OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2016
The Clintons’ secret language
Founded in 1873
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Why won’t Brown
lead on PERS?
Public employees union owns
the statehouse and its leaders
ere are two numbers that should send shock waves
through the state Capitol: 2021 and 33 percent.
H
By 2021, the Public
Employee Retirement System
burden on school districts and
municipalities will become al-
most one-third of their payrolls.
In other words, a school district
like Astoria will be devoting
one-third of its payroll expense
not to teachers, but to retirees.
The practical outcome will be
layoffs, fewer teachers.
Those two numbers emerged
from the Oregon Leadership
Summit last December, as re-
ported by Ted Sickinger of The
Oregonian. Governing bodies
such as school districts and city
governments contribute to the
PERS system. Steve Rodeman,
executive director of PERS, told
a panel of economists that gov-
ernment contributions to PERS
will rise by 20 percent in each
of the next three budget cycles.
Sickinger reported that,
“John Tapogna, an economist
with ECONorthwest, said leg-
islators had designed an ‘un-
usually exotic’ and expensive
pension system. He called it a
generational mistake, and said
the state continues to deal with
its aftermath.”
At the Leadership Summit,
Gov. Kate Brown said nothing
about this storm on our horizon.
Oregon is the only state that
requires no contributions from
employees to their pension fund.
If a contribution were required
— as is common in private sec-
tor de¿ned contribution retire-
ment plans — it would defray a
signi¿cant future expense.
When asked explicitly what
Gov. Brown thinks of the con-
cept of requiring employees
to contribute, her press sec-
retary gave us this statement:
“Proposals to offset the sig-
ni¿cant de¿cit will likely be
discussed during the February
short (legislative) session.
Unfortunately, that’s a con-
strained time frame to resolve
such a complex policy issue,
and the recent court decision
that struck down signi¿cant el-
ements of the prior effort to ad-
dress PERS costs leaves policy-
FYI:
makers with few viable options
that might result in meaningful
savings. Needless to say, this is
a pressing issue that will need
to be considered as we prepare
the budget for 2017-19.”
Gov. Brown’s response is a
disappointment, because it con-
tains no leadership. She sounds
more like a lawyer or a news
anchor — stating the obvi-
ous — than a governor. Where
is Brown’s amazement that
Oregon is the only state that
requires no employee partici-
pation in retirement funding?
Where is her anger about the
pending horror in which school
districts and cities will be dec-
imated to pay for a phantom
workforce of retirees?
Brown’s neutered response is
a symptom of what sets Oregon
apart.
T
he Wall Street Journal
on Dec. 29 reported that
in several states Democratic
leaders were at odds with their
traditional ally, organized la-
bor, on pension reform. “The
erosion of Democratic backing
for conventional retirement
benefits prized by teachers,
firefighters and police offi-
cers is a sign of how strained
government budgets are as
obligations for 24 million
public workers and retirees
continue to mount,” reported
the Journal.
But not in Oregon. And
here’s why. We are a one-par-
ty state. And increasingly the
nominal Democratic party —
embodied in the legislative
majority and the current gover-
nor — is the Public Employees
Union Party. As Republican
state Rep. Dennis Richardson
told us in 2014, “The public
employees union runs the state-
house.”
It is no secret that the gross
receipts tax which the union
will place on the November
ballot is about bailing out
PERS. That is what permits
Gov. Brown to shun the mantle
of leadership.
Clippings from the press of the
Paci¿c Northwest and the nation
In Oregon, myth mixes with anger
hen mythic histories sup-
plant the complexities of
the past, the results can be lethal.
Equitable futures for Western pub-
lic lands won’t be achieved when
ideologues swagger in, brandishing
guns and taking over federal build-
ings. Rather, they develop from the
hard work of collaboration, like the
2013 effort that brought together
W
the local community, tribes, con-
servation groups and the state and
federal governments to develop
a new management plan for Mal-
heur. These are the efforts that best
respect the region’s history while
pointing the way to a sustainable
future.
— Nancy Langston in The New
York Times
Why TeÀon Trump is so hard to attack
eaders, this is no caricature —
it’s Trump un¿ltered, alight-
ing brieÀy on a topic, complicat-
ed or trivial, before Àitting to the
next. And it’s not as if Trump bol-
sters his stump speech with policy
R
depth in proposals or interviews.
If Obamacare is a disaster, what’s
Trump’s replacement? If Common
Core is dead, what’s his alternative?
— Ruth Marcus in The Washington
Post
By FRANK BRUNI
New York Times News Service
emember the Gores? Al and Tip-
per?
