32nd state to expand medicaid. So this ones from virginia. Greetings from virginia. Thanks, yall, for your efforts. Reporter and advocates in many other red states that refused to expand medicaid are eyeing their own ballot measures, including nebraska, utah, idaho, florida and missouri. Patrick willard, a senior director at families usa, a Progressive Advocacy group based in washington, says after years of republicans attacking the Affordable Care act, voters are beginning to shift their views. Other states suddenly see an opportunity now to figure out a way that they can get around legislatures that have been holding this up. Reporter as state lawmakers in maine work out the details of the new law, many disagree with lepage about how much it will cost. His administration estimates the price tag will be twice what the legislatures nonpartisan Fiscal Office has projected. Lepage says if they cant resolve the impasse, hell take legal action, if necessary. We will go to court, because i know, listen, one thing that i know better than the legislature is financial responsibility, and i have proven it over the last seven years. Reporter advocates say those who are eligible for medicaid could enroll as early as this summer. But if there are delays, they too will sue. Just days after our interview, donna wall fell during her middle of the night paper route and broke her ankle. She still doesnt have Health Insurance and is unsure how shell care for her autistic children and uncertain what the future will bring. For the pbs newshour and Kaiser Health news, im sarah varney. Sreenivasan stay with us, coming up on the newshour america addicted the impact of Opioid Epidemic on the nations workforce. And a brief but spectacular take from an interfaith gospel choir. Candidate donald trump pledged to make America Great again, and that has been a theme central to President Trumps Foreign Policy. Elliott abrams is a senior fellow at the council on foreign relations, and previously served in the state department and on the National Security Council Staffs during the reagan and george w. Bush administrations. And gideon rose is the editor of the journal, Foreign Affairs and served on the National Security staff during the clinton administration. But first, a look back at key Foreign Policy moment over the trump administrations first year. From this day forward, its going to be only america first. Sreenivasan from the moment he took the oath of office, President Trump aimed to shake the world stage and redefine the u. S. Role abroad. For many decades, weve enriched foreign industry at the expense of american industry; military; weve defended other nations borders while refusing to defend our own. Sreenivasan he vowed to extricate the u. S. From wasteful foreign wars, renegotiate global trade and climate deals and take a tougher stance on security and immigration. But an escalating confrontation with north korea at times overshadowed that agenda. 16 missiles soared from the north in test launches during 2017. Some apparently had the range to reach the u. S. East coast. They will be met with fire and fury like the world has never seen. Sreenivasan the new president issued dire warnings, the u. N. Imposed more sanctions, kim jong un answered with more missiles and nuclear tests, and the war of words grew ever hotter. We will have no choice but to totally destroy north korea. Rocket man is on a Suicide Mission for himself and for his regime. Sreenivasan he likewise kept pushing to kill the iran nuclear deal, negotiated under president obama. The iran deal was one of the worst and most onesided transactions the United States has ever entered into. Sreenivasan in october, mr. Trump refused to certify irans compliance, despite u. N. Findings to the contrary. It was left to congress to enact new sanctions, essentially leaving the iran deal in place, for now. The president acted more swiftly, his first day in office, in withdrawing from the 12nation transpacific partnership. But publicly at least, there was scant progress on striking new trade deals. The same was true on climate in june, the president pulled the u. S. Out of the paris accord to curb greenhouse gases. I was elected to represent the citizens of pittsburgh, not paris. Sreenivasan nearly 200 other countries who signed the accord, have thus far refused to renegotiate. President trump pressed for better results on defense spending, after he chastised nato leaders at a may summit for not shouldering more of the burden. Nato members must finally contribute their fair share and meet their financial obligations, for 23 of the 28 sreenivasan a month later, the allies promised to boost defense spending. On another front, mr. Trump, who once called afghanistan a huge waste, ramped up the u. S. Military presence there. In august, he announced hes deploying more troops and he rejected timetables for withdrawal, but insisted he was not writing a blank check. We are not nationbuilding again. We are killing terrorists. Sreenivasan the president also claimed credit for a major Success Story against terror in the middle east local forces, backed by u. S. And Coalition Planes and troops, drove the Islamic State out of its caliphate in iraq and parts of syria. Syrian forces, with russian air support, waged a separate campaign. It came at a huge cost many residents of mosul and raqqa returned to find nothing but rubble, and civilian casualties ran into the thousands. In yemen, the u. S. Backed a saudiled coalitions air assault on iranianbacked rebels. The fighting killed thousands and plunged millions more into starvation and a cholera epidemic. But President Trump threw his full support behind the saudis, during a may trip to riyadh. A Better Future is only possible if your nations drive out the terrorists and extremists. Sreenivasan mr. Trump again went against International Concerns in recognizing jerusalem as the capital of israel, and announcing