Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Friday, March 18, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
Tip of the hat;
kick in the pants
A kick in the pants to the long brewing brouhaha — now bubbled
over — as the Pendleton Farmers Market moves off Main Street.
The fallout has everyone upset. And when the source of tension
is as minor as a few parking spaces, that is generally a sign of poor
communication and negotiation.
Pendleton city manager Robb Corbett — passing along the complaints
of a few Main Street business owners — warned the farmers market their
permit could be revoked if the problem of
trucks parking too near the event was not
remedied.
Perhaps he went to the nuclear option too
early? The Farmers Market bolted, and now
dust is in everyone’s eyes.
The Farmers Market is not a perfect event
and improvements can be made. Everything
has pros and cons, and much of life is how
you look at it. Some businesses, and some
people, accept a challenge and work to make
the best out of it. Others work only to avoid
the challenge.
But anyway you slice it, Pendleton is worse off by this latest dust up.
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they are passionate about the weekly summer celebration of our region’s
agricultural bounty. But there is no place where the Farmers Market does
more good for the community than on a block of its beautiful Main Street.
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
Consider the statewide impact
of minimum wage hike
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asked House Speaker Tina Kotek,
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and Means Committee. “To consider
stewardship, Rep. Barbara Smith
this bill without the appropriate level of
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budget scrutiny would be a disservice
fellow legislators last month to delay a
vote on a bill so that it could be reviewed to the people we are elected to represent
¿UVWE\WKH-RLQW&RPPLWWHHRQ:D\VDQG and would represent a failure of our
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Means.
budget,” McLane wrote in a Feb. 12
The bill, which would create two
letter to Kotek.
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records processes consistent across
statement, she
state agencies, posed
noted, forecast an
a minimal cost. But
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Smith Warner noted
to the state for the
that because House
current budget. She
Bill 4135 carried
added that she did
D¿VFDOLPSDFWLW
not believe referring
should be properly
the bill to Ways and
vetted by Ways and
Means would change
Means, the legislative
the “indeterminate”
appropriations
estimate of the bill’s
committee that
potential costs. A
determines budget
referral, she wrote in
priorities. After several
her Feb. 16 response,
minutes of discussion
“would only result
that underscored the
in delayed action on
routine nature of
the bill and would not
sending such bills to the
change the predicted
committee, legislators
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approved the referral.
budget.” And when you
If only that moment
need to ram through
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major policy in a
could have lasted. No
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such luck. Just one
legislative session,
week later, the same
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Democratic legislators who supported
transparency.
HB 4135’s trip to Ways and Means
The argument raises another concern.
opposed a similar route for Senate Bill
Legislators repeatedly pointed to the
1532, which would phase in the highest
statewide minimum wage in the country. ¿VFDOLPSDFWVWDWHPHQW¶VDVVHUWLRQWKDW
It marks at least the third time in the short the wage hike’s costs are “indeterminate”
to dismiss calls for more scrutiny. It’s
legislative session that Republicans’ call
WRFRQVLGHUWKH¿QDQFLDOFRQVHTXHQFHVRI as if they believe that the inability to
precisely calculate a future liability is a
this bill fell on deaf ears.
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Now that the bill has become law,
Kotek certainly wasn’t alone in
however, the public is listening as
refusing to route the bill to Ways and
universities are warning of the “tough
Means. Sen. Peter Courtney also could
choices” ahead, as The Oregonian/
have, and did not, refer the bill to the
OregonLive’s Andrew Theen reported.
joint committee as it made its way
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through the Senate. Democrats in the
millions more in the coming years to
Senate rejected Republicans’ motion to
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refer the bill there. And before voting
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for the bill, Ways and Means Committee
That could translate into fewer student
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employees, fewer hours for students or
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higher tuition and fees, Theen reported.
Despite the budget implications, the
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bill does not require additional general
downsides shouldn’t be a surprise to
fund dollars in the current budget, he
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said, ignoring the fact that some of the
among the few calculations provided
universities and other public employers
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facing higher costs could very well seek
drafted for the bill. The analysis also
more money as the hike goes in effect.
noted that the direct cost of the increase
Legislators can try to parse the
for state employees is less than $100,000
decision to skip Ways and Means review
IRUWKHELHQQLXP$QGWKH
statement warned that the bill potentially DQ\ZD\WKH\OLNH%XWWKHLUH[FXVHV
don’t obscure the inescapable truth that
poses an unfunded mandate for local
JRYHUQPHQWVZKRVHH[SHFWHGFRVWVZHUH leaders sought to limit public discussion
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“indeterminate.”
will have on the entities that the public
With universities alone facing more
funds. Unfortunately, it will once again
WKDQPLOOLRQLQH[WUDFRVWVLQWKH
be the public that pays.