R At the Democratic convention
in 2000, they shared that hungry,
happy kiss, and it was more than a
meeting of lips. It was a window, or
so we thought, into a partnership of
enduring passion and inextinguish-
able tenderness.
They’re
separated now.
Have been for
more than ¿ve
years.
And the Ed-
wardses? John
and Elizabeth?
He resembled
a Ken doll. She
didn’t take af-
Frank
ter Barbie. That
Bruni
endeared them
to voters — endeared him to voters.
Only later did we learn about his dou-
ble life, the furious ¿ghts and the co-
pious tears.
We know nothing of other peo-
ple’s marriages. Nothing at all.
So why do we pretend otherwise?
Why do we make so many assump-
tions and judgments?
And why, every election cycle,
do we treat candidates’ spouses and
unions as the keys to their charac-
ters?
We can’t trust what’s paraded in
front of us any more than we can take
what journalists and opponents dig up
as the essential truth. A person’s inti-
mate life isn’t readily fathomed, and
on the inside tends not to look any-
thing like it does on the outside.
Bill Clinton hit the campaign trail
this week. That brought back memo-
ries, or rather Donald Trump hauled
those memories to the surface, and we
were reminded anew of all that Bill
and Hillary have been through (and
have put us through): the in¿delities,
the intern, the lies, the smears.
We were also reminded of Hil-
lary’s role in defending him. How
did that square with her claim to be
a champion of women? It’s fair to
ask.
But the fascination with the Clin-
tons as a couple goes beyond that
question, beyond those scandals, to
the belief in many quarters that we
can divine something essential about
each of them by the fact that they
teamed up and stayed together.
According to her fans, it’s a mea-
sure of her understanding that people
are broken, of her capacity for for-
giveness, of her belief in commit-
Jim Cole/AP Photo
Former President Bill Clinton waves to a cheering crowd as he arrives
during a campaign stop for his wife, Democratic presidential candi-
date Hillary Clinton, Monday, in Nashua, N.H.
ments. According to her foes, it re- mercial suggest, they’re just equally
veals a thirst for power that redeems meticulous about the script on which
any heartbreak and transcends all hu- they’re collaborating, equally intent
miliation.
on a triumphant denouement.
It could be proof of both — or nei-
I’m less and less interested in
ther. The answer isn’t gettable. Talk guessing, because I’m more and
with six different people who know more aware of how compartmental-
the Clintons well and you hear six dif- ized people are, of how Àawed and
ferent appraisals of their bond, each fruitless it is to extrapolate from one
presented with unalloyed con¿dence. chamber of their lives to another. The
I’ve been told that they light up stingiest spouse and parent can be the
around each other as they light up greatest boss, and vice versa. Some-
around no one else.
one who’s selÀess and
I’ve been told that
principled in one con-
We know text is sometimes the
there’s no extraordi-
nary spark there, just
opposite in another, as
nothing
a storehouse of shared
if there’s only so much
memories, an accretion
to go around.
of other goodness
of endurable disap-
And no chamber
pointments, a daughter,
people’s resists exploration and
a granddaughter and a
explanation like that of
marriages. a marriage or compara-
friendship.
I’ve been told that
relationship.
Nothing ble We’re
they’re really business
certain that
associates, intricately
we
have
it
¿gured out
at all.
involved in each other’s
— who musters the
lives because they’re
most patience, who
jointly invested in the perpetuation of makes the greatest sacri¿ces, who’s
their political relevance.
pure, who’s sullied — until it falls
I’ve been told that they talk more apart. Then we gape at the pieces, be-
than anyone would imagine. I’ve cause none are recognizable.
been told that they talk less.
We’re certain that social climbing
In New Hampshire on Monday, or religious devotion is a couple’s
when he described his ¿rst encoun- glue, when what matters more is the
ters with her some 45 years ago, he secret language of goofy endearments
called her “the most amazing person” that they speak. Or the unremarkable
and said, “Everything she touched, daily rituals that they’ve grown to
she made better.”
relish. Or the tempo of his speech. Or
Maybe that was a deeply felt trib- the timbre of her laugh.
ute. Maybe just a great line.
And when we come to our sweep-
Heidi Cruz will also be in New ing conclusions, we’re not perceiving
Hampshire this week. She’s a busy but projecting, and we’re using cou-
evangelist for Ted, half of a couple ples to cling to our idealism or vali-
who present themselves as perfect. date our cynicism. It’s a foolish game
Perhaps.
under any circumstances. It’s a dan-
Or perhaps, as the cringe-worthy gerous one en route to the election of
outtakes from a Cruz campaign com- a president.
