THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2017
FRIDAY EXCHANGE
5A
Church and state
wo weeks ago the Ales & Ideas
crew put on an enlightening
and well-attended panel discus-
sion addressing church/state sep-
aration. The event, “Imperiled:
Church/State Separation in Amer-
ica,” focused on several of the more
egregious attempts by President
Donald Trump’s administration
to breach the wall of separation.
From the feedback I received, it’s
clear many people understand and
respect the importance of maintain-
ing a healthy separation between
the church and state.
Issues like allowing a baker to
refuse customers based on their sex-
ual identities, and allowing tax dol-
lars to support private schools are
not just illegal, but they’re plain
wrong. Unfortunately, compared
with more pressing issues, church/
state separation isn’t a priority for
many people, and we often don’t
realize our rights are in jeopardy
until it’s too late.
Write to your representatives.
Let them know how you feel about
our First Amendment right of keep-
ing the religious and secular sepa-
rate. Be vigilant.
ED JOYCE
Astoria
T
Fighting hunger
ear friends and neighbors:
Imagine our community with-
out hunger; we can, and we hope
you can, too. Our South County
Food Bank, a local food pantry,
works seven days a week to pro-
vide emergency food and hope
to over 1,000 community mem-
bers each month. Each year, over
250,000 pounds of food is coordi-
nated, collected, sorted, set out and
individually distributed, one on one,
by volunteers to our most vulnera-
ble friends and neighbors living in
our area.
We need your help now to con-
tinue this essential work. For the
first time, we are sending out a
call to action brochure, in the mail,
to all residents in South County.
Please take the time to read it and
get to know the good work of your
food pantry and the enormous chal-
lenge we are facing around the most
basic need for any person: nutri-
tious food.
For more information about our
good work, stop by our new build-
ing at 2041 N. Roosevelt Drive, call
503-738-9800, go online to www.
seasidefoodbank.org or follow us
on Facebook at www.facebook.
com/seasideoregonfoodpantry
We sincerely thank you for your
continued help and support as we
work toward a community without
hunger.
MARY BLAKE
Board member, South County
Food Bank
Seaside
D
Missing the point?
he recent flurry of sexual mis-
conduct allegations prompts
me to wonder whether we’re over-
T
looking merit while condemning
the misbehaviors of Roy Moore,
Al Franken, Ben Affleck, Har-
vey Weinstein, George H.W. Bush,
Kevin Spacey and Louis C. K.
I don’t condone their bad deeds,
and they certainly deserve our
scorn and owe us meaningful apol-
ogies, along with behavioral cor-
rection. But does that misconduct,
past or present, preclude their abil-
ity to competently perform the tasks
they’re known for?
Roy Moore may well be sex-
ually deviant, but I’m more con-
cerned about his ability to repre-
sent 3,330,802 Alabamians in the
U.S. Senate. What about other
issues like his record on race,
being twice removed from the Ala-
bama Supreme Court, espousing
anti-Muslim and anti-gay views,
and affiliating with white nationalist
groups? Those issues should matter
more as voters consider whether to
check an R or a D in December.
And what about performers
like Affleck? Does his indiscretion
somehow impede the Oscar-win-
ner’s ability to occupy center stage,
providing serious or amusing dra-
matic moments? After all, Presi-
dent Donald Trump has tweeted
how much he’s looking forward to
Affleck’s yet-to-be released Bat-
man film.
During a Nov. 16 interview on
“The Late Show with Stephen Col-
bert,” Affleck affirmed that men
should be much more mindful
of their behavior toward women
and hold themselves account-
able, becoming part of the solution.
They could, he asserted, achieve a
redemption of sorts.
Despite the disturbing revela-
tions, some redeemed celebrity men
could actually serve as role mod-
els, despite their blemished reputa-
tions. Maybe too many of us have
shrunk our perspectives about those
notables to preclude something pos-
itive that may come of their course
corrections.
Just wondering.
ROBERT BRAKE
Ocean Park, Washington
Having it both ways
hank you for the editorial about
building our economy (“Ore-
gon governor should confront cli-
mate change in ways that help
economy, as well as environment,”
The Daily Astorian, Nov. 20). I’m
delighted that Oregon and other
states acknowledge climate change,
and want to support more sustain-
able, resilient state economies.
