OPINION
6A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 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
Hear women roar
T
he latter half of 2017 will be remembered as the time that
women all over the globe drew a line in the sand.
No longer will sexual harassment be endured silently.
No longer will abusers operate with impunity. No longer will
men dominate discussion and decision-making in boardrooms,
capitol buildings and households across the country. And no lon-
ger will the people who hear these stories demean the accus-
ers, and pick through their lives like vultures in search of rotten
meat.
Everyone in this country remains innocent until proven guilty.
But the onus is now on those who have been accused of heinous
acts — accused by people with nothing to gain but to bring some
sense of justice.
It’s an admirable, dangerous time.
Beware the court of public opinion. And beware a moral flat-
tening — where years of predatory behavior require the same
punishment as a poor choice of words or a momentary lapse.
Or a thoroughly reported article is given the same weight as a
Twitter accusation.
The sword is coming for people we admire for their art, or
athletic prowess, or their control of a corporate boardroom, or
for their political views that mesh so well with our own.
Beware then, too, the desire make sexual assault and harass-
ment just another partisan division. Find no additional joy from
the demise of an enemy, and do not give those who you admire
unfair protection from claims of abuse. That’s how this issue
became so prevalent and so powerful in the first place.
Politics certainly did play a part in the arrival of this moment.
Donald Trump’s electoral victory, despite his deeply problem-
atic relationships with women and his televised brags of sexual
assault, helped usher in this age. Charlotte Alter of Time mag-
azine wrote during the campaign that “the 2016 election was a
referendum on what women could achieve and what men could
get away with.”
A majority of Americans will no longer stand by the results
of that referendum, and want immediate action to remedy the
situation. The 2.6 million-strong Women’s March the day after
Trump’s inauguration put the pressure on.
That movement wasn’t just about sexual harassment and
assault. It’s ultimately about a fair society in which all view-
points are considered, and women are not held back when they
choose not to play games with powerful men.
And that has made us look at our own backyard.
Clatsop County shows real strength in terms of female rep-
resentation in many political positions. Four of our five county
commissioners are women. Astoria’s mayor is a woman, as are
two of the four city councilors. Two of Seaside six councilors are
women. In Gearhart, the council has two women and two men.
Cannon Beach and Warrenton each have one woman councilor.
Our legislators are women, led by the esteemed state Sen. Betsy
Johnson. All three Circuit Court judges are women. Our U.S.
representative is a woman.
Of major public bodies, only
the Port of Astoria lacks
On the state
female representation — per-
haps an artifact of its tra-
and national
ditional role in bolstering
levels, we
heavy industry.
All this is in sharp con-
must do
trast to northeastern Oregon,
better. There
where our sister publication
the East Oregonian counts
is little
little female leadership in
semblance
top positions. No woman
of equality.
has ever represented Eastern
Oregon in the statehouse.
Women across
Oregon has only elected one
the political
female U.S. senator in its his-
tory. And with the excep-
spectrum
tion of our local Suzanne
should
Bonamici, all of Oregon’s
current representatives in the
demand their
U.S. House are men.
rightful power
Northwestern Oregon
and take it.
— and particularly Clatsop
County — can take pride in
our record of gender equality
in elective offices. Women
also are well represented here in private industry.
Does this mean we can declare local victory? Certainly not,
because the victories of today must constantly be defended by
women and men alike. It is certain that women have played a
large role in Clatsop County’s economic successes in recent
years, along with our balanced approach to a host of social
issues. As our colleagues in Pendleton noted last week, if only
half of our population makes important decisions, those deci-
sions are bound to be half as good. Clatsop County is made
much stronger by welcoming women at every level of leadership
and society.
On the state and national levels, we must do better. There is
little semblance of equality. Women across the political spectrum
should demand their rightful power and take it.
Will these GOP senators
stand by their principles?
By DAVID LEONHARDT
New York Times News Service
A
small number of Republicans
— fewer than 10 — will
probably determine the fate
of the Trump tax
plan. The group
includes five
senators who have
been independent
enough in recent
months to defy
their party leaders,
not just with words but actions, as
well as a couple who may be newly
willing to do so.
John McCain helped defeat the
Republican health care bill, in pro-
test of its secretive, rushed process.
Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski
voted against the same bill because
they believed that middle-class and
poor families had a right to health
care access. Jeff Flake and Bob
Corker ended their Senate careers
rather than fully submitting to
Trumpism. Then there are the two
showing new signs of independence:
James Lankford of Oklahoma and
Jerry Moran of Kansas.
The tax bill is a test of all of
them. For progressives, the bill is an
easy call. It’s a huge tax cut for the
wealthy, partly paid for with mid-
dle-class tax increases. For the same
reason, the bill is deeply unpopular
with voters.
But the Republican senators are
in a tough spot. They are philosoph-
ically conservative. They believe in
low taxes and small government.
They share this belief with their
Republican colleagues, their polit-
ical base back home and, yes, their
donors.
Yet all of the potential swing sen-
ators have a problem: This tax bill
also contains provisions that betray
their stated principles.