plans to move the u. S. Embassy there. Meanwhile, the world watched the trump administrations effort to crack down on immigration. Days after his inauguration, he banned travelers from seven muslimmajority countries, and halted the arrival of all refugees, for three months. Before the Supreme Court allowed a third incarnation to take effect, pending an ultimate decision. Through it all, the president was dogged by, and emphatically dismissed, the ongoing investigations into russian meddling in last years election, and allegations of collusion with the trump campaign. What has been shown is no collusion, no collusion. Sreenivasan he also sought to build closer ties with russian president vladimir putin. But late in the year, a new National Security document branded both russia and china as threats. Let me start with you. How has our standing in the world changed this year . Nobody can actually believe whats going on. The fact is that, although there have been a lot of Foreign Policy events and discussions over the year and a lot of detailed progress in various areas and crises, the real story is the election of donald trump meant to the rest of the world the United States is sort of threatening to walk off the team and take its ball with it, and nobody really knows whether thats going to happen because the president s tweets and desire to take himself out of the alliance and overturn american Foreign Policy hasnt really been backed up by the actions of the u. S. Government, but he also is undermining those actions and sort of stalling things. So in the end its a little like obamacare, trump has tried to overturn american Foreign Policy, but he found that he couldnt do it, so instead of sort of not funding it and harping and nibbling around the edges trying to undermine it in place. Sreenivasan elliott, there was a recent pew poll that said our favorability rating has dipped from 64 to 49 since the election and 74 of the world has no confidence in the u. S. President to do the right thing. Well, thats a bad thing, but i think, if you look at what the president has actually done, he is doing the right thing, particularly now as the year ends. We see the enforcement of the act against putin, we see the decision to give lethal weapons to ukraine, we see jerusalem as israels capital which i think is the right thing to do. We see the u. N. Security council passing its third unanimous resolution and toughest yet against north korea. So i think there is actually a lot of progress in the policy. I think the president is learning on the job, and i think hes taking advice from his advisors. Sreenivasan gideon, lets start unpacking what elliott just said region by region. North korea, its a bit of a Nuclear Powder keg and its almost as if the president knew we were going to have this conversation about him today just earlier this afternoon, he sent out on twitter a video of bill clinton from 23 years ago talking about north korea and the framework and disarmament and, in that same tweet, there was donald trump 18 years ago talking to tim russert, talking about the time for action was then. Does he have a point when he says, listen, all the president s and all the policies from then till now have not worked in preventing the situation where kim jong un actually has a Nuclear Weapon and has, now, the technology to deliver that as an American City . I agree with elliott that theres been a lot of continuity in actual american Foreign Policy but i wouldnt attribute that to the president and certainly wouldnt say trump has learned on the job or done anything different because this is no evidence ive seen that the president actually understands the details of any policy issue on the agenda or is actually seriously concerned toed advance american interests or global interests as opposed to his personal interests or those of his particularly cronies. With Something Like north korea, you have an interesting dynamic going on in which ongoing progress in the north korean weapons programs has triggered a backlash by the United States and others around north korea. Weve gotten better sanctions. This actually is all set up now possibly if you had a real state department and real administration for a deal next year that wouldnt go for lets see denuclearization which is not going to happen because they have been nuclear for ten years. What you can have is a freeze that would essentially would stop them from going further in return for our not badgering them further on other things or some kind of deal like that, but now that youve played the bad cop, you have to have the good cop converted into International Settlement and this is albad cop and no good cop. Sreenivasan in the case of kim jong un, the president called him mad man, little rocket man. He said he wouldnt call him short and fat but, at the same time, i think more importantly, he publicly admonished his secretary of state for wasting his time trying to negotiate with little rocket man. Some of it is unhelpful. Some of it should be said only behind closed doors. Some of it i think is a mistake and leads some foreign governments to wonder, in the case of the secretary, you know, should we be dealing with secretary tillerson, is he on his way out, does he have the president s confidence . Thats never a good situation. I saw that with secretary haig when i was in the reagan administration. Usually, it doesnt last more than a year or so and not a good situation for the president , secretary or the country. With all due respect to elliott, i think the rest of the world is not bound by the Political Correctness that the American Media has increasingly displayed. They look at trump saying who are you going to believe eme or your own eyes . They say our own eyes. You say nigerians live in huts and haitians have aids and mexicans are rapist, you dont have any idea of partnership. Theyre hoping the president doesnt have Foreign Policy, theyre