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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
JENNINE PERKINSON
Advertising Director
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Mega¿res are a
warning we must heed
It comes as no surprise that
August is bringing with it some of
the largest wild¿res this state has
seen in recent history. Even before
the season began, those who study,
maintain and protect our forests
warned it was going to be a hot one.
And yet here we are, scrambling
to save homes, animals, even
human lives as the tinderbox burns.
Because no matter how prepared
you are on paper, once the ¿re is
sparked in the woods the best you
can do is limit the damage and try to
direct its path of destruction.
“Mega¿res” ² destroying
100,000 or more acres, like the
Cornett/Windy Ridge ¿re south
of Baker City ² are becoming
almost common. And ¿res currently
burning in Eastern Oregon have
destroyed about 200,000 acres
already.
In an Aug. 9 story, National
Geographic makes numerous
thought-provoking points about this
problem that is exploding in our
backyard:
• “These infernos, once rare,
are growing to sizes that U.S.
Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell
describes as ‘unimaginable’ two
decades ago. Five alone have
consumed more than ¿ve million
acres in central Alaska since June.
Washington, Oregon, California,
Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado
also experienced their worst
wild¿res in the past seven years.”
• “The main driver is climate
change. Rising temperatures
exacerbate drought, spread beetle
infestations and melt the snowpack
earlier. Early snowmelt alone has
lengthened the ¿re season by 70
days since 1970. ‘These stresses are
going to become more widespread,’
says Craig Allen, a U.S. Geological
Service forest ecologist in Los
Alamos, New Mexico. ‘The drought
itself is part of the natural variability
here. What’s different is it’s a
hotter drought than anything in the
Northern Hemisphere in the last
thousand years.’”
• “Today, wild¿res, on average,
burn twice as much land every year
now as they did 40 years ago.”
• “58 million acres of national
forests are at risk for severe ¿re,
but there is only enough funding to
clean up 11.3 million acres.”
The end result of these colossal
blazes is landscapes permanently
transformed in terms of both plants
and animals. They burn so hot
and are so extensive that formerly
“native” species no longer ¿nd
themselves at home. One scientist
quoted in the story said that if he
wants to continue specializing in the
same type of forest, he should plan
to move a couple hundred miles
north.
What does all this mean? This
very dry summer, at least, the
answer is that we should be talking
about it and more actively including
wild¿re planning in a wide variety
of civic discussions. The debate on
climate change cannot be agree to
disagree, but instead planning to
deal with our changing environment.
If national forests are poorly
maintained in terms of mitigating
¿re risk, might it be safe to surmise
that state forests are even less
so? Does the fact that Paci¿c
County’s forestland in Washington
is predominantly owned by large
corporations ensure less build-up
of Àammable debris on the forest
Àoor?
This year’s mega¿res are a
strong whiff of things to come as
we in the Paci¿c Northwest learn
to cope with warmer temperatures
without reliable snowpacks
to see us through the summer.
Intelligent, appropriately funded
counter-measures can help make the
difference.
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.
YOUR VIEWS
Money for street repair
can be found elsewhere
The Pendleton City Council is
caught between a rock and a hard
place. If they raise taxes and fees there
is a great chance they will kill growth
in Pendleton. Growth solves many
problems. If they don’t raise taxes
and fees they need to cut low priority
budget items which they failed to do
this year. High priority items in the
budget are ¿re, police and streets.
What can be cut? Parks and
Recreation takes $2.1 million of general
fund resources. If you are a homeowner
and need money for major repairs,
recreation and vacations are the logical
things to cut. A cut of 25 percent of this
fund would put us more in line with
cities our size.
Next, the chamber of commerce
receives a large amount of money from
city taxes. I think the chamber should
be ¿nanced by its membership. We
also fund statues and art from the motel
room tax. This money would be better
spent on street repair so tourists can
safely drive to the motel.
So what does this mean for street
repair? More than $700,000 per year.
This would give us a total of at least $3
million per year for streets.
Vote no on the 5-cent gas tax, it only
makes Arrowhead rich and Pendleton
poor. The $5 water user fee for street
repair has a lot of problems, one of
which is that a lot of residents, young
and old, walk to and from the grocery
store. They do not have a car or do not
drive. They would still be charged the
fee.
Let’s use the money we have instead
of raising Pendleton’s cost of living
higher than it already is. We need to be
competitive to attract jobs and industry.
Rex J. Morehouse
Pendleton
Walmart the new giant on
the block
“Welcome to your friendly
Walmart,” the greeter says as you
pass through the entry doors. Started
in 1962, Walmart now is the largest
company in the world, overtaking
Exxon/Mobil. 260 million customers,
about 11,400 retail stores in 27
countries, and over 2 million employed
worldwide.
In ¿scal year 2012 Walmart had
$444 billion in sales, which is $20
billion more than Austria’s GDP. If
Walmart were a country it would be the
26th largest economy in the world.
In 2010, CEO Michael Duke made
$35 million, which means he makes
more in one hour than a full-time
employee makes in an entire year.
Now the bad news:
1.) Walmart has moved their
purchasing headquarters to China.
Up until 2006 they bragged often
about being very patriotic and selling
American goods.
2.) Walmart means welfare to many
of their employees. Over half of their
full-time employees make less than
$25,000 per year resulting in many of
these people signing up for welfare
and food stamps. That way the U.S.
taxpayer picks up the million dollar
cost in public assistance while Walmart
receives over a billion in tax breaks.
