OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2017
Founded in 1873
HEIDI WRIGHT, Interim Publisher
JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Editor
JEREMY FELDMAN, Circulation Manager
DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
CARL EARL, Systems Manager
OUR VIEW
Billionaires desperately need our help!
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF
New York Times News Service
t is so hard to be a billionaire
these days!
A new yacht can cost $300
million. And you
wouldn’t believe
what a pastry chef
earns — and if you
hire just one, to
work weekdays,
how can you
possibly survive on
weekends?
The investment income on,
say, a $4 billion fortune is a mere
$1 million a day, which makes it
tough to scrounge by with today’s
rising prices. Why, some wealthy
folks don’t even have a home in the
Caribbean and on vacation are stuck
brooding in hotel suites: They’re
practically homeless!
Fortunately, President Donald
Trump and the Republicans are
coming along with some desperately
needed tax relief for billionaires.
Thank God for this lifeline to
struggling tycoons. And it’s carefully
crafted to focus the benefits on the
truly deserving — the affluent who
earn their tax breaks with savvy
investments in politicians.
For example, eliminating the
estate tax would help the roughly
5,500 Americans who now owe this
tax each year, one-fifth of 1 percent
of all Americans who die annually.
Ending the tax would help upstand-
ing people like the Trumps who owe
their financial success to brilliant life
choices, such as picking the uterus in
which they were conceived.
Now it’s fair to complain that
the tax plan overall doesn’t give
needy billionaires quite as much as
they deserve. For example, the top 1
percent receive only a bit more than
25 percent of the total tax cuts in the
Senate bill, according to the Institute
on Taxation and Economic Policy.
Really? Only 25 times their share
of the population? After all those
dreary $5,000-a-plate dinners sup-
porting politicians? If politicians had
any guts, they’d just slash services
I
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Dave Strickland repairs fishing equipment, a task many new crew
members are unwilling or unable to perform.
New generation of
fishermen key to local
culture, economy
etting to know the fishermen and crabbers of the
Columbia-Pacific region is a lesson in respect for tradi-
tion, the environment and the future. No one has a better
sense for how humanity’s wellbeing is bound up with that of the
natural world. This is a major reason why we all should advocate
for success in the efforts described in our Thursday story about
bringing up the next generation of fishermen.
This is a vital and often lucrative occupation — one deeply
ingrained in local culture and history — in which job openings
have become difficult to fill. Our story about the “graying of the
fleet” described many of the key reasons for this trend:
• In a time of near full employment on the coast, fishing com-
petes with industries that offer safer, more comfortable, less sea-
sonal work.
• Most commercial fishing boats are, in effect, small busi-
nesses in a time of tighter financing and regulations.
• The costs of gear, permitting, insurance and regulatory com-
pliance all have increased faster than the ex-vessel price of most
fisheries products.
• Though still regarded locally as an honorable — in some
ways even prestigious — career, commercial fishing gets much
bad press. The whole industry is tarnished when word spreads
about indiscriminate overfishing by foreign vessels, whale entan-
glements, and resource-allocation fights like the one that resulted
in banning gillnets from the Columbia’s main stem.
• Being a fisherman can entail long hours and sacrifices of
family time that a younger generation may be unwilling to
accommodate.
Weighted against these factors is fishing’s timeless appeal to
independent-minded entrepreneurs and adventurers. Those who
get fishing into their souls and blood can’t imagine a better life
than working in close harmony with the ocean and river.
An October 2017 article by John Cappetta in the online mag-
azine Hakai (tinyurl.com/Teach-Kids-to-Fish) provides an elo-
quent statement about why we all should care about whether
fishing survives as a career: The
“ultimate goal is to restore and
protect coastal ecosystems so peo-
Fishing
ple can live off them again. Ethical
and engaged fishers are integral
has been
to that vision — they’re potential
key to our
allies in taking the ocean’s pulse.”
economy
In other words, smart fishermen
take good care of the resources on
and culture.
which they depend, and can help
It will take
lead all of us on a path toward wise
ocean stewardship.
our full
The industry is right to par-
attention
ticipate in job fairs and start tak-
ing other active steps to recruit
to ensure
new fishermen and women. A new
it remains
state task force on maritime sec-
so in the
tor workforce development is a
good move, along with normaliz-
future.
ing the status of maritime jobs with
a formal classification in Oregon’s
employment division. Forming
community fishing associations like one now getting off the
ground in Ilwaco and Chinook is another good way to clear a
path for younger fishermen.
Our communities will be wise to support all of this. We must
work together with the industry to specifically address each of
the factors that discourage a new generation from going to sea.
Fishing has been key to our economy and culture. It will take
our full attention to ensure it remains so in the future.
G
for low-income families so as to
finance tax breaks for billionaires.
Oh, wait, that’s exactly what’s
happening!
Trump understands, for example,
that health insurance isn’t all that
important for the riffraff. So he and
the Senate GOP have again targeted
Obamacare, this time by trying to
repeal the insurance mandate. The
Congressional Budget Office says
this will result in 13 million fewer
people having health insurance.
But what’s the big deal? The
United States already has an infant
mortality rate twice that of Austria
and South Korea. American women
are already five times as likely to die
in pregnancy or childbirth as women
in Britain. So who’ll notice if things
get a bit worse?
The tax bill
underscores a
political truth:
There’s nothing
wrong with
redistribution
when it’s
done right.
