PAGE A4, KEIZERTIMES, JULY 26, 2019
Opinion
Egregious budget deal
“A billion here, a billion there, and
pretty soon you’re talking about real
money. “ That’s a quote attributed to
long-ago U.S. Senator Everett Dirk-
sen (which he probably never said).
The quote—real or not—was about
the federal budget in the
1960s. Back then a budget
defi cit of $5 billion would
send people into a tizzy.
Now? The
recent
agreeement between the
White House and Con-
gressional leaders will lead
to annual defi cits of about
$1 trillion. The current national debt
stands at $22 trillion and grows day
by day. The new budget agreement,
which will remain in place until after
the 2020 elections, will add about $10
trillion to our national debt when all
is said and done.
The president, his GOP support-
ers and the Democrats all get money
for pet projects, all forgetting any past
declarations about defi cits. When both
parties agree to such an egregious
budget plan, they all get political cov-
er. The Democrats can say they se-
cured money for cherished domestic
programs. The Republicans get to say
they have money to increase military
spending. They will all congratulate
themselves on this deal while Amer-
ica’s Everyman and Everywoman will,
again, bear the brunt. This is a perfect
example of our leaders not leading.
On top of that, economic experts say
that the recent $1.5 trillion tax cut
did not have the desired affect. Much
of that money ended up as executive
bonuses and stock buy-back schemes.
Why should this latest budget
agreement (which still has to be ap-
proved by Congress and
signed by the president)
matter to the average cit-
izen? There are two very
good reasons.
One, it breaks any sem-
blance of trust between
citizens and government
when their leaders preach
one thing and then do the opposite.
It’s politics as usual.
Two, the bigger our national debt,
the bigger the mandated interest pay-
ment. That interest payment, itself
billions of dollars, takes money away
from other areas that needs fi nancing.
Those are good reasons for Amer-
icans to be wary of these types of
budget deals. On top of that our debt
is owned by China and others. What
will our leaders say they came knock-
ing on our door looking for payment?
The $385 billion budget plan gives
both parties gifts they can bestow
onto their supporters as well as polit-
ical cover from each other. That’s no
way to run a country. We are outraged
and hope many others are, too, and
take the time to let their leaders know
how they feel.
—LAZ
our
opinion
Banners
As Americans take to the road
this summer they will drive through
large cities and small towns. Just
about every burg they visit will have
one thing in common: identifying
banners lining the main street.
We have called for banners along
River Road for years and now we
renew that call.
Banners attached to utility poles
along Keizer’s main thoroughfare
will tell visitors who we are and it
will show residents that we mean
business when we promote the city.
We envision a series of banners,
one for each quarter (that way the
shelf life will be much longer when
they hang for only three months a
year):
First quarter (February through
April)—Springtime in Keizer
Second quarter (May through
June)—Iris Capital of the World
along with KeizerFEST.
Third quarter (July through Sep-
tember)—Summer in Keizer.
Fourth quarter (October through
January)—Holidays in Keizer.
A banner project can be funded
with a combination of grants, fund-
raisers and donations.
Let’s make this a banner year in
Keizer.
—LAZ
After 69 years,
Korean War is
not over
fi nal Truce Documents
have not been fi nal-
ized. The North Ko-
rea and South Korea
militaries still look at
each other across the
38th parallel. This war
is now 69 years old.
The term “Freedom is not Free”
is a true statement. Yes, I was there
and on the “hill” the night of 27 July
1953 and was privileged to view the
ceasefi re fl ares as they opened signi-
fying the end of fi ring of all weapons
on both sides.
Bob Wickman
Keizer
letters
To the Editor:
The Korean War (Not a
declared war; only Congress
can declare war) began 25 June 1950
and the ceasefi re occurred 27 July
1953 at 10 p.m. (2200 hours).
During the 37 months of com-
bat more than 37,000 Americans
were killed. This equates to about
the population of the city of Keizer.
