PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JUNE 2, 2017
KeizerOpinion
KEIZERTIMES.COM
Trump fl exes U.S. muscle
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
President Donald Trump may fi nd
Washington a hostile home lurking
with political foes who want payback
for his harsh rhetoric on the campaign
trail. Funny thing, though: On his fi rst
foreign trip as president, the one-time
isolationist found for-
giveness and bonhomie
from leaders and nations
he trolled during the
2016 campaign.
In Saudi Arabia, King
Salman bin Abdul-
Aziz Al Saud Salman
rolled out a red carpet
for Trump and hosted
meetings with Muslim and Arab lead-
ers. In Israel, Trump had positive talks
with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas. The Vati-
can described Trump’s audience with
Pope Francis as “cordial.”
He accused the Saudis of blowing
up the World Trade Center. He sup-
ported a “total and complete shut-
down” on allowing Muslims to enter
the United States. Abbas and the Saudi
royal family are Muslims. As a candi-
date, Trump tweeted that the pontiff
was “disgraceful” for questioning his
faith.
In Washington, there’s no getting
over 2016. Democrats in Congress are
loath to appear publicly with Trump.
Party leaders don’t want to be seen
working with his administration. Af-
ter spending the last eight years de-
nouncing Republican obstructionism,
they’ve come up with a new word—
“resistance”—for the same behavior,
which they now fi nd laudable.
They’re can’t and won’t get over
2016, while the Saudi King, Palestin-
ian leader and Catholic Pope can.
Then again, Saudi Arabia and Israel
were pretty peeved at President Barack
Obama’s role in passing the nuclear
deal with Iran. Middle Eastern leaders
did not appreciate Barack Obama’s role
in easing Egyptian Presi-
dent Hosni Mubarak out of
power. They appreciate that
Trump’s “America First”
rhetoric means not pushing
Middle Eastern leaders to
the breaking point.
As Trump put it when he
spoke to Arab and Muslim
leaders in Riyadh, “We are
not here to lecture. We are not here
to tell other people how to live, what
to do, who to be or how to worship.
Instead, we are here to offer partner-
ship—based on shared interests and
values—to pursue a better future for
us all.”
The pope had the least to lose from
taking on Trump and the least to win
from reaching out to the president.
The pontiff sees immigration as a
moral issue, and he was not afraid to
say so last year.
“I honestly don’t think Francis gives
a hoot about the benefi t” of a visit, ob-
served Austin Ruse, Catholic author
and president of C-Fam, a family re-
search institute, as well as a member of
Trump’s council of Catholic advisers.
At a dedication for a memorial of
9/11 and NATO’s Article 5, which
guarantees mutual defense, Trump
hectored member nations for fail-
ing to contribute their “fair share” of
NATO’s defense. That lecture at least
could not be considered a surprise.
Yet then, after fanning expecta-
other
views
What would I do?
By LYNDON ZAITZ
Most people would like to think
of themselves as the type of person
who come to the aid of the fellow
man, even step into harm’s way, if
necessary.
On Friday, May 26, on a MAX
train at the Holly-
wood Transit Cen-
ter in Portland, three
men—strangers to each
other— fell victims to
their own good inten-
tions. The three men
confronted a man who
was verbally abusing
two teenage girls, one of whom was
wearing a hijab.
Ricky John Best, 53, and Taliesin
Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, were
killed. Micah David-Cole Fletcher,
21, was injured.
These men saw what was hap-
pening and stepped in to help the
young women against the threats of
the man. Did they think about their
own safety? Did they know that the
raving, long-haired man had a knife?
Did they consider the possibility of
a weapon? In my mind these three
men are real heroes, a word that is
thrown around too much.
The three men jumped into ac-
tion to protect the two young
women; they saw something and
did something. It would seem to
be more than a fair fi ght, three men
against one man. But when the ele-
ment of a close-at-hand weapon is
added to the mix, the balance of an
altercation can shift.
Too often people will turn away
from such scenes, suspecting it is
nothing more than the ravings of
a person with mental health issues.
“Don’t get involved” are words that
too easily become the default posi-
tion.
In the world in which we now
live, it will be harder for most people
to not get involved when another
person is in distress or under attack.
There is safety in numbers. The out-
come of a one-on-one fi ght against
the perpetrator of evil can go either
way. When a group of people band
together to stop harassment, assault
or threats, the good guys win.
It does not have to be a
life-or-death situation for
people to do what is right.
The time to think some-
one else’s suffering is not
our problem is long gone.
You can say that Oregon
isn’t faced with the kind
of terrorism other places
in the world face, but there is no
other name for what happened on
that MAX train. A terrorist doesn’t
have to be from a certain part of the
globe or practice a certain religion.