For McCain, the principle is the
Senate itself. His current term is
probably his last, given his cancer
diagnosis, and he has been making
a righteous stand on the behalf of
the Senate — that it should aspire
to greatness rather than operating
as a banana-republic legislature that
rams through bills.
The tax bill violates that stand.
Almost as an afterthought, it
includes a major change to the
health care system — the repeal of
the individual mandate. The Senate
has not held hearings where experts
weighed the pros and cons, talked
about unintended consequences
and looked for (to quote a recent
McCain speech) “compromises that
each side criticize but also accept.”
For that matter, neither the House
nor Senate has held serious hearings
on any part of the tax plan. No other
modern piece of major legislation
has ever been so rushed — except
AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
Senate Finance Committee member Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., front,
with, from left, Sens. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., John Cornyn, R-Texas,
and Chairman Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, speaks to reporters following a
meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday.
for the health care bill that McCain
doomed. Congressional leaders are
rushing this bill because they know
it’s unpopular, and their haste is
making a mockery of the institution
that McCain holds dear.
For Collins and Murkowski, the
principle is health care. More specif-
ically, it’s decent health care for the
working-class families who domi-
nate their home states of Maine and
Alaska. The two of them were the
most consistent Senate opponents
of the bills this year that would have
taken insurance away from millions.
I do think
it’s fair to
expect them
to vote only
for bills that
are consistent
with those
principles. This
tax bill is not
— not even
close.
Now the tax bill threatens to
undo some of their good work.
The repeal of the mandate would
create turmoil in insurance markets,
because fewer healthy people would
sign up for coverage, raising prices
for everyone else. Collins opposes
the measure for that reason, while
Murkowski supports it if it’s paired
with other measures to stabilize
health markets. But those measures
would need to be sweeping to make
up for the damage.
Then there are Corker, Flake,
Lankford and Moran. Their prin-
ciple is the deficit. “We don’t want
to increase the debt and deficit as
a result of tax cuts,” Moran said.
If the bill adds “one penny to the
deficit,” Corker said he wouldn’t
support it.
The current Senate plan adds
more than 100 trillion pennies to the
deficit in the first decade, according
to the official estimate. And that
estimate is probably low, because
the plan depends on a budgetary
gimmick. The bill’s authors set the
most popular tax cuts to expire,
knowing that a future Congress
may extend them. Corker and Flake
have correctly called out this ruse.
They and their colleagues would
undermine any claim to fiscal con-
servatism if they voted for any bill
that resembles the current one.
So what are the senators going
to do?
I hope that they do not fold
because doing so — doing what
President Donald Trump and Sen.
Mitch McConnell want — is the
easier political path. I dearly hope
they do not follow the cynical
tactics of a few of their colleagues
who have made a show of opposing
a Trump-backed bill only to change
positions after being offered a
fig leaf of change. U.S. Sen. Ron
Johnson of Wisconsin and Rep.
Tom MacArthur of New Jersey have
each done so more than once this
year, and now it’s hard to take either
seriously.
None of us should expect sen-
ators to vote only for bills that we
personally support. They have their
own beliefs and principles. But I do
think it’s fair to expect them to vote
only for bills that are consistent with
those principles. This tax bill is not
— not even close.
WHERE TO WRITE
• U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
(D): 439 Cannon House Office
Building, Washington, D.C., 20515.
Phone: 202- 225-0855. Fax 202-225-
9497. District office: 12725 SW Mil-
likan Way, Suite 220, Beaverton, OR
97005. Phone: 503-469-6010. Fax
503-326-5066. Web: bonamici.house.
gov/
• U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D): 313
Hart Senate Office Building, Wash-
ington, D.C. 20510. Phone: 202-224-
3753. Web: www.merkley.senate.gov
• U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D):
221 Dirksen Senate Office Building,
Washington, D.C., 20510. Phone:
202-224-5244. Web: www.wyden.
senate.gov
• State Rep. Brad Witt (D): State
Capitol, 900 Court Street N.E., H-373,
Salem, OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-
1431. Web: www.leg.state.or.us/witt/
Email: rep.bradwitt@state.or.us
• State Rep. Deborah Boone (D):
900 Court St. N.E., H-481, Salem,
OR 97301. Phone: 503-986-1432.
Email: rep.deborah boone@state.
or.us District office: P.O. Box 928,
Cannon Beach, OR 97110. Phone:
503-986-1432. Web: www.leg.state.
or.us/ boone/
• State Sen. Betsy Johnson (D):
State Capitol, 900 Court St. N.E.,
S-314, Salem, OR 97301. Telephone:
503-986-1716. Email: sen.betsy john-
son@state.or.us Web: www.betsy-
johnson.com District Office: P.O.
Box R, Scappoose, OR 97056. Phone:
503-543-4046. Fax: 503-543-5296.
Astoria office phone: 503-338-1280.
• Port of Astoria: Executive
Director, 10 Pier 1 Suite 308, Asto-
ria, OR 97103. Phone: 503-741-3300.
Email: admin@portofastoria.com
• Clatsop County Board of Com-
missioners: c/o County Manager, 800
Exchange St., Suite 410, Astoria, OR
97103. Phone: 503-325-1000.