Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, February 23, 2016
OTHER VIEWS
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Minimum wage bill
has too much downside
The Oregon Legislature has
passed a three-tiered minimum wage
bill, and Gov. Kate Brown is set to
sign it.
The only thing good that can be
said about it is that it is better than
alternatives earlier proposed by
lawmakers, and much better than
a hike to $15 touted by proponents
who are gathering signatures for a
November ballot initiative.
In Oregon, proponents of hiking
the minimum wage say $9.25 an
hour just isn’t enough for workers to
meet their minimum living expenses,
particularly in high-priced Portland.
The bill passed was presented as
a compromise to an across-the-board
hike.
Under the bill, the minimum
wage all across Oregon will climb in
July to $9.75 per hour. It will climb
at regular intervals, but at different
rates depending on the locale,
through 2022.
In rural areas like ours — the
proverbial third tier — the minimum
wage gradually will climb to $12.50.
Those areas include Umatilla,
Morrow, Malheur, Lake, Harney,
Wheeler, Sherman, Gilliam,
Wallowa, Grant, Jefferson, Baker,
Union, Crook, Klamath, Douglas,
Coos and Curry counties.
The minimum will rise to
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tier” Portland urban growth
boundary, which includes parts
of Multnomah, Washington and
Clackamas counties. It will rise
to $13.50 in Benton, Clatsop,
Columbia, Deschutes, Hood River,
Jackson, Josephine, Lane, Lincoln,
Linn, Marion, Polk, Tillamook,
Wasco and Yamhill counties, and
parts of Multnomah, Clackamas
and Washington counties outside
Portland’s urban growth boundary.
There are measurable differences
in the economies of various locales
within the state. Portland is far more
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Day. Employers in Oregon’s “rural”
communities will have an easier
time dealing with a minimum wage
of $12.50 rather than $14.75.
But a business’ location does not
determine its ability to pay a higher
wage. Low-margin businesses
struggle no matter where they are
located, particularly if they compete
with people who have lower labor
costs.
Hood River fruit growers who
will pay $13.50 won’t get more for
their fruit than growers in Umatilla
County who will pay $12.50.
Nurseries within Portland’s urban
growth boundary paying $14.75 will
be at a competitive disadvantage
with nurseries down the road but
outside the boundary paying $13.50.
Eastern Oregon onion packers,
who will pay the lowest rate, say
they already struggle to compete
against packers in Idaho who pay
$7.25. They promise to move east.
None of that could matter if
15 Now Oregon makes good on
its promise to put an initiative on
November’s ballot that would
increase the minimum wage to $15
statewide by 2019. Obviously, this
would be far more ruinous.
Proponents suggest businesses
can easily absorb a wage increase
or just hike prices. They say no one
will lose their job or have their hours
cut. Those people also likely have
never covered a payroll or sold a
product.
It’s a laudable goal to raise the
prospects of unskilled workers.
Pricing them out of the job market
isn’t the way to do it.
We would all be better off by
promoting policies that encourage
the creation of better-paying jobs,
and facilitate the training of workers
WR¿OOWKHP
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.
Clash of the populists
(though he’s not above “whiner”
The Book of Daniel predicted it.
and “sourpuss” as well). But their
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The Necronomicon spelled it out in
mastery of the contemporary media
language too terrible for human ears
environment, in which controversy
to hear. And if you read “The Art of
and unpredictability are the great
the Deal” backward in the original
currencies, and having people
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constantly asking “Did he really just
as well: Before the seventh seal is
say that?” is the surest ticket to the
opened, before Famine and Pestilence
Ross
are loosed, the Man in White must do Douthat world’s attention.
The public style that produces
battle with the Combed-Over Titan,
Comment
these “say what?” moments can get
amid the ravening shrieks of Twitter
them both into a kind of trouble. But
and beneath the unblinking eye of
the billionaire and the pontiff both seem to
Cable News.
Or, for the less mystically inclined: It was believe — on some evidence — that a little
troublemaking is the best way to make the
only a matter of time before Pope Francis
disaffected pay attention.
tangled with Donald Trump.
And by reaching people who usually tune
Their war of words came about the way
out churchmen and politicians, they have
you would expect. It began with a rambling
become leading populists in our increasingly
news conference on the papal plane, where
populist moment. The popular constituencies
Francis suggested that Trump (or at least
they speak for are very different, of course.
his zeal for an amazing border wall) “is not
Christian.” It escalated with a rambling news Trump is a nationalist, speaking on behalf of
the unhappy Western working class, while
release from the mogul turned presidential
candidate, which Trump-splained to the pope Francis is a Latin American and a globalist,
that only a Trump administration can protect speaking for the developing world’s poor —
which is why immigration policy naturally
the Vatican from ISIS.
puts them at loggerheads.