hoping kelly and tillerson and mcmaster are controlling things. If you look at what the president said not in tweets but speeches, his speech in seoul, korea was popular, left, right and center in korea. His speech in warsaw was quite a good speech. His policy in europe toward n. A. T. O. Is actually working in getting n. A. T. O. Members to move up their defense spending toward the 2 mark. So i think this kind of indictment just doesnt reflect the reality of the situation. Sreenivasan gideon, how about the relationship that the administration is having with, say, china . Are our interests being served better . Well, it all depends on how you define interests. The United States has based its policies over the last several years on not just shortterm interest but longterm interest that happened for a Stable International system in which people can trade and in which the future is secure and the biggest problem right now is nobody is certain about what direction american Foreign Policy is taking. So the short term tactical moves, there really is no american strategy and frankly the National Security strategy that just came out is a little bit of a hodgepodge, and with all due respect to elliott, if you listen to what he said, he said dont listen to the tweets, look at the speeches. I have been taught by people like Elliott Abrams over the decades when looking at middle eastern leaders you dont look at the public speeches, you look at what they say to their own people and what they actually do. Here we have a weird situation in which american Foreign Policy has been largely continuous but the president s tweets and top and indicationons the side are giving everybody an uncertain feeling nobody knows whats happening. In my travels in the middle east i find thats not right. I find that we have better relations with both the arab governments and the israelis than in the obama administration. So the notion that, you know, all over the world people have less respect for the president , the presidency, the country is just an overstatement. I just dont find that to be true. Sreenivasan elliott, one to have the conservative critiques in the past has been that the americans have been leading from behind and as something gideon said in the beginning, he said what if this attitude is well take our ball and go away, right . When the United States pulls away from Something Like t. P. P. Or the paris climate accords, strategically doesnt that give china an advantage and say, hey, were going to fill that gap, were going to have an alliance in asia, were going to provide solar panels to the whole world and become the economic engine of a green Industrial Revolution . Well, it can in some cases. I mean, t. P. P. , as your memory, Hillary Clinton said she would have pulled out as well. On the the climate question, thats a different one, i think, that relates to the judgment of many people in the administration, not just the president , about the american economy. I think what the president has said thats critically important is we cant lead the way we want to lead. We cannot spend the money we need to spend on defense which is tired to lead if we cant build up the american economy. The basis of our military strength is our economic strength, and the focus on that i think should reassure allies around the world. China is producing a potential alliance for us of just about every country around china because theyre afraid of what chinese leadership might mean. Sreenivasan any final thoughts . This past year has been like a movie trailer for the movie the post american world. Weve seen a oneyear preview of what a postamerican world would look like and everybody is kind of saying is this going to be the new reality or are we going to snap back to something more . Will be interesting to see what happens. Sreenivasan gideon rose, Elliott Abrams, thank you both. Thank you. Sreenivasan throughout this week, we have reprised our series on the National Opioids crisis america addicted. The focus of the series is how opioids have damaged so many of us in so many ways. Tonight, economics correspondent paul solman reports on the impact of opioid addiction on our workforce and how employers have changed their expectations when hiring. This story is part of his weekly reporting, making sense. I would wake up in the morning and take four pills and snort two. Thats just to get out of bed. Reporter michael oates, a lifelong welder, is recovering from a 10year opioid addiction which began when he took vicodin for pain while working at a steel mill. Did you lose the job . Actually, my job went to china. That was my excuse to do even more pills. Reporter have you worked since . Ive had four or five different jobs since then. Reporter what happened to those jobs . I lost them all due to being addicted to opiates. They would random drug test me, and id be like, well, see you later. Id walk out. I even got caught one time with synthetic urine in my underwear, because i got pretty slick at using that. Reporter youd stash it in your underpants . I would stash it in my underwear, and id go in and its synthetic urine. Its got everything in it that you need to make them think its your urine. Reporter out of work for three years now, oates is just one example of how the Opioid Crisis has decimated the american workforce. Business owner Clyde Mcclellan has seen plenty of others. We have people that come in on a regular basis looking for employment that are obviously under the influence when they come in. Reporter really . Oh yeah. They look like theyre the walking dead. I say, were going to send you for a drug test, and what is the drug test going to show us . Most of the time if its pot or booze or anything like that, they tell me. If its something other than that, they dont come back. Reporter mclellan owns american mug and stein in East Liverpool ohio, once known as the pottery capital of the world with dozens of