Something to think about, isn’t it? In
addition there were 103,284 wound-
ed, 8,177 missing in action. And the
Trump’s unnecessary roughness
By DEBRA J. SAUNDERS
The most revealing moment of last
week’s Greenville, North Carolina,
Trump rally was not when the crowd
chanted “Send her back” in support
of President Donald Trump’s criti-
cism of Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn.,
a Somali-born immi-
grant who frequently calls
Trump a racist and whom
Trump argues hates Amer-
ica.
Trump later told re-
porters he “felt a little bad-
ly about” the chant and
“would certainly try” to
stop supporters from re-
peating the refrain at future rallies—
which I take as recognition that his
go-back rhetoric against Omar and
three female American-born House
Democrats could endanger his re-
election campaign.
Later Trump recalled running into
a successful businessman who “can-
not stand me.” Trump told the rally
that he said to the man: “I never have
liked you, and you have never liked
me. But you’re going to support me
because you’re a rich guy.”
Trump added: “But it’s not like he
has a choice. He has no choice. And
on top of that, it’s a good choice be-
cause we’ve done the right thing.”
It was a stark admission that
Trump enjoyed holding mainstream
Republicans hostage because 2020
Democratic hopefuls are so far to the
left that conservatives who don’t like
his Twitter rants have nowhere to go.
A friend calls Trump’s latest Twitter
campaign “torturing the moderates.”
And she voted for Trump.
This latest Trump melodrama
began Sunday when Trump tweet-
ed that the four progressive Dems
known as “the squad”—Omar, Reps.
Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Alex-
andria Ocasio-Cortez of New York
and Ayanna Pressley of Massachu-
setts—should “go back and help fi x
the totally broken and crime-infested
places from which they came.”
The reaction of many Republicans
was a prolonged cringe. Not because
they demand political correctness
but because they are aware how the
go-back rhetoric is likely to alienate
some of the very Latino and women
voters the campaign has
been courting. It didn’t
help that three mem-
bers of the squad are
native-born Americans
who are also women of
color.
Democrats
and
never-Trumper scolds
could not get on Twit-
ter fast enough to denounce as un-
principled and cowardly any Repub-
licans who did not turn completely
against Trump for his race-baiting
rhetoric.
A number of conservatives did
voice their disapproval on social me-
dia and through back channels. But
they aren’t going to defect; they sup-
port what Trump does even as they
abhor what he says.
They love his judicial picks, agree
with him on border security and ben-
efi t from the strong economy. They
believe that if a Democrat takes the
White House, he or she will pack the
courts with activist judges who will
legislate from the bench, neuter or
eliminate Immigration and Customs
Enforcement and push soak-the-rich
taxes likely to fell a strong economy.
Besides, the right believes the left
pays too much attention to words and
bestows too little attention on results.
It doesn’t say much for Trump
that he repeatedly and unnecessarily
forces the very people he needs to
get things done to bite their tongues
because he cannot control his. And
Wednesday night, he pretty much ad-
mitted he likes it that way.
The Trump amen chorus predict-
ably dismissed all criticism of the
“send her back” chant as Trump-hater
folly. There’s a big hole in that argu-
other
voices
ment: Trump threw the chanters un-
der the bus. He knew it was election
poison, so how could it be wrong for
others to say it was toxic?
Last Friday, Trump walked back
his walk-back as he told reporters the
Greenville attendees were “incredible
patriots” and that he was incensed at
Omar’s anti-Semitism.
Trump’s right about Omar. She has
tweeted that support for Israel was “all
about the Benjamins” and questioned
pro-Israel offi ceholders for their “al-
legiance to a foreign country.” She
so enraged House Democrats that
they voted on a resolution to censure
anti-Semitism, a measure they then
watered down as a resolution against
“hateful expressions of intolerance”
to mollify the squad.
Tuesday, she introduced a reso-
lution “affi rming that all Americans
have the right to participate in boy-
cotts in pursuit of civil and human
rights at home and abroad” -- an
apparent gesture of support for the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions
movement against Israel.
