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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 13, 2015)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Tuesday, January 13, 2015 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher JENNINE PERKINSON Advertising Director DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor OUR VIEW Don’t shoot the messenger No sooner had retiring Postmaster General Patrick Donohoe completed his farewell speech Tuesday than critics sharpened their knives. His negative comments about powerful postal unions battling senior managers’ attempts to introduce crosshairs. But too little emphasis is placed on the true cost for rural customers of delayed mail caused by such actions. Newspapers like ours, of course, rely on the mail for timely, reliable delivery to readers of many of our publications. The rules drew the most National Newspaper headlines. But The post office Association’s looking deeper, the John should remain a president, 40-year veteran Edgecombe, Jr., of made points worthy core American Nebraska, makes of study if we are a solid case for institution going to save one Congress to better of America’s key monitor the impact institutions. of postal cutbacks There is no question that the on rural areas. Internet and email mean the days of the old-time mail service monopoly seniors without Internet, lower income residents, rural folks without Parcel Service perform a creditable good Internet service and people who job shipping packages by ground don’t necessarily trust the Internet — and air, charging what the market the mail is a necessity,” he wrote in a will bear. Businesses like Amazon recent column. Edgecombe noted that the thinking to serve customers. the service in October for not government departments mentioned properly analyzing the impacts of plant closures. The postal service a nationwide postal service still leadership said it would do so — but needed? We believe the answer is only after its slower service standards “yes” — but only if the agency is went into effect. allowed to move with the times. “In other words,” Edgecombe wrote, Donohoe pulled no punches. In “it will consider whether it can reach its goals after it has lowered them.” rules and pricing, he said the agency That’s the wrong approach. needs to review its pension promises, Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff plus its employee and retiree health Merkley have lobbied hard to protect care commitments. endangered rural mail services. But it is time for a bipartisan Congressional it is self-sustaining — it does have Congressional oversight. We believe that oversight must consider the impact of any proposed cutbacks in nation’s 59 million rural residents. Closing or consolidating 80 regional sorting plants may save money by cutting jobs — Pendleton and Bend facilities are in the core government function. Creative thinking will combine Donohoe suggests a 10- or 15-year plan. This needs to accommodate changes in technology and society, never losing sight of the agency’s mission to connect the nation from reasonably priced manner. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of Publisher Kathryn Brown, Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, and Opinion Page Editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS Legislators need straight approach on ‘joint’ committee Corvallis Gazette-Times, Jan. 5 One of the key challenges facing the 2015 Oregon Legislature when it gets the rules to implement Measure 91, the initiative that legalized the recreational use of marijuana. Already, the Legislature has struggled committee that will be charged with the heavy lifting. As one legislator told us, the panel originally was called the “Joint Committee on Marijuana,” until someone took a long look at the name. Then the suggestion was made just to call it the “Joint Committee,” which would have been somewhat accurate but still bears the whiff of a Cheech & Chong routine. That idea eventually gave way to the be the “Joint Committee on Measure 91 Implementation,” which still doesn’t get rid of the “joint” part, but seems suitably cloaked in bureaucratic phrasing to get the job done. Even though Measure 91 was remarkably detailed, the committee still has plenty of challenges ahead of it. Sen. Ginny Burdick, the Portland Democrat who is one of the two chairs of the committee, suggested in a meeting with The Oregonian editorial board that most voters weren’t familiar with the intricacies of the measure — but generally supported the idea of legalization. The upshot, Burdick said, is that legislators have some room to maneuver, as long as they honor the overall will of voters. That’s probably correct — even though it does leave plenty of room for to endure heavy lobbying from cities and sale of marijuana, even though Measure 91 is reasonably clear that only the state OTHER VIEWS For the love of carbon I t should come as no surprise that Republican Senate is an attempt to push President Barack Obama into approving the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Canadian tar sands. After all, debts must be paid, and the oil and gas industry — which gave 87 percent of its 2014 campaign Paul Krugman 2011 by threatening to push America into default — its best estimate was 900,000. And that’s only part of the total loss. Needless to say, the guilty parties here will never admit that they were wrong. But if you look at their behavior closely, you see clear signs that they don’t really believe in their own doctrine. be rewarded for its support. Comment But why is this environmentally of military spending. When