PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 24, 2017
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
The world watches a shrinking presidency
By MICHAEL GERSON
It is diffi cult to overestimate the
geopolitical risks of this moment
—or the (both disturbed and eager)
global scrutiny now being given to
the American president.
Aggression is growing along the
westward reach of Russian infl uence
and the southern bound-
ary of Chinese infl uence.
Intercontinental nuclear
capacity may soon be
in the hands of a mental
pubescent in North Ko-
rea. In the Middle East, a
hostile alliance of Russia
and Shiite powers is as-
cendant; radical Sunnis have a terri-
torial foothold and inspire strikes in
Western cities; America’s traditional
Sunni friends and allies feel deval-
ued or abandoned; perhaps 500,000
Syrians are dead and millions of
refugees suffer in conditions that in-
cubate anger. Cyber terrorism and
cyber espionage are exploiting and
weaponizing our own technological
dependence. Add to this a massive
famine in East Africa, threatening
the lives of 20 million people, and
the picture of chaos is complete—
until the next crisis breaks.
It is in this context that the dip-
lomatic bloopers reel of the last few
days has been played—the casual as-
sociation of British intelligence with
alleged surveillance at Trump Tower;
the presidential tweets undermin-
ing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
during his Asia trip; and the rude
and childish treatment given the
German chancellor. When Donald
Trump and Angela Merkel sat to-
gether in the Oval Offi ce, we were
seeing the leader of the free world—
and that guy pouting in public.
Every new administration has a
shakeout period. But this assumes an
ability to learn from mistakes. And
this would require admitting mis-
takes. The spectacle of an American
president blaming a Fox News com-
mentator for a major diplomatic in-
cident was another milestone in the
miniaturization of the presidency.
An interested foreigner (friend or
foe) must be a student of Trump’s
temperament, which is just as bad as
advertised. He is inex-
perienced, uninformed,
easily provoked and su-
premely confi dent in
his own judgment. His
advantage is the choice
of some serious, experi-
enced advisers, including
Defense Secretary James
Mattis, national security adviser
H.R. McMaster and deputy national
security adviser Dina Powell. But
success in their jobs depends on the
listening skills of Donald Trump.
Mere incompetence would be
bad enough. But foreigners trying to
understand America must now study
(of all things) the intellectual infl u-
ences of White House chief strate-
gist Steve Bannon. His vision of a
Western alliance of ethno-national-
ist, right-wing populists against glo-
balists, multiculturalists, Islamists and
(fi ll in the blank with your preferred
minority) is the administration’s
most vivid and rhetorically ascen-
dant foreign policy viewpoint. How
does this affect the alliances of the
previous dispensation? That is the
background against which Trump’s
peevishness is being viewed.
Foreigners see a president who
has blamed his predecessor, in banana
republic style, of a serious crime, for
which FBI Director James Comey
testifi ed Monday that there is no
evidence. They see an administration
whose campaign activities are being
actively investigated by the executive
branch and Congress. If close Trump
associates are directly connected to
Russian hacking, foreigners will see
othtr
vitws
City should look at
McNary saftty fi rst
By CHARLES ANDERSON
I am writing in response to May-
or Cathy Clark’s column (City look-
ing at McNary parking, Keizertimes,
March 17).
The safety of the kids
is the fi rst priority and
this situation has cre-
ated some compromised
safety issues for the stu-
dents and also along
with the parking issues
disrupting the lives of
the residents of and
around Newberg Drive
N.
First off let me inform you that
this problem of traffi c and parking
did not exist until sometime mid-
term of the school year of 2015-16,
and the school was already over-
crowded prior to that. All of a sud-
den the traffi c and parking became a
huge issue in middle of that school
year to this neighborhood. I wonder
how they got by prior to this issue
since the overcrowding was about
the same then as it is today? (Enroll-
ment at McNary in 2013 was 2,107;
in 2016 it is 2,075.)
This problem just all of a sudden
came to be, if you don’t believe me,
ask some of the residents who are
fairly new to Newberg Drive. They
told me that they would not have
purchased here if they knew this
problem was coming and it was not
that way when they both invested in
their homes here just a few years ago.
During the 2015-16 school year,
and before, parents were able to de-
liver their kids to school without
knowing to use Newberg Drive.
Since there are no huge differences
in student enrollment numbers the
only solution is to revert back to that
time.