3.) In the midst of an obesity
epidemic in the U.S., Walmart makes
a big contribution and is said to be
responsible for 10.5 percent of the rise
in obesity since the late 1980s. Over
60 percent of American adults and
about one third of our children and
teens are now obese or overweight.
Unfortunately, “cheap” often also
means processed foods with a lot of
salt, sugar and not much food value.
4.) The proliferation of Walmart
Superstore openings are said the kill
3 local jobs for every two they create.
They are labeled an “economic death
star” by small retailers who struggle
or are forced out of business trying
to compete with Walmart. Walmart
reduces retail employment by 2.7
percent in every county they enter,
according to the Journal of Urban
Economics. After a Walmart store was
built in Chicago in September 2006,
82 of 306 small businesses in the
surrounding neighborhood had gone out
of business by March of 2008.
To be fair, after a great deal of
ridicule, protests by employees, and
a number of lawsuits, Walmart has
recently agreed to raise wages for about
100,000 employees in the U.S.
David Burns
Pendleton
OTHER VIEWS
Republicans against retirement
S
omething strange is happening
Still, nobody should be surprised
in the Republican primary
at the spectacle of politicians
² something strange, that is,
enthusiastically endorsing destructive
besides the Trump phenomenon.
policies. What’s puzzling about the
For some reason, just about all the
renewed Republican assault on Social
leading candidates other than The
Security is that it looks like bad politics
Donald have taken a deeply unpopular
as well as bad policy. Americans love
position, a known political loser, on a
Social Security, so why aren’t the
major domestic policy issue. And it’s
candidates at least pretending to share
Paul
interesting to ask why.
Krugman that sentiment?
The issue in question is the future
The answer, I’d suggest, is that it’s
Comment
of Social Security, which turned 80 last
all about the big money.
week. The retirement program is, of
Wealthy individuals have long
course, both extremely popular and a long-term played a disproportionate role in politics,
target of conservatives, who want to kill it
but we’ve never seen anything like what’s
precisely because its popularity helps legitimize happening now: domination of campaign
government action in general. As the right-wing ¿nance, especially on the Republican side, by
activist Stephen Moore (now chief economist
a tiny group of immensely wealthy donors.
of the Heritage
Indeed, more than half
Foundation) once
the funds raised by
declared, Social Security
Republican candidates
is “the soft underbelly of
through June came from
the welfare state”; “jab
just 130 families.
your spear through that”
And while most
and you can undermine
Americans love Social
the whole thing.
Security, the wealthy
But that was a
don’t. Two years ago a
decade ago, during
pioneering study of the
former President George
policy preferences of
W. Bush’s attempt to
the very wealthy found
privatize the program ²
many contrasts with the
and what Bush learned
views of the general
was that the underbelly
public; as you might
wasn’t that soft after
expect, the rich are
all. Despite the political
politically different from
momentum coming from the GOP’s victory in
you and me. But nowhere are they as different
the 2004 election, despite support from much of as they are on the matter of Social Security. By
the media establishment, the assault on Social
a very wide margin, ordinary Americans want
Security quickly crashed and burned. Voters, it
to see Social Security expanded. But by an even
turns out, like Social Security as it is, and don’t wider margin, Americans in the top 1 percent
want to see it cut. And guess whose preferences
want it cut.
are prevailing among Republican candidates.
It’s remarkable, then, that most of the
You often see political analyses pointing
Republicans who would be president seem to
out, rightly, that voting in actual primaries is
be lining up for another round of punishment.
preceded by an “invisible primary” in which
In particular, they’ve been declaring that the
candidates compete for the support of crucial
retirement age ² which has already been
elites. But who are these elites? In the past,
pushed up from 65 to 66, and is scheduled to
it might have been members of the political
rise to 67 ² should go up even further.
establishment and other opinion leaders. But
Thus, Jeb Bush says that the retirement age
what the new attack on Social Security tells
should be pushed back to “68 or 70.” Scott
us is that the rules have changed. Nowadays,
Walker has echoed that position. Marco Rubio
at least on the Republican side, the invisible
wants both to raise the retirement age and to
primary has been reduced to a stark competition
cut bene¿ts for higher-income seniors. Rand
Paul wants to raise the retirement age to 70 and for the affections and, of course, the money of a
few dozen plutocrats.
means-test bene¿ts. Ted Cruz wants to revive
What this means, in turn, is that the eventual
the Bush privatization plan.
Republican nominee ² assuming that it’s
For the record, these proposals would be
not Trump ² will be committed not just to
really bad public policy ² a harsh blow to
Americans in the bottom half of the income
a renewed attack on Social Security but to
distribution, who depend on Social Security,
a broader plutocratic agenda. Whatever the
often have jobs that involve manual labor,
rhetoric, the GOP is on track to nominate
and have not, in fact, seen a big rise in life
someone who has won over the big money by
expectancy. Meanwhile, the decline of private
promising government by the 1 percent, for the
pensions has left working Americans more
1 percent.
reliant on Social Security than ever.
Ŷ
And no, Social Security does not face a
Paul Krugman joined The New York Times
¿nancial crisis; its long-term funding shortfall
in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page
could easily be closed with modest increases in and continues as professor of Economics and
revenue.
International Affairs at Princeton University.
Ordinary Americans want
to see Social Security
expanded ... Americans
in the top 1 percent want
to see it cut. And guess
whose preferences are
prevailing among
Republican candidates.
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.