Up with extremism in 2020
carbon tax, a value-added
negative income tax to en-
sure a government-guaran-
consumption tax (except on
teed income Àoor for every
groceries and other neces-
sities), a tax on bullets and
rom its very inception, Donald American. In an age when
machines
are
gobbling
a
tax on all sugary drinks
Trump’s campaign for presi-
low-skilled jobs, we’ll need
— with offsets for the low-
dent has been life imitating Twitter. both.
est-income earners.
His candidacy is built on Twitter
• Common Core educa-
We need a tax system
bursts and insults that touch hot but- tion standards as the law of
that shrinks what we don’t
want — carbon, sugar and
tons, momentarily salve anxieties and the land, to raise education
bullets — and incentivizes
Thomas L.
put a ¿st through the face of political benchmarks across the coun-
try, so high school gradu-
what we need. If we slash
Friedman
correctness, but without any credible ates meet the higher skill
corporate taxes, many more
programs for implementation.
levels that good jobs will increasingly companies will want to locate here, and
Where Trump has been a true inno- demand. But those higher standards the ones domiciled here will have the
vator is in his willingness to rhetorically should be phased in with funding to incentive to bring home foreign pro¿ts
combine positions from the isolationist enable every teacher to have the pro- and plow them into research and new
right, the far right, the center right and fessional development time to learn the business lines.
the center left. If I were running for new curriculum those standards require
• An independent commission ap-
president, I’d approach politics in the and to buy the materials needed to teach pointed to review Dodd-Frank and Sar-
same way: not as a liberal, a conserva- it.
banes-Oxley to determine which, if any,
• Controlling low-skilled immigra- of their provisions are needlessly mak-
tive, a libertarian or a centrist.
tion while removing all limits on H-1B ing it harder for entrepreneurs to raise
I’d run as an extremist.
The agenda that could actually make visas for foreign high-skilled knowl- capital or start businesses. We need to
America great again would combine edge workers and doubling the research be sure we’re preventing recklessness
the best ideas of the extreme left and funding for our national labs and insti- — not risk-taking.
the extreme right. This year is probably tutes of health to drive basic research.
• Copy Britain: Strictly limit nation-
too soon for such a radical platform, Nothing would spin off more new good al political campaign spending and the
but by 2020 — after more extreme jobs and industries than that combina- length of the campaign to a period of a
weather, after machines replace more tion.
few months. It makes it much harder for
• New accelerated tax incentives and billionaires to buy candidates.
middle-class jobs, after more mass
shootings and after much more glob- elimination of all regulatory barriers to
• Increased military spending and
al disorder — voters will realize that rapidly scale up deployment of super- ensuring that our intelligence services
fast bandwidth for both have all the legally monitored latitude
our stale left-right parties
wire line and wireless they need to confront today’s cyberen-
can’t produce the needed
I’d run
networks to ensure that abled terrorists — because if there’s one
answers for our postin-
next-generation Internet more 9/11, many voters will be ready
dustrial era. Accelerations
as an
services are developed in to throw out all civil liberties. And with
in Moore’s law, the mar-
ket and climate change extremist. America. And borrowing the world cleaving into zones of “or-
$100 billion at today’s der” and “disorder,” we’ll need to proj-
are transforming the
super-low government ect more power to protect the former
workplace, the environ-
ment and nation-states, leaving people interest rates to upgrade our ports, air- and stabilize the latter.
ports and grids and to create jobs.
feeling insecure and unmoored.
In sum, our slow growth, inequality
• Bans on the manufacture and sale and national security challenges require
It’s time for a true nonpartisan ex-
tremist, one whose platform combines of all semiautomatic and other mili- radical solutions: strengthening safety
tary-style guns and government offers nets, curbing the bad environmental
the following:
• A single-payer universal health to buy back any riÀe or pistol in circu- and health behaviors that are bankrupt-
care system. If it can work for Canada, lation. It won’t solve the problem, but ing us and paying for it all by sharply
Australia and Sweden and provide gen- Australia proved that such programs incentivizing risk-taking, innovation,
erally better health outcomes at lower can help reduce gun deaths.
investment and hiring.
• To pay for all this, a phased-in in-
prices, it can work for us, and get U.S.
That calls for a nonpartisan extrem-
companies out of the health care busi- novation and tax agenda that incentiv- ist for president who’s ready to go far
izes startups and hiring. That means: left and far right — simultaneously.
ness.
• Expansion of the earned-income Slash all corporate taxes, income tax- That’s my 2020 vision, and in four
tax credit to top-up wages for low-in- es, personal deductions and corporate years the country just might be ready
come workers and introduction of a subsidies and replace them with a for it.
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
New York Times News Service
F