it comes troubling project an urgent priority in to possible cuts in defense contracts, a time of plunging world oil prices? Well, the politicians who loudly proclaim that every party line, from people like Mitch McConnell, dollar the government spends comes at the new Senate majority leader, is that it’s all about jobs. And it’s true: Building Keystone begin talking about all the jobs that will be destroyed. They even begin talking about In fact, it might replace almost 5 percent of the the multiplier effect, as reduced spending jobs America has lost because of destructive by defense workers leads to job losses in cuts in federal spending, which were in other industries. This is the phenomenon turn the direct result of former Rep. Barney Frank Republican blackmail over dubbed “weaponized the debt ceiling. Keynesianism.” Oh, and don’t tell And the argument me that the cases are being made for Keystone completely different. You XL is very similar; call it can’t consistently claim that “carbonized Keynesianism.” pipeline spending creates Yes, approving the pipeline jobs while government would mobilize some spending doesn’t. money that would otherwise Let’s back up for have sat idle, and in so a minute and discuss doing create some jobs economic principles. — 42,000 during the construction phase, For more than seven years — ever since according to the most widely cited estimate. the Bush-era housing and debt bubbles (Once completed, the pipeline would employ only a few dozen workers.) But government inadequate demand. Total spending just hasn’t spending on roads, bridges and schools would been enough to fully employ the nation’s do the same thing. resources. In such an environment, anything And the job gains from the pipeline that increases spending creates jobs. And if would, as I said, be only a tiny fraction — private spending is depressed, a temporary less than 5 percent — of the job losses from rise in public spending can and should take sequestration, which in turn are only part of its place. That’s why a great majority of the damage done by spending cuts in general. economists believe that the Obama stimulus If McConnell and company really believe did, in fact, reduce the unemployment rate that we need more spending to create jobs, compared with what it would have been why not support a push to upgrade America’s without that stimulus. crumbling infrastructure? From the beginning, however, Republican So what should be done about Keystone leaders have held the opposite view, insisting XL? If you believe that it would be that we should slash public spending in the environmentally damaging — which I do face of high unemployment. And they’ve — then you should be against it, and you gotten their way: The years after 2010, when should ignore the claims about job creation. Republicans took control of the House, were The numbers being thrown around are tiny marked by an unprecedented decline in real compared with the country’s overall work government spending per capita, which force. And in any case, the jobs argument for leveled off only in 2014. the pipeline is basically a sick joke coming The evidence overwhelmingly indicates from people who have done all they can to destroy American jobs — and are now economy is destructive; if the economic news employing the very arguments they used to has been better lately, it’s probably in part ridicule government job programs to justify a because of the fact that federal, state and local big giveaway to their friends in the fossil fuel industry. And spending cuts have, in particular, cost a lot of jobs. When the Congressional Budget Paul Krugman joined The New York Times in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page lost because of the sequester — the big cuts in and continues as professor of Economics and International Affairs at Princeton University. Building Keystone XL could slightly increase U.S. employment. the more likely it is that black-market pot will be a cheaper alternative.) The joint committee does have one big advantage: Legislators already have labored to create a structure that governs the distribution of medical marijuana. That process didn’t go perfectly, but the structure is up and running, and we can’t see any reason why legislators wouldn’t take a careful look at combining the recreational and medical markets. Why invent this particular wheel twice? In fact, many of the medical marijuana dispensaries that already have jumped through the state’s regulatory hoops and opened their shops have their businesses to include recreational marijuana. That’s not to say it will all be smooth sailing for the panel. But taking a careful look at combining the marketplaces will give its members a head start at working through the myriad other details that need to be settled. LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to Managing Editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com. YOUR VIEWS Civil, nonviolent people an overwhelming majority What an inspiration it was this Sunday to see the people in Paris and France join together to say, “Je Suis Charlie!” This was a spontaneous people’s march — people of different faiths and ethnic backgrounds, the “silent majority” — more than 2.5 million people who came out on the street to show their unity. People like us. It was a wonderful image, a vision to hold on to — all people working together in peace, standing for freedom with respect for others. Even though we may not see each other out on the street, I believe, the majority of us share this vision. That it will live on in our imagination in the coming years. Lawrence Jones Hood River