Then came the inevitable downplaying
But they nonetheless share a common
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turnabout from Trump (“the Pope is a
wonderful guy,” he told CNN), the inevitable business as usual, whether Catholic or
Republican, but the wider Western ruling
debates about whether the Vatican’s own
class. Whether it’s The Donald attacking
walls are un-Christian, whether Protestant
voters in the South Carolina primary are still “the very, very stupid people” making policy
in the United States, or Francis deploring
suspicious of popery, and more.
the greed and self-interest of rich nations
The obvious drama of the collision lay
and wealthy corporations, the pope and
in the contrasts between the two men: The
the mogul are now leading critics of the
celibate and the lecher, the ascetic and
neoliberalism that has governed the West for
the billionaire, the mystic and the frank
a generation or more.
materialist. But their similarities are also
Neoliberalism needs critics, as the
fascinating. For all the ways in which
Republican Party needs reinvention and the
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Catholic Church needs reform. At the same
the global stage they’re also strangely
alike — in the forces that they’re channeling, time, as Schmitz notes, what both Trump
and Francis promise — deliverance “from
their style of public salesmanship, and their
inconvenient and unresponsive institutions,
relationship to the institutions they either
with all their strictures and corruptions” —
head or aspire to lead.
downplays the value of rules, customs, and
This resemblance begins, as Matthew
traditions in protecting people from the rule
Schmitz pointed out in The Washington
of novelty and whim.
Post, with their status as “outsiders bent
This is always populism’s peril: That it
on shaking up their establishments,” which
relies too much on the power of charisma,
they (and many others) deem sclerotic and
and tears down too much in the quest to
corrupt. When Trump attacks Republican
make America or Catholic Christianity great
elites and breaks with party orthodoxy on
WUDGHRUIRUHLJQSROLF\RUFDPSDLJQ¿QDQFH again.
Of course neither Francis nor Trump have
Schmitz notes, he’s mirroring the way that
broken anything yet. The populist pope may
Francis “challenges a hidebound Vatican
be remembered as a great reformer, and the
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populist billionaire as the unlikely catalyst
Catholic doctrine.” Both messages appeal
for the Republican Party’s long-delayed
to the same exhaustion with institutions, the
reform.
same desire to somehow “make a mess” (as
But for now, the last thing they have in
Francis likes to put it) and start anew.
common in this: Everything that makes them
This mirroring extends to their rhetoric,
interesting makes them dangerous as well.
where both men have a fondness for, well,
Ŷ
name-calling that’s rare among presidential
Ross Douthat joined The New York Times
candidates and popes. The insults differ:
as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009. His
Trump calls people “low energy,” “liar” and
“loser,” while Francis prefers “Pharisee” and column appears every Sunday. Previously, he
was a senior editor at The Atlantic
“self-absorbed Promethean neo-Pelagian”
YOUR VIEWS
The Super Bowl and
white people
I read David Burns’ letter in the Feb.
19 edition of the East Oregonian. After
recovering from the stroke his Neanderthal
thinking caused, I’m still at a loss how to
respond. First, I’m an old white guy so
I think Mr. Burns and I are in the same
demographic. I remember the days of
Jim Brown, Bart Starr and Johnny Unitas
fondly also, but I have a somewhat different
take on them. While Mr. Burns has shown
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football fan, he seems to forget that Jim
Brown was always an outspoken advocate
for black athletes and black people in
general. He had to be because the playing
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people.
That’s the reason Tommie Smith and
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at the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.
While still controversial, many white
people honor them for their courageous
statement. As to his objections to the
“hands up, don’t shoot” dance move,
the events in Ferguson, Mo., are not as
clear-cut as Mr. Burns would have you
believe. We do know that an unarmed
black man (thug or not), Michael Brown,
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Darren Wilson. It’s racists like David Burns
that make black people feel the need to
keep this issue in the public consciousness.
I’m sure the NFL scheduled the Super
Bowl to coincide with 50th anniversary of
the Black Panther Party just to get under
Mr. Burns’ skin.
Four hundred words do not allow me to
adequately respond to each of Mr. Burns’
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time I responded to a letter from this man:
He needs to pay attention to what Homer
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power plant because when he ventures
beyond that it’s embarrassing.
Patrick J. Delaney
Hermiston
Palmer election loss
would be poetic justice
Voters, ponder this possibility: Given the
Justice Department investigation of (Grant
County Sheriff Glenn) Palmer, if Palmer is
re-elected, will Palmer cause legal problems
against which the county may have to
defend itself by using tax dollars? Will
voters literally put their tax money where
their vote is — and possibly cause their
taxes to increase — by voting for Palmer?
If the Palmer investigation rules against
him, may it [1] end Palmer’s re-election,
[2] end his being elected to any public
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credibility necessary for election to public
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hired in law enforcement anywhere again?
If so, then Palmer can thank the Bundy
“Patriot” criminals for his possible chronic
unemployment and his family’s possible
bankruptcy. Talk about poetic justice.
If Palmer loses, then talk about citizen
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talk about the people taking back their
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by that bastion of freedom known as the
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occupation by that protector of liberty
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If Palmer loses, and if Bundy “Patriot”
criminals signed Palmer’s Constitution
copy, then Palmer can read why he lost the
election, why he lost his job, and why he
lost his future every single time he reads
their signatures in his Constitution copy.
Talk about poetic justice.
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which shall be imposed on him by the jury
of his peers — voters — on election day.
If he loses, then we already know what his
reply may be: “AMBUSH!”
Brian McDonough
Bennington, N.H.
John Turner plugged in,
ready to run for mayor
We are pleased that John Turner has
decided to run for mayor of Pendleton.
John brings the important traits of integrity,
service, commitment, and leadership. After
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Marine Corps, John worked for 10 years
at Blue Mountain Community College,
serving as president for nine of these years.
He currently is a member of the Port of
Umatilla, The Round-Up City Corporation,
and Rotary. In a few words, John gets
things done. Please vote to make John
Turner the next mayor of Pendleton!
Paul and Mary Davis
Pendleton
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 newspa-
per reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual ser-
vices 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.