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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 13, 2017)
2 Wednesday, December 13, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon O P I N I O The Nugget will be closed on Monday, December 25, and Monday, January 1 Early deadlines for the issues of December 27 and January 3 are... Display Ads: Thursday at 5 p.m. Classifieds, Events, Announcements: Friday at 12 p.m. Letters to the Editor: Friday at 5 p.m. Happy Holidays! 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. The Nugget reserves the right to edit, omit, respond or ask for a response to letters submitted to the Editor. Letters should be no longer than 300 words. Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned. The deadline for all letters is noon Monday. To the Editor: Within the 300-word limit, it is impossible to express my deep gratitude individually, by name, to all who have supported me in my struggles to keep then regain my position at the Sisters Library. Thank you, Bonnie Malone, for your November 29 letter to the editor expressing your disappointment at my dismissal from the Sisters Public Library and to those who responded in writing to it. Thanks, too, to library customers, volunteers, friends, and the library’s union representation. Many of you wrote letters of support to the DPL Board, attended their October 11 monthly meeting and/or spoke up to request my reinstatement to the Sisters Library and the career I loved. Your calls, visits, good wishes and encouragement have bolstered my spirits more than I have words to express. Last January, I slipped on a small patch of ice at home, suffering a serious shoulder — and related nerve — injury. Despite suc- cessful repair surgery, months of dedicated physical therapy and numerous return-to-work orders (with increasing permissions over time) from my surgeon, I was not allowed to return to work at the Sisters Library. In September, I passed a fit-for-duty test from a licensed occu- pational therapist. The DPL’s “reasonable accommoda- tion” was to permanently reassign me to the Downtown Bend Library, on a month-to-month basis, and as the district needed me. Since I could not accept their offer, I was separated from service. I was not dismissed “for cause.” Thank you for the joy and privilege of serv- ing you for more than 20 years. For the final 12 years, it was also my honor to be in charge of the Sisters Library Volunteer Program. I look forward to seeing you all out-and-about. Charlotte Nitcher See LETTERS on page 18 Sisters Weather Forecast Courtesy of the National Weather Service, Pendleton, Oregon Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday Monday Sunny Mostly Sunny Slt. Chance Rain Slt. Chance Rain Chance Rain Slt. Chance Showers 34/21 42/27 45/29 45/32 48/26 43/32 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. Website: www.nuggetnews.com 442 E. Main Ave., P.O. Box 698, Sisters, Oregon 97759 Tel: 541-549-9941 | Fax: 541-549-9940 | editor@nuggetnews.com Postmaster: Send address changes to The Nugget Newspaper, P.O. Box 698, Sisters, OR 97759. Third Class Postage Paid at Sisters, Oregon. Editor: Jim Cornelius Production Manager: Leith Easterling Classifieds & Circulation: Teresa Mahnken Advertising: Karen Kassy Graphic Design: Jess Draper Proofreader: Pete Rathbun Accounting: Erin Bordonaro Owner: J. Louis Mullen The Nugget is mailed to residents within the Sisters School District; subscriptions are available outside delivery area. Third-class postage: one year, $45; six months (or less), $25. First-class postage: one year, $85; six months, $55. Published Weekly. ©2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. All advertising which appears in The Nugget is the property of The Nugget and may not be used without explicit permission. The Nugget Newspaper, Inc. assumes no liability or responsibility for information contained in advertisements, articles, stories, lists, calendar etc. within this publication. All submissions to The Nugget Newspaper will be treated as uncondition- ally assigned for publication and copyrighting purposes and subject to The Nugget Newspaper’s unrestricted right to edit and comment editorially, that all rights are currently available, and that the material in no way infringes upon the rights of any person. The publisher assumes no responsibility for return or safety of artwork, photos, or manuscripts. N Jonah Goldberg In Washington, when you hear people complain that this or that piece of legisla- tion will “explode” the defi- cit, what they are really tell- ing you is that they don’t like the legislation. It’s really that simple. Good legislation, like good food, movies, novels and pretty much everything else except for dogs (they’re all good), is in the eye of the beholder. A politician or par- tisan who thinks a proposal is worth doing will think it’s worth doing even if it increases the deficit. If he thinks a proposal is bad, he might argue that it’s bad on the merits. But you can be sure that if it also increases the deficit, he will cite this fact as a major reason why it is bad. That is the role deficits — and the national debt — play in our politics. Anti-debt talk serves as dye marker for some more fundamental objection. Almost everyone thinks deficits are bad in the abstract, but that their bad- ness should only be a prob- lem for the other side. In 2008, for example, then- presidential candidate Barack Obama said that the $4 trillion in debt rung up under George W. Bush was “unpatriotic.” But his actual complaint wasn’t about the debt but what that money was spent on — the Iraq war and tax cuts. Under Obama, the national debt soared from $11 trillion to just under $20 trillion, but that deficit spending was justifiable, according to Democrats, because it went to combating the financial crisis and pay- ing for various other domes- tic programs. The source of the appar- ent inconsistency isn’t simply partisan hypocrisy (though that’s a factor as well), but a good-faith ideo- logical disagreement. As a matter of economic policy, conservatives believe that the people themselves are better at spending their money than the govern- ment is. Cutting taxes and regulations drives economic growth. Liberals, mean- while, believe that the gov- ernment is the prime, or at least an indispensable, driver of economic growth. This is why liberals tend to talk about spending on everything from infra- structure to education as an “investment.” The Obama stimulus was sold as an investment that would pay huge dividends, thanks in part to Keynesian “multipli- ers” — the idea that every dollar of government spend- ing results in more than a dollar in economic growth. Obamacare, we were told, would reduce the deficit by cutting health care spending and improving economic growth. Conservatives make similar arguments about tax cuts. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News that the tax cuts would yield more than enough eco- nomic growth to make up for the deficit the bill creates on paper. On the philosophical side, there’s an even starker con- flict of visions. Liberals tend to start from the assump- tion that the government is entitled to as much revenue as it needs, and so tax cuts amount to giving people money. Earlier this year, Sen. Bernie Sanders proposed a budget that would add at least $21 trillion to the debt over a decade. But when the Senate passed the GOP tax bill, he tweeted, “Historians will look back on Dec. 1, 2017 and conclude this was one of the great robber- ies in US history because Republicans are looting the Treasury.” For Sanders, let- ting people keep more of their own money is theft — because it’s really the gov- ernment’s money. Conservatives, on the other hand, start from the assumption that money belongs to the people and businesses who earn it. Letting people and busi- nesses keep more of their money isn’t a handout or giveaway, never mind a rob- bery: It’s fairness. The ultimate problem is that everyone says they care about the deficit, but few people care about it enough. Democrats think spending is more important than the def- icit, and Republicans think cutting taxes is more impor- tant. And that’s why the national debt is more than $20 trillion, and growing. © 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.