Society suffers from terrorism every
day, whether it is a schoolchild that
is mercilessly bullied in person and
via a social website, or, a woman (or
a man) who is the victim of domes-
tic violence that can happen at any
time.
It is unwise for a lone person to
inject themselves into a dangerous
situation. Yet, we should solicit assis-
tance from bystanders when some-
one else is in trouble.
We hope that the tragic events
of last week in Portland is an iso-
lated incident, but we can’t be sure,
so we must always be alert to dan-
ger around us, especially when the
most vulernable in our society is its
victim.
I would like to think I am the
kind of person who will step for-
ward to protect someone. After the
MAX train stabbings I’ll be more
aware of my surroundings and not
be afraid to take a call for the help of
a stranger. When we band together
to help, we are no longer strangers
but brothers and sisters in a civilized
society.
on my
mind
(Lyndon Zaitz is publisher of the
Keizertimes.)
tions that he would endorse Article 5
explicitly, Trump failed to do so. For
some reason, Trump chose to treat
NATO like a freeloader, even though
the alliance is sending NATO troops
to Iraq and likely will increase troop
levels in Afghanistan.
It is instructive to consider the re-
action of NATO leaders. They didn’t
return his criticism with cute sound
bites like House Minority Leader
Nancy Pelosi or Senate Minority
Leader Chuck Schumer.
After the mini-summit, Secretary
General Jens Stoltenberg told report-
ers Trump “strongly stated his commit-
ment” to NATO and “it’s not possible
to be committed to NATO without
being committed to Article 5.”
That week, national security ad-
viser H.R. McMaster told reporters
that “of course” Trump supports the
key NATO provision, for what that is
worth.
The takeaway from Trump ‘s trip is
that America is the superpower. With
Obama and his magical thinking gone,
and a president willing to fl ex some
muscle in his place, Europe is respond-
ing.
Trump’s refusal to join the rest of
the G7 on climate change Saturday
was met with willingness to keep try-
ing to bring him on board.
Before the trip, foreign-policy gray-
beard Robert Gates, secretary of de-
fense under President George W. Bush
and Obama, said on “Face the Nation”
that American foreign policy needs
“disruption.” As Trump arrives back in
his home in Washington, he can tell his
critics the world agrees.
(Creators Syndicate)
A wealthy nation’s health problem
By GENE H. McINTYRE
There are 435 representatives in the
U.S. House, each representing close to
733,000 of their fellow Americans. This
number is derived from the U.S. popu-
lation number of 318.9 million by the
2010 census. The roles and duties of
each member of Congress are under-
stood to include representa-
tion, legislation, and constit-
uent service and education as
well as political and electoral
activities. This writer expects
his representative and all
the others to come to grips
with the dimensions of their
role by developing a law-
ful approach to their tasks, demonstrat-
ing fi delity to those who send them.
What’s happened most recently in
the U.S. House of Representatives,
however, does not embrace the ex-
pected standard. Take the example of
House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Repub-
lican from Wisconsin. He was gleeful
the other day with the GOP health
plan because it’s “us keeping our prom-
ises.” Yet, his statement is only partially
true as, while he and his fellow Re-
publicans did pass a regressive health
care bill, one has to question how
well he’s representing his constituents
since it’s anticipated that at least 23
million Americans will fi nd it fi nan-
cially impossible to afford the premi-
ums, expected to rise by 850 percent.
Then, too, Ryan, Trump and a ma-
jority of GOP representatives now fi nd
themselves in an awkward place. They
made all kinds of specifi c guarantees
tied to their health care legislation and
then proceeded to break most of them
without explanation which could and
should make their back-
home visits before and
during 2018 campaign
successes no walk in the
public park. Here’s a con-
densed overview of what
they’ve done: fi rst, made
promises; second, broke
promises; and third, hide
the fact they made the promises in the
fi rst place. Sadly, Oregon’s 2nd District
representative, Greg Walden, gleefully
joined that GOP chorus.
In each representative’s case, there
are Americans from every level of
the economic ladder, most poor to
most wealthy. Without help from the
federal government in the form of
Medicaid and other federal assistance
programs, millions of these people can-
not afford health insurance and will
only seek medical help, if it’s available
at all within accessible distance, from
emergency care.
What gets to this writer the most
is that we are a comparatively wealthy
nation that could take much better care
guest
column
of all our people than we do and that
an inordinate amount of everything
goes to a small percentage of the popu-
lation seldom needing more than what
they’ve already got: This being most
disgusting in the fact that while the U.S.