This problem exists for conve-
nience rather then necessity. Now
that the word is out for an addi-
tional drop off point on Newberg
Drive and MacArthur Street plus
“free parking” on the “under main-
tained” street of MacArthur Street
and in the cul de sac of Max Court,
this neighborhood is being taken
advantage of and with less safety for
the students. In order to stop these
safety and parking issues then there
are really only two ways to accom-
plish it and anything else would be a
patch job and very ineffective. This
patchwork would also enable and
help justify the school to continue
to make Newberg Drive unsafe and
the cul de sac into a high school
parking lot. So the two solutions are
as follows:
Number one (the best solution)
is by locking the gate at MacArthur
Street and making McNary a closed
campus at least until they make a
better parking lot or fi nd another
solution to their overcrowding.
There would be zero cost (I say it
again: zero cost!) to lock the gate and
could be implemented in just a few
days to notify the students and par-
ents the gate is closed and these safe-
ty and parking problems would be
solved just like we didn’t have these
problems in 2015 and prior. Once
again these problems were not here
during and prior to the last
school year so the parents
and students obviously got
by with the overcrowding
of the school, so its really
more about convenience of
the parents to drop off stu-
dents and the “free park-
ing” for students in a cul
de sac that was designed to
keep traffi c and vehicles at a mini-
mum and certainly not to be used as
a school parking lot.
Solution number two is not the
best—it would certainly tone down
the traffi c and not do much of any-
thing about the parking issues—is to
open the gates on Sandy and Rob-
bindale drives, plus possibly add-
ing another gate to Orchard Street.
(note the Orchard Street gate would
not be any less safe then the students
crossing four lanes of traffi c in Mc-
Nary and through the parking lot at
the entry from MacArthur Street).
I agree that adding street lights
would be very nice for Newberg
Drive, but it is another slim patch up
job for the kids safety that doesn’t
do anything at all except when it is
dark outside. Adding permit park-
ing in this neighborhood would be
costly and very diffi cult for the city
and the neighbors to manage and is
yet another fl imsy patch job when
making McNary into a closed cam-
pus is a quick and easy fi x, with only
the inconvenience that they have al-
ready endured previously.
In the last city council meeting
City Manager Chris Eppley said that
he can not order the school to lock
the gate but has tried to get them
to lock it, but I would be willing to
bet that he has some clout inside the
borders of Keizer and Salem-Keizer
School District. This is about the
safety issues of the students plus the
upsetting of the lives of the people
who live in and around Newberg
Drive.
Mr. Eppley and Mayor Clark I am
asking you to step up and use your
powers to stop this madness caused
by the new principal of McNary
and the Salem-Keizer School Dis-
trict. You could fi le Quality Assur-
ance Model (QAM) papers with the
school district and show objection.
You could also go public and an-
nounce your position strongly since
I know you really care about student
safety and possibly even for the resi-
dents of this neighborhood. I think
the Salem-Keizer School District
would listen to you. Once again, I
am asking the city of Keizer to stand
up for your citizens both young and
old and stop the school from causing
safety issues and making this neigh-
borhood a very uncomfortable place
to live.
gutst
opinion
(Charlts Andtrson livts in Ktiztr.)
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RECEPTION
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the president engulfed in an im-
peachment crisis—the only consti-
tutional mechanism that would re-
move the taint of larceny from the
2016 election.
And foreigners are seeing politics,
not national security, in the driver’s
seat of the administration. Tillerson
was given the job of secretary of state,
then denied his choice of deputy for
political reasons, then ordered to
make a 28 percent cut in the bud-
get for diplomacy and development.
Never mind that Tillerson has been
left a diminished fi gure. Never mind
that stability operations in Somalia
and Northern Nigeria—the recruit-
ing grounds of Islamist terrorism—
would likely be eliminated under
the Trump budget. Never mind that
programs to prevent famines would
be slashed.
When asked if he was worried
about cutting these programs dur-
ing a famine, budget director Mick
Mulvaney responded: “The presi-
dent said specifi cally hundreds of
times ... I’m going to spend less
money on people overseas and more
money on people back home. And
that’s exactly what we’re doing with
this budget.” The benighted cruelty
of such a statement —assuming that
the only way to help Americans is to
let foreign children die—is remark-
able, and typical.
The sum total? Foreigners
see a Darwinian, nationalist frame-
work for American foreign policy;
a diminished commitment to global
engagement; a brewing scandal that
could distract and cripple the ad-
ministration; and a president who
often conducts his affairs with pee-
vish ignorance.
Some will look at this spectacle
and live in fear; others may see gold-
en opportunity.
(Washington Post Writtrs Group)
Turning policies into numbers
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
President Donald Trump pre-
sented a radically different budget
blueprint to Congress last week.
