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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 2017)
OPINION 4A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2017 Founded in 1873 KARI BORGEN, Publisher JIM VAN NOSTRAND, Editor 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 Power was still out to thousands of homes and businesses on the North Coast Tuesday after a mega-storm with winds of up to 100 mph laid waste to the region Sunday and Monday. Some old timers said it was almost as bad as the Columbus Day storm in 1962 — and certainly a longer duration. The sustained blast of bad weather left a swath of devastation in its wake in Clatsop and Washington’s Pacific counties with scores of severely damaged storefronts in Astoria and Seaside. Hundreds of homes lost roofs and tiles when the sustained winds of 85 mph buffeted the region for sev- eral hours. As highways gradually reopen and power companies work to energize local substations, the worst of the storm appears to have passed. However, 9-1-1 phone lines remain down, cold weather is on the way, and it could still be a week before all residential power is restored, county leaders heard at an Emergency Operations Center meeting Tuesday morning. “The heat of the crisis is over,” said Astoria Mayor Willis Van Dusen. “Now we need endurance. It will be several days until things are back to a comfortable level. The “Voices in the Dark” — the local radio stations and broadcasters who have guided us through the “Storm of ‘07” and its aftermath — have definitely proven their worth this week. On the FM dial, they’ve been there all along. Local public radio station KMUN 91.9 of Astoria “stepped up to the plate,” according to station manager Dave Hammock. And despite a giant tree falling into the building, plus numerous tech- nical problems, the station was able to broadcast 24/7, with their staff of volunteers providing much-needed news and information. “When something like this happens, it’s not about being the alterna- tive radio station or diversity — for this week, we are a primary commu- nications conduit,” Hammock said. “And we take that responsibility very, very seriously.” 50 years ago — 1967 The Daily Astorian/File ‘The worst disaster ever to hit Cannon Beach,’ Mayor Gerald Gow- er said after the flood subsided and left logs and other debris over much of the small resort city. “The worst disaster ever to hit Cannon Beach” pounded ashore Saturday, flooding that city of 520 persons with water three feet deep for a period of six hours. Gov. Tom McCall is expected to decide this afternoon whether to declare the area a disaster zone, authorizing emer- gency state services. Water began creeping into low-lying areas about 9 a.m. on the rising tide, then rapidly filled the downtown area with three feet of water. Battering waves undermined seawalls and sent huge logs three to four blocks inland. Logs and other debris went through beach front windows. One motel manager reported $15,000 damage. Other areas of the county were flooded also, according to reports. Water overflowed many dikes. Heavy seas crumpled a lifeboat on the wheelhouse deck of the huge oil tanker Utah Standard during its entry into the Columbia River Thurs- day afternoon on the ebb tide. Bar pilot Capt. R.W. Gibson said water from breakers on the bar washed “over the top” of the midships superstructure and described the crossing as one of the worst he has made in the past two or three years. The Standard Oil company tanker was headed for Portland and arrived there at 11:30 p.m. Flood damage from Saturday’s storm was being assessed Monday and Tuesday with a report from Clatsop County com- mission chairman Hiram Johnson the damages could reach a $250,000 total loss in the county. Bulk of the loss was suffered in Cannon Beach, hardest hit by the churning seas and three-foot flood. Monday afternoon, Gov. Tom McCall declared Clatsop County a disaster area for emergency loan purposes. NEHALEM – Nehalem suffered its worst flooding over the weekend since 1933, when all bridges were washed out and water reached door knob level. 75 years ago — 1942 The long-awaited mileage rationing finally went into effect today, and rationing headquarters in the old city hall were crowded with applicants for supplementary ration cards for trucks and passenger cars and by gasoline and oil company representatives who also registered today. Republicans are now coming for your benefits By PAUL KRUGMAN New York Times News Service R epublicans don’t care about budget deficits, and never did. They only pretend to care about deficits when one of two things is true: a Democrat is in the White House, and deficit rhetoric can be used to block his agenda, or they see an opportunity to slash social pro- grams that help needy Americans, and can invoke deficits as an excuse. All of this has been obvious for years to anyone paying attention. So it’s not at all surprising that they were willing to enact a huge tax cut for corporations and the wealthy even though all independent estimates said this would add more than $1 trillion to the national debt. And it was also predictable that they would return to deficit posturing as soon as the deed was done, citing the red ink they themselves produced as a reason to cut social spending. Yet even the most cynical among us are startled both by how quickly the bait-and-switch is proceeding and by the contempt Republicans are showing for the public’s intelligence. In fact, the switch began even before the marks swallowed the bait. During the Senate debate over the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was challenged