firms. Foreign competition has since wiped out all but two of them. Mclellan owes his survival to his top customer, starbucks. Youd think wouldbe workers in town might be flocking here. But theyre flocking to drug dealers instead. One day i was looking out of my office in 2015, and there was two policemen standing in my driveway with rifles. I went out, i knew one of them, and i said, whats going on . He said, well, were raiding this house thats next to your building for heroin distribution. Reporter and these indelible photos of a couple overdosed in their car with their son in the back seat were snapped just three blocks from here. You dont need experience to get a job at american mug and stein, but you do need to be clean. Half of applicants are not. Ive been an employer in this area since 1983. Drugs were not at the forefront when you were talking to somebody about possible employment. Now, the first thing we think of is, are they on drugs . How do we find out . What kind of references . Reporter somebody came in here looking for a job with a reference from one of your other employees . He was using this person as a reference, and when we asked the employee, he said hes a dope head. He steals money. He has stolen money from me. Obviously we didnt bring him in. Reporter donna deebo has been there. Opioids after a car accident. A fulltime waitress, she was prescribed opioids after a car accident. In time, scoring heroin became her main line of work. Is. Ly. S like a job itself, reporter just trying to find that days drugs . Yes. Then, once that day is over, your minds already going 1,000 times a minute thinking, what am i going to do for the next day . Reporter how long have you been out of the workforce . Ive been out of work for about seven years. Reporter the prime skill she honed shoplifting. I would go into all the stores. My trunk and my backseat would be full with everything. Sears, im no longer allowed on their property. I stole so much from them, i probably own their store. Reporter and then there was her daughters new cell phone. We had some people over, and all of a sudden, it just came up missing. I made it look like it came up missing. I am the one, actually, in fact, that did it. Reporter you stole it from your daughter and sold it . Absolutely. Reporter Scott Schwind was a wellpaid machinist when his addiction took charge. I was just working to supply myself. I would have people come to my work, deliver stuff to me at work. Reporter at the machinist shop . Yeah. I was on third shift, so they would come at night and bring me stuff, but thats how i messed the job up is i wouldnt show up, or i was doing shady stuff, like having people come there. Id be in the bathroom for half an hour. So i lost that job, and then ive had other jobs, but ive never been able to keep a job for long, because of the addiction. Reporter how long have you been out of work now . Since 2011. Reporter schwind, oates and deebo are now sober and enrolled at flying high, a Nonprofit Program in youngstown, ohio to get those out of the workforce back in. It teaches hard skills like welding and machining. An urban garden is for soft skills showing up on time; teamwork. Jeff magada says job training is critical to places like youngstown, its population down more than 60 since its steel furnaces last ran full blast. You dont have a lot of industry coming here because they know theres not a lot of skilled workers here, and then workers who can also pass a drug screen. Reporter thats a problem for michael sherwins company. Weve had positions open for a year and a half to two years. Reporter sherwins Columbiana Boiler company has lots of demand for galvanized containers but figures hes foregone some 200,000 in business because he cant find skilled, drugfree welders. We probably lose 2025 . Reporter because they cant pass a drug test . Mmhmm. Reporter flying high places exaddicts in shops like this and pays their salary for six months. But the threat of relapse is always there. Thats why Scott Schwind is taking it slow. I just want to get a foundation of being sober and dealing with things before i jump into a job and all that stress and having a bunch of money in my pocket to where im not tempted to do something that im going to regret. The drugs out there today will kill you. Reporter why would you be tempted if you had money in your pocket . You forget how to deal with problems. It was a coping mechanism. Something went wrong, youre like, im just going to get high, and then you dont have to worry about it. I had a house, i had a car, i had all my stuff taken care of. I was a good father, and everythings gone. And it takes a lot of work to get back to where you were. Its easy to throw your hands up and be like, you know what . Screw it. Reporter you could imagine having money in your pocket and going back to drugs . Absolutely. It takes two seconds for us to get a thought in our head, and we act on it. Reporter so technical instructors like ivan lipscomb wear two hats. Not only are we welding instructors, but were life coaches also. So we can try to talk to them about that also maybe throw in a little joking every once in awhile. Just to keep their spirits up. Reporter magada says those who complete this program pose much less risk than those who dont. Were not just going to let them go. Were going to monitor them over the next six months, while they have money in their pocket, and be working with them on those life skills. Reporter life skills absent in those whom opioids have overtaken, says michael sherwin. 