Dem 2020 candidate Andrew Yang: Universal basic income will make Americans healthier

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2020 hopeful Andrew Yang argues universal basic income would improve Americans' mental and physical health

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang makes the case for his plan to give Americans $1,000 a month.

Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang said Tuesday that the benefit of his $1,000-a-month “Freedom Dividend” will be healthier Americans -- physically and mentally.

Yang is running on a universal basic income that proposes giving each adult over 18 a monthly benefit totaling $12,000-a-year. The proposal would cost $1.8 trillion and be paid for with a value-added tax on Amazon transactions, Google searches and robot truck miles.

“There is a lot of data on this and what happens is people mental health improves, stress goes down, relationships improve, their physical health even improves over time,” the 44-year-old entrepreneur and former Obama administration official told “America’s Newsroom.”

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Yang said “we’re already seeing this even on a very, very small scale” with a family he is supporting in New Hampshire.

He said the New Hampshire family that is getting $1,000 a month from him is using the money to pay their daughter’s college tuition.

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The giveaway began on Jan. 1 and Yang said he wants to extend it to Iowa, another state that plays a key role during the early presidential primaries.

“What’s fun about his is that when people actually get a thousand bucks a month you see they do very positive things,” he said.

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Yang was then asked how he, or another Democrat, can beat President Trump next year on the back of strong economic growth and GDP performance in the first few months of 2019.

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“GDP is like a highly flawed indicator of how we’re doing,” he responded. “The GDP is at a record high, meanwhile our life expectancy has declined for three straight years because of an increase in drug overdoses and suicides.”