Perhaps that sounds harsh. But the
blunt reality is that we risk soul-suck-
ing dependency if we’re always set-
ting kids’ broken arms. Maybe that’s
why congressional Republicans
haven’t bothered to renew funding
for CHIP, the child health insurance
program serving almost 9 million
American kids. Ditto for the maternal
and home visiting programs that are
the gold standard for breaking cycles
of poverty and that also haven’t
been renewed. We mustn’t coddle
American toddlers.
Hey, if American infants really
want health care, they’ll pick them-
selves up by their bootee straps and
Uber over to an emergency room.
Congressional Republicans
understand that we can’t do
everything for everybody. We have
to make hard choices. Congress
understands that kids are resilient
and can look after themselves, so we
must focus on the most urgent needs,
such as those of hand-to-mouth
billionaires.
In fairness, Congress has histor-
ically understood this mission. The
tax code subsidizes moguls with
private jets while the carried interest
tax break gives a huge tax discount
to striving private equity zillionaires.
Meanwhile, a $13 billion annual
subsidy for corporate meals and
entertainment gives ditch diggers the
satisfaction of buying Champagne
for financiers.
Our political leaders are so under-
standing because we appear to have
the wealthiest Congress we’ve ever
had, with a majority of members now
millionaires, so they understand the
importance of cutting health for the
poor to show support for the crème
de la crème.
Granted, the GOP tax plan will
add to the deficit, forcing additional
borrowing. But if the tax cut passes,
automatic “pay as you go” rules
may helpfully cut $25 billion from
Medicare spending next year, thus
saving money on elderly people
who are practically dead anyway.
If poor kids have to suffer, we may
as well make poor seniors suffer as
well. That’s called a balanced policy.
More broadly, you have to look
at the reason for deficits. Yes, it’s
problematic to borrow to pay for,
say, higher education or cancer
screenings. But what’s the prob-
lem with borrowing $1.5 trillion
to invest in urgent tax relief for
billionaires?
Anyway, at some point down the
road we’ll find a way to pay back
the debt by cutting a wasteful pro-
gram for runny-nose kids who aren’t
smart enough to hire lobbyists.
There must be some kids’ program
that still isn’t on the chopping block.
The tax bill underscores a polit-
ical truth: There’s nothing wrong
with redistribution when it’s done
right.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
No docs available
ecently my husband and I
moved to the Seaside area
to retire. We love our new home,
neighbors and the city. We have
unfortunately run into a big prob-
lem that I believe many retirees have
experienced: We cannot find a health
care provider who will take us as
new patients.
No reason to list the obvious
problem this causes, but what are
we to do if we are sick? Drive two
hours to our old physician? This is a
sad commentary not only on physi-
cians who refuse Medicare patients,
but also Medicare for reimbursing at
such a low percentage.
Something must give, as the larg-
est percentage of Americans on
Medicare need access to local health
care. Shame on the government for
seeing no value in the elderly, and
on physicians for their greed.
LINDSEY MORRISON
Seaside
R
Gimme shelter
wake at 4 a.m. Monday morn-
ing. No electricity. I feel my way
down the stairs to the phone, and
call in the outage. I’m told there are
outages all over the county, and that
35 of my neighbors in Brownsmead
have also reported in. Just 35. Not
good. We’ve probably been placed
at the end of the line.
I go back to bed, but can’t sleep
knowing that when I do get up for
the day, I won’t be able to have my
I
toast and coffee fix, and I won’t be
able to turn on the telly to watch the
morning news.
It’s the fourth outage here since
August, and I’m well on the way
to feeling sorry for myself when …
I suddenly imagine myself on the
other side of these bedroom walls,
out in that driving rain, with no bed
or roof to shelter me.
In two days, if the weather dic-
tates, I’ll be volunteering at the
Astoria Warming Center on its first
night of the shelter’s winter season.
I’ll do my best not to feel embar-
rassed by those coming in to shel-
ter for the night — men and women
who were probably out there Mon-
day morning in that driving rain,
while I was at home feeling sorry for
myself and cursing Pacific Power.
JULIE SNYDER
Brownsmead
Giving thanks
he American day of thanks-
giving is even older than the
nation itself. Various dates have
been suggested for being the first,
but credit is usually given to the
feast of thanksgiving celebrated
by the Mayflower Pilgrims and
Wampanoag Indians in 1621 at the
Plymouth Colony in what is now
Massachusetts.
In a sense, it became a unique
American holiday when George
Washington and Congress pro-
claimed a national day of thanks-
giving in 1789. Their document of
T
proclamation states:
“Whereas it is the duty of all
Nations to acknowledge the prov-
idence of Almighty God, to obey
his will, to be grateful for his bene-
fits, and humbly implore his protec-
tion and favor (we) recommend to
the People of the United States a day
of public thanksgiving and prayer
to be observed by acknowledging
with grateful hearts the many signal
favors of Almighty God.”
President Washington was right.
God has blessed this nation, and we
should pause and give him thanks
for his generosity and goodness.
Thanks for this wonderful land
with its freedoms and opportunities.
Thanks for the food and other neces-
sities we so often take for granted.
Thanks for our military and military
veterans, who serve and sacrifice so
that we may be free.
Thanks for the police and fire
personnel, and their efforts to protect
us and our property. For the doctors
and nurses and other professionals
who serve us in our health needs. I
personally need to thank him for my
wife, family, friends, church family,
health, and a nice house that is warm
in the winter and cool in the sum-
mer. Also, thanks for more material
things than I’ll ever use.
Make your own list — the bless-
ings are almost endless. Thank you
Lord.
“Let us come before his presence
with thanksgiving” Psalms 95:2
KEN TIPPS
Scappoose