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Wednesday, December 13, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
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and Monday, January 1
Early deadlines for the issues of
December 27 and January 3 are...
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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 Unpublished items are not acknowledged or returned.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
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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.