The new plan would increase de-
fense spending by $54
billion and fund the in-
crease with targeted cuts
in other discretionary
spending.
What makes the $1.1
trillion budget truly
unique, Offi ce of Man-
agement and Budget Di-
rector Mick Mulvaney
told reporters before the rollout, is
that “we wrote it using the presi-
dent’s own words. We went through
his speeches, we went through ar-
ticles that have been written about
his policies, we talked to him, and
we wanted to know what his poli-
cies were, and we turned those poli-
cies into numbers.”
Mulvaney called the blueprint
an “America First” spending plan,
a “hard-power budget” that moves
spending from soft-power programs
like foreign aid and into build-
ing up the military itself. Trump’s
plan would cut the budgets for the
Department of State and the U.S.
Agency for International Develop-
ment by 28 percent. While critics
are alarmed, the blueprint has a sav-
ing grace, according to Mulvaney:
“The president ran saying he would
spend less money overseas and more
money back home.”
Critics are appalled. “By increas-
ing military spending by $54 billion
while cutting spending on civilian
diplomacy and assistance, the Trump
administration is militarizing for-
eign aid,” charged Adam Isacson, se-
nior associate for defense oversight
at the Washington Offi ce on Latin
America.
As rumors of the pending foreign
aid cuts spread last month, more
than 120 retired generals
and admirals sent a let-
ter to Congress in which
they quoted Trump’s
Defense Secretary James
Mattis, who said when
he was commander of the
U.S. Central Command,
“If you don’t fully fund
the State Department,
then I need to buy more
ammunition.”
Trump also cam-
paigned on a plan to have
Mexico pay for a wall at
the U.S. border. But Mul-
vaney said the proposed
budget includes $1.5 bil-
lion for the border wall
this year.
Over the years, con-
servatives have proposed
cutting federal funding
for a number of pursuits
they consider left-leaning. Rather
than talking about cutting these
expenses gradually, Trump propos-
es to eliminate completely fund-
ing for the Corporation for Public
Broadcasting, the Legal
Services
Corporation,
the National Endowment
for the Arts, the National
Endowment for the Hu-
manities and the United
States Institute for Peace.
In answer to a press
question, Mulvaney ex-
pounded, “the policy is
that we’re ending federal involve-
ment with the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting.”
A reporter asked, “Over a period
of years?”
“Well, this year,” Mulvaney an-
swered.
Mulvaney has clearly stated that
this preliminary or “skinny budget”
won’t reduce the defi cit—but it
won’t increase defi cit spending ei-
ther. To make a dent in the national
debt, Trump would have to cut en-
titlement spending.
“Unfortunately, the budget does
not include any proposals on man-
datory spending or revenue and
does not include any proposals
or projections beyond 2018,” the
Committee for a Responsible Fed-
eral Budget opined. “In this sense,
this budget ignores the 70 percent
of spending that is responsible for
90 percent of spending growth over
the next decade and tells us nothing
about how the Administration will
address the nation’s unsustainably
rising national debt.”
The blueprint next goes to Con-
gress. While Republicans control
both the House and the Senate, his-
tory shows that for all their fi scal
conservative talk, Republicans often
are loath to actually cut the cord of
federal spending.
dtbra
j.
saundtrs
“While nearly every Republican
claims to be a fi scal conservative,
many of them defend subsidy pro-
grams important to their states or
personal interests,” observed Chris
Edwards, editor of the Cato Insti-
tute’s DownsizingGovernment.org,
who tossed out rural business sub-
sidies as an example. “As Trump’s
proposed cuts are considered on
Capitol Hill, it will become more
clear to Republican voters which
members are real fi scal conserva-
tives and which are defenders of big
government subsidies.”
Washington simply isn’t used to
administrations proposing huge cuts
that seem likely to end in what one
journalist described as the largest
proposed reduction in the federal
workforce since World War II. That
same reporter asked Mulvaney if
the White House had considered
the “impact on property values.”
(The question showed that, in a
sense, every Beltway homeowner
has an interest in keeping the gov-
ernment big.) Clearly Mulvaney
had heard the real estate question
before. His answer was direct and
provoked laughter in the briefi ng
room. “I work for the president of
the United States,” Mulvaney an-
swered. “The president of the Unit-
ed States, he represents the District
of Columbia, Northern Virginia,
and Southern Maryland, but he also
represents the rest of the country.
And I can assure you that we did
not write this budget with an eye
toward what it would do to the val-
ue of your condo.”
(Crtators Syndicatt)
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