It’s great that Gov. Kate Brown
attended the United Nation’s global
climate change conference in Ger-
many. I applaud Sens. Ron Wyden
and Jeff Merkley’s support of the
Paris climate accords and efforts
to publicize the issue and mobi-
lize Oregonians and others to get
active.
And yet, and yet … Brown,
Merkley and Wyden refuse to
speak out to oppose the Jordan
Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG)
export terminal and pipeline pro-
posed for Coos Bay and five Ore-
gon counties. It’s such a bad fossil
fuel proposal that even the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission
turned it down, but, as in all things
with massive potential profits, it’s
T
back with tweaks to its application
and with the support of President
Donald Trump’s administration.
Oregonians have been fighting
this proposal for about 13 years,
costing opponents money, work,
anguish and trust in their elected
leaders. It took nearly 12 years to
defeat the two LNG terminals and
pipelines proposed for Clatsop
County; southern Oregon has no
end in sight to their fight.
It appears Brown, Merkley
and Wyden want it both ways:
to protect our planet from fos-
sil fuels and to aid in the damage
and destruction of our state and
planet from fossil fuels. It’s pos-
sible they believe the industry’s
illusory promises about new jobs;
or choose to ignore the booming
growth in green energy jobs across
the country and world; or don’t
want to offend their traditional
campaign donors; or are embracing
hypocrisy.
Such a shame for three such tal-
ented people to miss this significant
opportunity to promote Oregon as
a leader of this nation’s turn to a
green economy. What will it take
for them to take a stand against Jor-
dan Cove?
LAURIE CAPLAN
Astoria
Toys for Tots time
rom 2006 through 2009, I was
honored to have coordinated
the Marine Corps League Detach-
ment 1228 Toys for Tots toy drive
in and around Clatsop County.
During that period of time, my
after action reports show that our
F
detachment distributed 15,425 toys
to the families in Clatsop County.
This was done by volunteers
working at the Clatsop County
Fairgrounds, and those who drove
to outlying areas and delivered toys
to schools, churches, meeting halls,
veterans organizations, police and
fire departments. All of these peo-
ple then helped give the toys to the
families and their children. A great
effort by all.
In 2010, the Marine Corps
League continued to this day, col-
lecting and distributing toys to chil-
dren all over Clatsop County. The
local league is known as the Daniel
E. Crockett Marine Corps League.
The present commander is Lou
Neubecker who resides in Sea-
side, with his lovely wife, Beverly.
Coordinator Neubecker has carried
on the fine tradition of Toys for
Tots in Clatsop County with strong
assistance from the members of the
league.
I am asking the community to
continue to support the Toys for
Tots by locating one of the many
Toys for Tots boxes in your area
and help fill it with packages of
new toys for all ages, from baby to
18 years old. For information on
locating a box, or seeking a league
member to pick up your donation,
please call Lou or Beverly Neu-
becker at 503-717-0152 or 501-
717-2269 (cell). As Lou is involved
with the Veterans of Foreign Wars
and the Seaside American Legion,
he is an excellent contact for your
donation of toys. Thank you and
Semper Fi.
MEL JASMIN
Warrenton
Lies, incoherence and rage on tax cuts
By PAUL KRUGMAN
New York Times News Service
O
ne thing you can count on
in 21st-century U.S. politics
is that Republicans will lie
about taxes. They
did it under George
W. Bush, they did
it under Barack
Obama and they’re
still doing it under
Donald Trump.
Yet this time
is different. It’s not just that the
lies have gotten even more brazen.
There’s now a combination of inco-
herence and rage that we, or at least
I, haven’t seen before. These days,
they can’t even seem to get their
fake story straight — and they liter-
ally start yelling obscenities when
someone tries to point out the facts.
GOP lies about taxes generally
involve two issues: who is hurt or
helped by tax changes, and what
these changes will do to the budget.
Thus, when Bush cut taxes in
2001 and 2003, he and his party
repeatedly insisted that the tax cuts
were primarily for the middle class.