10 years ago the drug screen would not have been an issue. Reporter at all . No. Reporter now youre losing 25 of of eligible candidates to it. So for us its a big deal. Reporter a big deal for the broader economy as well, says princeton economist alan krueger. Hes found a direct link between opioid use and outofthe workforce americans. For both primeage men and primeage women, the increase in prescriptions over the last 15 years can account for perhaps 20 of the drop in Labor Force Participation that weve seen. Reporter the rate has been falling for years as the population ages, says krueger. But opioids are increasingly the story as the Participation Rate has hit historic lows. Weve had a change in medical practices which has caused the medical profession to prescribe 3. 5 times more opioid medication today than was the case 15 years ago. I think thats made it harder for some people to keep their jobs and has led them to leave the labor force. Reporter Clyde Mcclellan has seen it happening in East Liverpool. When you drive around town, you see too many young and middle aged people just out during the middle of the day when normally theyd be at work. If theyre out on the streets, many times theyre not looking for work. Theyre just out there looking for their next fix. Reporter donna deebo is on the lookout no longer. Instead, shes reinventing herself as a welder; Scott Schwind, updating his machining skills. Michael oates hopes to get back to work welding, and to rebuild the links shattered by his addiction. It tore my family completely apart. It was stronger than eating, it was stronger than paying bills. It was stronger than going to my kids football games. I went from spoiling my kids to barely doing anything for my kids. Reporter will they talk to you . My youngest doesnt talk to me. That breaks my heart. My youngest son, he barely ever talks to me. They went without a lot of things over my selfishness, over me wanting to be high every day and not wanting to be sick. Reporter theyre still resentful. And theyre still resentful. Yeah. If it takes me the rest of my life, i will make amends. Reporter heres hoping he can return to his family, and to the workforce. For the pbs newshour, this is economics correspondent paul solman, reporting from northeastern ohio. Sreenivasan finally, we turn to another installment of our weekly brief but spectacular series. Tonight, three members of the oakland interfaith gospel choir. Founded in 1986, the group performs around the world and includes over two dozen people from diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural backgrounds. We start the night with a warm up. Im a classically trained singer, so i believe that as a signer you must warm up before you get started. Its what terence calls vocal yoga. Within the oakland interfaith gospel choir, we have at last count about 13 faiths. I would say christian, unitarian, agnostic, jewish, bahai, sufi, muslim, somebody said baseball. Im not interested in who people believe in. Im interested in how they act and how they are with one another, how they treat one another. Interfaith is my faith, i guess and the openness to different people and different beliefs. It is sometimes difficult when a song might say jesus, jesus, jesus, jesus for possibly a jew or somebody of the muslim faith. What we decided to do when we have jesus, god, lord, master, you mentally insert the name of your god so you can get in there with true praise. In 1988 i was at a fundraiser in san francisco. The oakland interfaith gospel ensemble was singing. And i heard the choir and i went, thats it, thats what i want to do. Gospel music comes from a point of pure love, so when you sing it, it touches people at bone level. Bone level means it hits you at your soul. Right now i work as a dispatcher for the Oakland Fire Department its so cathartic to kind of start your week on a monday with choir rehearsal, knowing that whatever happens the rest of the week, you have your choir family. Well gospel music is a part of the African American church, which is the bastion of safety for the African American, and it kind of provides that feeling for any and all who take part of it. When i tell people im in the choir, and theyre like, oh thats nice, you know, jesus, uh huh,. They look at us and they think what are they going to be able to do together . They havent had an experience of all faiths in harmony. Thats what we do. We get along. We have different sexual orientations. We have different economic situations. We have different colors on our skin. But we sing together and we make this beautiful music together. My name is mary ford and this my name is eissa chu and this my name is Terence Kelly and is my brief but spectacular take on getting along. My name is eissa chu and this is my brief but spectacular take on healing through music. Sreenivasan the choirs next performance is january, part of a tribute to Martin Luther king in oakland, california. On the newshour online right now, as neighborhoods develop and gentrify, street art is often at risk of destruction, and there is often little Legal Recourse for those who want to preserve culturally important work. We examine whats at stake on our web site, pbs. Org newshour. And thats the newshour for tonight. On friday, the year in music. Im hari sreenivasan. Join us online and again here tomorrow evening with mark shields and david brooks. For all of us at the pbs newshour, thank you and see you soon. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by and with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by newshour productions, llc captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org Martha Stewart are you eager to learn how to update your Favorite Recipes with better for you ingredients from the modern pantry . Then you wont want to miss this season of martha bakes. Join me in my kitchen where ill teach you how to transform everything from traditional cakes, pies and even breads with new ingredients, plus mouthwatering gluten and dairy free treats for everyday and every occasion. Welcome to a new way to bake. Narrator martha bakes is made possible by. For more than 200 years, domino and c h sugars have been used by home bakers to help bring recipes to life and create memories for each new generation of baking enthusiasts