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Wednesday, July 26, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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P
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Jonah
Goldberg
Letters to the Editor…
The Nugget welcomes contributions from its readers, which must include the writer’s name, address and phone number. Let-
ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
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To the Editor:
This is in response to Craig Rullman’s
Bunkhouse Chronicle, “Don Jr. goes to
Hollywood.” (The Nugget, July 19, page 10).
Mr. Rullman suggests the reporting by the
New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN,
among others is overwrought, breathless,
hysterical and generally way over the top.
He minimizes this story to a mere kerfuffle
oversold by liberal media, similar to the tack
taken by the Trump administration. After all,
Mr. Rullman says, Mr. Smith does not go to
Washington anymore without taking a few
meetings with sketchy characters. He con-
cludes that this is just like another Seinfeld
episode with Phil Donahue(?) and “teppich-
fressers(?)” thrown in for good measure.
Russian hacking and interference in our
election and possible collusion by the Trump
campaign are very serious matters under
investigation. Many would say this is the
most important question we must answer now
in order to protect the integrity of our elec-
tion process now and in the future. As Vice
President Joe Biden might say: This is a big
****ing deal!
It is suggested that sometimes it may be
best to just shut the Bunkhouse door and take
a nice long nap.
Will Lacey
s
s
s
To the Editor:
In response to Daniel Bower, Letters to the
Editor, July 12, 2017:
You’re absolutely right, Sisters is the worst.
We have the worst winter invasion of
jacked up trucks from the Valley, on summer
tires, towing a 40-foot snowmobile trailer up
Three Creek Road at 60 mph. We have the
worst sun-filled summers that burn your pasty
Seattle skin while you paddle on one of the
many frigid mosquito-infested lakes. Why do
you keep coming back?
I don’t mind it being the worst, even if
it means standing in line behind you at the
See LETTERS on page 25
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The story of healthcare
policy this week, this month
and for the last decade (at
least) has been a tale of par-
tisan folly. But fear not, this
isn’t another earnest pundit’s
lament for the vital center
to emerge, phoenix-like, to
form a governing coalition
of moderates in both parties.
That’s not my bag.
After all, I have always
argued that bipartisanship is
overrated.
Bipartisan support often
means unthinking support
(as the founders could have
told you). Partisans may be
annoying from time to time,
but they also can be relied
upon to point out the short-
comings of what the other
side is doing.
Honest partisanship isn’t
the problem, bipartisan dis-
honesty is.
Both parties have become
defined by their lies and
their refusal to accept reality.
It’s a problem bigger than
healthcare, but healthcare is
probably the best illustration
of it.
For seven years
Republicans campaigned to
repeal Obamacare. We now
know that for many of those
politicians, that pledge was a
sales pitch that expired after
the sale — i.e., the election
— was final.
But before liberal read-
ers pull a muscle nodding
their heads: The Democrats
aren’t any better. Obamacare
itself was lied into passage.
“You can keep your plan!”
“You can keep your doctor!”
“Your premiums won’t go
up!” These were lies. If those
promises were remotely true,
Obamacare wouldn’t be the
mess it is.
But these aren’t even the
lies I have in mind.
The Republican “repeal
and replace” bills debated for
the last six months did not in
fact repeal Obamacare. They
kept most of its regulations
intact — particularly the
popular ones. The GOP did
seek to repeal and reform the
Medicaid expansion under
Obamacare, but that’s not
the same thing as repealing
Obamacare.
Yet Republicans insisted
it was a repeal because they
wanted to claim that they
fulfilled their repeal pledge.
Actually fulfilling the sub-
stance of the pledge was a
low-order priority.
Donald Trump just
wanted a win. He has made
it abundantly clear that he
would sign anything the
Republicans sent him — up
to and possibly including
the head of Alfredo Garcia
if someone had written
“Obamacare: Repealed” on
the poor chap’s forehead.
Trump has shown zero pref-
erence for any specific pol-
icy or approach during these
debates. He just wants the
bragging rights.
And that is the one
thing Democrats are most
determined to deny him.
The Democrats know that
Obamacare has been an alba-
tross for their party. They
often acknowledge, through
gritted teeth, that the law
needs a substantial overhaul.
More important, they also
know that the GOP wasn’t
pushing an actual repeal.
But they couldn’t tolerate
for a moment the idea that
the Republicans would get
to claim it was repeal. So the
one thing both sides could
agree upon was that this was
a zero-sum war over repeal-
ing Obamacare—when it
wasn’t.
This was all about bogus
gasconade and rodomontade
for Republicans and insecure
rhetorical wagon-circling
around Barack Obama’s
“legacy” for Democrats. If
Trump and the GOP agreed
to abandon “repeal,” as
Senate Minority Leader
Chuck Schumer wants, one
can only wonder how much
replacing of Obamacare
Schumer would allow the
GOP to get away with.
Likewise, if Democrats
could somehow give
Republicans the ability to say
they repealed Obamacare,
many Republican senators
— and certainly Trump —
would probably be happy to
leave the bulk of it intact.
It is this fact that makes
the polarized, tribal climate
in Washington so frustrating.
I like partisan fights when
those fights are about some-
thing real. The Medicaid
fight was at least about
something real. But most of
this nonsense is a battle of
liars trying to protect past
lies in the hope of being able
to make new lies seem just
plausible enough for the liars
to keep repeating them.
© 2017 Tribune Content
Agency, LLC
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.