OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 10, 2017
Founded in 1873
DAVID F. PERO, Publisher & Editor
LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
Water
under
the bridge
Compiled by Bob Duke
From the pages of Astoria’s daily newspapers
10 years ago this week — 2007
A Republican death wish
By CHARLES BLOW
New York Times News Service
T
The Daily Astorian/File Photo
The USS LCI 713, which was moored at Astoria’s Pier 39 as re-
cently as September, now sits at the Red Lion “Thunderbird
Dock” west of the interstate bridge in Portland. Rough Astoria
weather meant that restoration efforts were often a matter of one
step forward, two steps backward and necessitated the move to
calmer waters farther up the Columbia River.
The LCI 713 survived combat duty in World War II, but the harsh ele-
ments on the Lower Columbia River have proven to be a tough adversary.
The vintage landing craft, one of the last of its kind still afloat, was
recently honored with its acceptance into the National Register of Historic
Places. The National Park Service designation recognizes sites and struc-
tures associated with “events that have made a significant contribution to
the broad patterns of our history” and that “embody the distinctive charac-
teristics of a type, period or method of construction.”
The designation recognizes the 713 was exemplifying wartime
ship-building techniques “that emphasize simple, rugged and cost-effec-
tive construction.”
The U.S. Coast Guard has classified a Sunday call for help as
a hoax after determining the victims in distress were likely just
children playing with a radio.
No helicopters or boats were launched, but authorities did
waste at least an hour determining whether the mayday call was
for real, said Bob Coster, civilian search and rescue controller at
Coast Guard Group Astoria.
A male child reported he was on a sinking vessel at about 9:50
a.m.
“We’d had children playing on the radio all morning,” Coster
said. “Apparently, they’d gotten ahold of some small marine
radios and were playing Army.”
A bill launching a study of the proposed Columbia-Pacific National
Heritage Area gained approval from the U.S. House of Representatives
Monday.
The feasibility study is the first step in the creation of the new heritage
area, which supporters envision stretching from Cannon Beach up the Long
Beach Peninsula, and upriver to Cathlamet, Washington.
50 years ago — 1967
Tourists, vacationers and local residents in search of rec-
reational opportunities and facilities, especially during the
approaching summer season, can find no area with more to offer
pleasure-seekers than Astoria and Clatsop County.
The Lower Columbia region is abundant in historical trea-
sures and natural beauty and resources which provide countless
recreational opportunities for everyone.
Northwest Aluminum Co. is actively exploring possibility of establish-
ing a $142 million aluminum facility in Oregon, employing 1,000 Orego-
nians with an $8 million annual payroll.
This was announced Wednesday afternoon from Gov. Tom McCall’s
office.
The Governor’s Office said plant location in Oregon is subject to financ-
ing and engineering studies “but as of this time Astoria is the key prospect.”
Gov. Tom McCall added that Astoria seemed to be “far and away” the
prime choice.
The motel that caused the controversial so-called “dry-sands”
bill in the Legislature — Surfsand motel in Cannon Beach —
established its private enclosure on the beach Thursday.
Motel manager Gordon McRea said logs were placed Thurs-
day. They extend about 60 feet seaward from the seawall in front
of the year-old 31-unit motel.
The logs were put on the dry sand in the same location last
summer to allow a place where guests could use the beach pri-
vately. The result is now echoing through the Capitol in Salem
and up and down the coast and Willamette Valley.
Pieces of metal found by treasure digger Tony Mareno at Neahkahnie
turned out to be iron with some minor impurities, according to a spokesman
of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. Mareno, of
Salem and the father of seven, said last weekend he believed the metal spike
and L-shaped tool to be of either platinum or silver with an iron alloy.
Mareno said he is sure the legendary Spanish treasure is to be found on
the beach at Neahkahnie where he has been digging for two weeks.
75 years ago — 1942
“This day saw an appearance of a spacious harbour abreast
the Ship, haul’d wind for it, observ’d two sand bars making off,
with a passage between them to a fine river … The river extended
to the NE as far as eye cou’d reach, and water fit to drink as far
down as the Bars, at the entrance. We directed our course up this
noble river in search of a Village.”
So John Boit, supercargo on the ship Columbia, describes the
discovery of the mighty River of the West, ever since known as
the Columbia, 150 years ago today. The discovery was commem-
orated at a luncheon held today at the Astoria Hotel.
he obscene spectacle of House
Republicans gathering last
week in the Rose Garden to
celebrate the House’s passage of a
bill that would likely strip insurance
coverage from tens of millions of
Americans, while simultaneously
serving as a massive
tax break for the
wealthy, had the
callous feel of the
well-heeled dancing
on the poors’ graves.