House-passed bill makes deep cuts to
the needy, the bill coincidentally pro-
vides millions of dollars in tax relief to
the wealthy. The Republican members
of the U.S. House thereby defeat the
principles of democracy by serving the
few and sending the country evermore
close to times and circumstances of
the late 1800s, when only the wealthy
could afford the American Dream—
and medical attention when needed.
Meanwhile, the 100-member U.S.
Senate has a mere handful Republican
senators, led by Majority Leader Mitch
McConnell working on their version
of TrumpCare. The cynic here does
not see promise for a Senate bill that
serves all Americans when the support-
ers are 16 highly conservative, older,
white men (with no female senators
included) who have a reputation for
putting GOP ideology and big-money
contributors before nation and citizens.
Hence, from the U.S. Senate a bill is
believed on its way that will be with-
out provisions for the nation’s middle
class and poor.
(Gene H. McIntyre lives in Keizer.)
Don’t best against tax and health reform
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By LAWRENCE KUDLOW
If the smart money folks on Wall
Street think a special counsel to over-
see the Russian probes spells defeat
for business tax cuts, they’re leaning
well over their skis.
While there’s never 100 percent
probability in forecasting political
risk, it seems the likelihood of health
care reform by the summer and tax
reform by year’s end (or early 2018) is
quite high.
Paradoxically, special
counsel Robert Muel-
ler will provide cover
for President Trump, as
it will take him many
months to complete his
investigation. The leaks
are going to dry up. By
law, information on the
probe must be protected. So, what-
ever the outcome, Trump will have
months without the attack headlines
in which to sell his tax-cut plan.
And Trump still has the back-
ing of his core base, which is at least
40 percent of the electorate. These
disenchanted voters may not agree
with everything he says. But they
still strongly believe Trump is their
best chance to drain the swamp—to
overturn the Beltway elites, to deliver
border security, to improve trade deals
and to cut taxes and regulations to
deliver the full-fl edged deeply rooted
sustainable prosperity we haven’t seen
in 20 years.
Warts and all, Trump and his po-
lices is still their vote. (He needs to go
out there and rally these folks.)
And all this talk of impeachment
based on obstruction of justice is just
Democratic political pap. George
Washington University law professor
Jonathan Turley, who is no partisan,
calls it “an awfully thin soup.” Acting
FBI director Andrew McCabe told
Congress there’s been no interference
in the FBI’s investigations and no re-
quest for additional funding.
And if Comey did write a memo
about obstruction of justice, he is le-
gally obligated to report it
to the highest levels of the
Justice Department. Failure
to do so could invoke crim-
inal charges.
Yet behind all this mess,
House Speaker Paul Ryan
keeps telling people that
Congress can walk and
chew gum at the same time.
He’s right.
And that opens the door for taxes.
House Ways and Means Com-
mittee chair Kevin Brady just began
expert tax hearings. After the recess,
Brady will likely convene a markup
session.
Rep. Peter Roskam, who chairs
the congressional tax policy subcom-
mittee, said last week, “I’m of the
view that 2017 is the year.” He thinks
tax reform is easier than replacing
Obamacare.
So, following a markup, Ways and
Means can report out a bill. And be-
cause prosperity is America’s No. 1
issue, it will pass the fl oor relatively
easily. And that will put pressure on
the Senate to get moving.
It’s likely that a tax cut working
group will again convene to hash
guest
opinion
out important details. The border-
adjusted tax, or BAT, will have to go.
But the very core of the tax bill is a
simple three steps: a deep corporate
tax-rate cut, immediate expensing for
new equipment of all kinds and the
repatriation of offshore cash. This is
the tonic that will restore capital for-
mation, productivity, real wages and
growth.
Both Senate and House leaders
have to understand how fl exible rec-
onciliation is. It can be nearly any-
thing you want it to be. The key player
is Senate President Mike Pence, who
can overrule the parliamentarian.
Congressional leaders should heed
the words of Treasury Secretary Ste-
ven Mnuchin, who has become the
administration’s leading spokesperson
for economic growth and lower tax
rates. He told the Senate Banking
Committee last week, “What I have
said repeatedly is that any plan we put
forward we believe should be paid for
with economic growth.”
He is estimating a 3 percent
growth rate by 2021. I suspect it will
arrive faster. And the difference be-
tween growth of less than 2 percent
from the Congressional Budget Of-
fi ce and 3 percent growth is well over
$3 trillion in additional revenue. It’s
the mother of all pay-fors.
And lowering marginal tax rates
across the board, especially on large
and small businesses, will foster the
mother of all prosperities -- the one
for which middle-class Americans in
all those red counties that voted for
Trump have been yearning.
(Creators Syndicate)