But rather than simply confront
her on the issues, where she is vulner-
able, Trump the bully chose to make
it personal. And so America spent an-
other week arguing about his unnec-
essary roughness.
There was an apparent strategy
behind Trump’s go-back tweet. Team
Trump is focused on turning out
Trump’s 2016 voters who skipped the
midterm elections, GOP organizers
believe, because Trump’s name was
not on the ticket.
For that rump, Trump has put re-
liable GOP voters through an ago-
nizing slog. They’ve been put on the
spot routinely while they have been
taken for granted because they are
committed Republicans. But it’s get-
ting old, and it’s time for Team Trump
to wonder: What if they’re the voters
who decide to stay home?
(Creators Syndicate)
US to become majority minority soon
Keizertimes
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The Declaration of Indepen-
dence held the signatures of 54
courageous colonists, representing
all thirteen colonies. They com-
pleted their work and presented it
July 4, 1776. Among its new order
pronouncements, it recognized that
“We hold these truths to be self-ev-
ident, that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Cre-
ator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life,
Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness.”
Jewish-Amer ican
Emma Lazarus wrote
“Give me your tired, your
poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free,
the wretched refuse of
your teaming shore. Send
these, the homeless, tempest tossed
to me, I lift my lamp beside the
golden door.”
Ms. Lazarus was 38-years-old
when she died of cancer in 1887, 15
years before her poem was placed
on a plaque at the Statue of Lib-
erty’s base. Lady Liberty’s message
has been a beacon to the world ever
since.
Use of the Declaration and
Lazarus’ poetry reminds all here that
our forebears had the courage and
fortitude to strike out from the Old
World to the United States of Amer-
ica to seek out a country where free-
dom, liberty and the opportunity to
pursue happiness were written into
lawfully honored documents, prom-
ising everyone, regardless of race,
ethnicity, language, culture and or-
igin, the chance to live an American
Dream. My maternal grandparents
came to the U.S. from Finland in
the 1880s, my paternal relatives from
Scotland in the 1850s. I never knew
them because they passed from life
before my birth; nevertheless, I ven-
erably honor them for what they did
for me and believe my
sentiments are shared
by virtually all of my
fellow Americans.
One of the seri-
ous obstacles for a se-
cure life in the U.S.
has been for persons
of race and skin color.
At its heart have been
barriers, barbs and bias. Fact is the
U.S. will soon have no clear racial
or ethnic majority while some states
have already crossed that threshold
with more to get there in the im-
mediate future. Major contributors
to the number of arrivals will come
from the Latin and Asian countries,
known to grow more quickly than
non-Hispanic white populations.
The facts also show that persons
of color already constitute the ma-
jority in California, Texas, Hawaii,
and New Mexico. In nine others,
Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana,
Maryland, Mississippi, Nevada, New
Jersey and New York, persons of col-
or make up more than 40 percent
gene h.
mcintyre
of statewide populations. There will
be no clear racial or ethnic majori-
ty in 25 years as whites will count
at 49 percent, Latinos at 25, Afri-
can-Americans at 13, and Asians at
8 percent. Four percent will identi-
fy as multi-racial. 2050 projections
promise 100 million Latinos and 42
million Asians.
It is suggested that those of us
who choose to act out through prej-
udicial violence and hateful dema-
goguery may wish to make attitude
adjustments regarding others of col-
or.
Prospective agents of change
should also consider behavior ad-
justments for the sake of their chil-
dren. When parents stop practic-
ing and preaching adversarial ideas
through antagonistic expressions,
hate has a chance of drying up and
blowing away. Just telling people
of color to “go back home,” when
they’re already bona fi de citizens on
the verge of majority status, fi ts only
an American future without peace
and a nation divided against itself.
(Gene H. McIntyre shares his
opinion regularly in the Keizertimes.)
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