Republicans had
painted themselves into a corner.
For seven years they had incessantly
defamed the Affordable Care Act as
nothing short of a dispatch from the
devil. They told their constituents
that they had a better plan, one that
provided everything people liked
about the ACA and eliminated every-
thing they didn’t.
As President Donald Trump
claimed in January, “We’re going to
have insurance for everybody.” He
continued, “There was a philosophy
in some circles that if you can’t pay
for it, you don’t get it. That’s not
going to happen with us.”
That, like so much else coming
from these folks’ mouths, was a lie.
The bill passed by the House
eliminates popular features like guar-
anteed price protections for people
with pre-existing conditions, by
allowing states to apply for waivers
to remove these protections. Instead
of universal insurance coverage,
regardless of whether one could
“pay for it” as Trump promised,
the bill would move in the opposite
direction, pricing millions out of
coverage.
The ACA had made a basic
societal deal: The young, healthy
and rich would subsidize access to
insurance for the older, sicker and
poorer. But this demanded that the
former gave a damn about the latter,
that people genuinely believed that
saving lives was more important than
saving money, that we weren’t living
some Darwinian “Hunger Games” of
health care where health and wealth
march in lockstep.
Once again, the party that is vehe-
mently “pro-life” for “persons” in
the womb demonstrates a staggering
lack of empathy for those very same
lives when they are in the world.
What is the moral logic here? It is
beyond me.
Let’s cut to the quick: Access to
affordable health care keeps people
alive and healthy and keeps families
solvent. Take that away, and people
get sick; run up enormous, crippling
debt; and, in the worst cases, die. It is
really that simple.
People may conveniently disas-
sociate a vote cast in marbled halls
from the body stretched out in a
wooden box, but make no mistake:
They are linked.
In House Speaker Paul Ryan’s
feckless attempt to defend this moral
AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump talks to House Speaker Paul Ryan in the
Rose Garden of the White House Thursday after the House pushed
through a health care bill.
abomination of a bill during his floor
speech last week, he said, “Let’s
give people more choices and more
control over their care.”
But this so-called restoration
of choice would be in practice, for
many, a sentence to death.
Republicans like the Idaho
congressman and House Freedom
Caucus member Rep. Raúl R.
Labrador deny this most basic of
truths. Labrador said last week at
a town hall, “Nobody dies because
they don’t have access to health
care.” It was a stunning expression
of idiocy.
People may
conveniently
disassociate
a vote cast in
marbled halls
from the body
stretched out
in a wooden
box, but make
no mistake:
They are
linked.
According to a 2009 study con-
ducted by Harvard Medical School
and Cambridge Health Alliance,
“nearly 45,000 annual deaths are
associated with lack of health insur-
ance,” and “uninsured, working-age
Americans have a 40 percent higher
risk of death than their privately
insured counterparts.”
An analysis last month by the
Center for American Progress esti-
mates removing price protections for
pre-existing conditions would mean
that “individuals with even relatively
mild pre-existing conditions would
pay thousands of dollars above stan-
dard rates to obtain coverage.”
Republicans are likely to pay
dearly for this outrage. Nate Silver
expressed his thoughts in a piece
headlined: “The Health Care Bill
Could Be A Job-Killer For GOP
Incumbents,” pointing out that
the Republican bill is even more
unpopular than the Affordable Care
Act was when it was being debated,
and if Republicans face the same
electoral backlash that Democrats
faced, “it could put dozens of
GOP-held seats in play.” Silver
acknowledges that there are “miti-
gating factors” that could soften the
blow for Republicans, but conversely
adds, “There’s even a chance that
Republicans could suffer a bigger
penalty than Democrats did.”
On Friday, The Cook Political
Report changed its ratings in 20
districts “all reflecting enhanced
opportunities for Democrats” and
pointed out:
“House Republicans’ willingness
to spend political capital on a pro-
posal that garnered the support of just
17 percent of the public in a March
Quinnipiac poll is consistent with
past scenarios that have generated a
midterm wave.”
Not only is the bill unpopular
among voters, it’s also unpopular
in the medical establishment. As
The New York Times reported on
Thursday: “It is a rare unifying
moment. Hospitals, doctors, health
insurers and some consumer groups,
with few exceptions, are speaking
with one voice and urging significant
changes to the Republican health
care legislation that passed the House
on Thursday.”
Whatever eventually comes of
the bill, the death threat it poses for
many Americans may well be a death
wish Republicans have just issued
for their own careers. As House
Democrats sang as their Republican
colleagues made their self-immolat-
ing votes: “Na, na, na, na, hey, hey,
hey, goodbye.”
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