over support for the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which covers 9 million U.S. children — but whose funding lapsed two months ago, and has not been renewed. Hatch declared his support for the program, but insisted that “the reason CHIP’s having trou- ble is because we don’t have money anymore” — just before voting for a trillion-and-a-half-dollar tax cut that will deliver the bulk of its benefits to the richest few percent of the population. He then went on to say, “I have a rough time wanting to spend billions and billions and trillions of dollars to help people who won’t help themselves, won’t lift a finger and expect the federal government to do everything.” So who, exactly, was he talking about, and which programs are con- suming these billions and billions and trillions? Was he talking about food stamps, most of whose beneficiaries are children, elderly or disabled? (And many of the rest are working hard, just not earning enough to get by.) Was he talking about the AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, chairman of the tax-writing Finance Com- mittee, talks to reporters about the GOP effort to overhaul the tax code. earned-income tax credit, which rewards only those who work? Was he talking about Medicaid, which again mainly benefits chil- dren, the elderly and the disabled, plus people who work hard but whose jobs don’t provide health benefits? We can go on down the list. The simple fact is that big spending on people who “won’t lift a finger” doesn’t actually happen in America — only in Hatch’s mean-spirited imagination. The hypocrisy and contempt for the public ... is just the beginning. Now, to be fair, there are some people in America who get lots of money they didn’t lift a finger to earn — namely, inheritors of large estates. Strange to say, however, Republican legislation would give these people much more — indeed, billions and billions of dollars — without requiring any additional effort on their part. The House version of the big tax cut would eliminate the estate tax; the Senate version would double the level of wealth exempted from the tax, to $22.4 million for a couple. How can this be justified if it’s supposedly hard to find money for children’s health care? Well, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, explained it all last week: “I think not having the estate tax recognizes the people that are investing, as opposed to those that are just spending every darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or women or movies.” Hmm. Somehow, I don’t think limiting spending on booze, women, and movies (movies?) is going to be sufficient for the median American household — which had an income of $59,000 last year — to end up with a $22 million estate. And if you think of people who really will benefit from eliminating taxes on inheritance — people like, say, Donald Trump Jr. — one is not immediately struck by the notion that this is a reward for their fathers’ abstemious lifestyles. The important thing to realize, however, is that the hypocrisy and contempt for the public we’ve seen in the past few days is just the beginning. It has been widely noted that the tax bills enacted by the House and Senate are remarkably unfriendly to the middle class — in fact, the Senate bill, once fully phased in, would actually raise taxes on a majority of middle-class families. But that observation captures only a small part of what is about to happen to ordinary, hardworking Americans. For budget deficits are going to soar thanks to Republican leg- islation — probably by even more than the official scorekeepers say, because the legislation creates so many new loopholes. And offsetting those deficits will require going after the true big-ticket programs, namely Medicare and Social Security. Oh, they’ll find euphemisms to describe what they’re doing, talking solemnly about the need for “entitlement reform” as an act of fiscal responsibility — while their huge budget-busting tax cut for the rich gets shoved down the memory hole. But whatever words they use to cloak the reality of the situation, Republicans have given their donors what they wanted — and now they’re coming for your benefits. LETTERS WELCOME Letters should be exclusive to The Daily Astorian. We do not publish open letters or third-party letters. Letters should be fewer than 350 words and must include the writer’s name, address and phone numbers. You will be contacted to confirm authorship. All letters are subject to editing for space, grammar and, on occa- sion, factual accuracy and verbal verification of authorship. Only two letters per writer are printed each month. Letters written in response to other letter writers should address the issue at hand and, rather than mentioning the writer by name, should refer to the headline and date the letter was published. Dis- course should be civil and people should be referred to in a respectful manner. Letters referring to news stories should also mention the headline and date of publication. The Daily Astorian welcomes short “in gratitude” notes from readers for publication. They should keep to a 200-word maxi- mum and writers are asked to avoid simply listing event sponsors. They must be signed, include the writ- er’s address, phone number and are subject to condensation and editing for style, grammar, etc. Submissions may be sent in any of these ways: E-mail to editor@dailyastorian. com; Online form at www.dailyasto- rian.com; Delivered to the Astorian offices at 949 Exchange St. and 1555 N. Roosevelt in Seaside. Or by mail to Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 210, Astoria, OR 97103