In fact, while there were some mid-
dle-class tax breaks in the package,
such as an increase in the child tax
credit, these were dwarfed by cuts in
tax rates on high incomes, reduced
taxes on dividends and repeal of the
estate tax. Overall, the richest 1 per-
cent saw a much larger increase in
after-tax income than middle-class
families did.
At the same time, the Bush
administration used a series of gim-
micks to hide the true fiscal cost of
the plan, such as delaying the imple-
AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
House Speaker Paul Ryan, joined by House Republicans, speaks to
the media following a vote on tax reform, on Capitol Hill in Washing-
ton last week.
mentation of some tax cuts while
pretending that others would expire
when the actual intention was to
make them permanent.
When Obama took office, these
tricks were simply flipped on their
head. Republicans insisted, falsely,
that Obama had imposed a “massive
tax increase” on the middle class; in
fact, for the most part he actually cut
middle-class taxes. Meanwhile, they
insisted that the surge in the bud-
get deficit caused by the aftermath
of the 2008 financial crisis was per-
manent, and ridiculed the Obama
administration’s claims that deficits
would fall sharply once crisis spend-
ing ended and tax receipts recov-
ered; in fact, that’s exactly what
happened.
What’s different?
So what’s different this time?
As in the Bush years, Republicans
are claiming to be offering a mid-
dle-class tax cut. But where Bush
truly was cutting taxes on the mid-
dle class, just much less than he
was on the wealthy, current Repub-
lican plans would raise those taxes
on many lower- and middle-income
families, even as they go down for
the wealthy. (Steven Mnuchin, the
Treasury secretary, claims that only
“million-dollar earners” would see
tax increases. This is the opposite of
the truth.)
Oh, and a memo to journalists: If
you play it safe by reporting this as
“Democrats say” that middle-class
taxes will go up, you’re misleading
your readers: Those estimates come
from the Joint Committee on Tax-
ation, Congress’ own nonpartisan
scorekeeper.
How can Republicans like Paul
Ryan, the speaker of the House, pre-
tend to be helping the middle class?
It depends crucially on a new kind
of budget gimmick: Both the House
and Senate tax-cut bills do contain
some middle-class tax breaks — but
only for the first few years. Then
they expire.
Take one of Ryan’s favorite
examples, a family with two chil-
dren and earning $59,000 a year.
That family would indeed get a
tax break next year. But the break
would rapidly dwindle and turn into
a tax increase by 2024.
The Republican response is to
claim that these tax breaks wouldn’t
really expire, that Congress would
eventually renew them. That’s quite
doubtful — and even if true, it
means that the tax plans would add
much more to the national debt than
the GOP admits. Which brings me
to the whole budget deficit issue.
Deeply concerned
Not long ago, leading Repub-
licans claimed to be deeply con-
cerned about budget deficits. Only
fools and centrists took the Republi-
cans seriously. Still, the abrupt shift
to nonchalance about adding tril-
lions to the debt in order to cut taxes
on corporations and the wealthy
is causing a bit of whiplash even
among cynics. How do they justify
the shift?
Well, they don’t seem to have
settled on a story. Mnuchin keeps
asserting that tax cuts will pay for
themselves, going so far as to claim
(falsely) that Treasury has released
a study showing this. Mick Mul-
vaney, the budget director, cheer-
fully acknowledges that they’re
using gimmicks to pass a bill that
permanently cuts taxes on corpora-
tions, and not to worry. Whatever
works, it seems.
So we’re really looking at an
unprecedented level of dishon-
esty here. But what happens when
you try to explain what’s going on?
When Sen. Sherrod Brown tried to
point out, correctly, that the Sen-
ate GOP’s tax bill heavily favors
the rich, Sen. Orrin Hatch exploded,
calling it “bull crap” and asserting
that he grew up poor (which is rele-
vant why, exactly?).
Sorry, but this isn’t the righteous
anger of a man falsely accused of
wrongdoing. It’s the rage con men
always exhibit when caught out in
their con.
But what’s the con about? The
very incoherence of the arguments
Republicans are making for their
plans shows that it’s not about help-
ing the economy, let alone ordinary
families. It really is about making
the rich richer, at everyone else’s
expense. If this be bull crap, make
the most of it.