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The Oregonian
T
Now that the
bill has become
law, the public
universities
are warning
of the “tough
choices” ahead
— layoffs
of minimum
wage workers,
primarily
students.
OTHER VIEWS
Goodbye, Bushism
E
ven in the last limping years
Russia increasingly aggressive and
of his deeply unpopular
the Islamic State camped out in
administration, George W. Bush
Iraq and Syria, you can see why
was still popular with Republican
many conservative elites imagined
voters. After Barack Obama took
that Americans — and Republican
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primary voters, especially — might
Obama iconography, with a cheeky
want a more hawkish, even Bushian
“miss me yet?” attached. And as his
successor to Barack Obama.
presidency receded, Bush’s favorable
But alas for Rubio, it turned out
Ross
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Douthat that Republicans didn’t want any of
Obama’s and Hillary Clinton’s as the
this.
Comment
2016 campaign got underway.
They didn’t want comprehensive
These numbers were no doubt
immigration reform, which shouldn’t
present in Jeb Bush’s consciousness when he
have been surprising because they hadn’t
made his fateful and destructive decision to
wanted it when Bush was president, either; it
run for president. But they were also clearly
was an idea that had hung around and hung
part of Marco Rubio’s read on the Republican DURXQGZLWKRXWHYHU¿QGLQJDFRQVHUYDWLYH
Party, which ultimately led him to last night’s
constituency outside Washington.
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7KH\GLGQ¶WZDQWDQRSWLPLVWLFQH[W
George W. Bush’s own brother, Rubio tried
generation version of social conservatism,
to make himself an heir to Bushism, and to
SUHIHUULQJHLWKHU7HG&UX]¶VROGWLPHUHOLJLRQ
build a bridge between the last Republican
or Donald Trump as the church’s heathen
administration and the one that he aspired to
ERG\JXDUGLQDSRVW&KULVWLDQODQGVFDSH
lead. Rubio’s defeat, like most in politics, had
They didn’t care about the size of Rubio’s
PDQ\FDXVHVDZHDNJURXQGJDPHDPHGLD
WD[FXWEHFDXVHDOOWKHFDQGLGDWHVZHUH
strategy that was overwhelmed by Donald
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implausible, and voters — even conservative
positioning that made him a second choice all
YRWHUV²MXVWDUHQ¶WDVWD[REVHVVHGDVWKH\
over the map but a winner hardly anywhere, a were in the Reaganite glory days.
youthful mien in a “hard man for hard times”
They did want, perhaps, a different
election, and of course that one dreadful New
domestic policy than the uncreative platform
Hampshire debate.
Romney had offered, one that promised less
But in purely ideological terms, what
to the wealthy and more to the working class.
primary voters were rejecting when they
But Rubio’s halfhearted reform conservatism
rejected him was the political synthesis of
was outbid and overwhelmed by Trump’s
George W. Bush.
brassy promises to renegotiate trade deals,
In domestic politics, that synthesis had four slap on tariffs, leave entitlements untouched
SLOODUVDVLQFHUHVRFLDOFRQVHUYDWLVPURRWHGLQ and bring back the jobs of 1965.
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And they did want a kind of hawkishness
“compassionate conservatism” on issues
— but not a Wilsonian hawkishness, in service
related to poverty and education; the pursuit
to an ambitious grand strategy to stabilize or
of comprehensive immigration reform as a
remake the Middle East. No, they wanted a
means to win Latinos for the GOP; and large
Jacksonian hawkishness, one that promised
DFURVVWKHERDUGWD[FXWVWRSODFDWHWKHSDUW\¶V to rain destruction on our enemies without the
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mess of nation building.
In foreign policy, Bushism began with
These desires don’t add up to a new
the promise of restraint but ultimately came
Republican synthesis, and the candidates
to mean hawkishness shot through with
who have catered to them more successfully
Wilsonian idealism, a vision of a crusading
haven’t devised one. Trump’s populist,
America whose interests and values were
illiberal Jacksonianism can’t unite the party
perfectly aligned.
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From his arrival in Washington, Rubio
social and economic conservatism probably
seemed intent on imitating this combination
can’t win the median voter the way Bushism
of ideas. He associated himself with
did twice (well, once plus a close second).
neoconservative foreign policy proposals
But they do add up to the desire for a new
and personnel. He became the face of
synthesis, and an understanding that whatever
comprehensive immigration reform, take
the Republican Party needs now, it can’t just
three. He wooed a rising generation of
be what worked for Bush and Karl Rove until
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Iraq went sour and Wall Street melted down.
out a domestic policy portfolio with “reform
At times, Rubio’s biography, his youth and
conservative” ideas on welfare reform, health
his eloquence seemed to make him the natural
FDUHKLJKHUHGXFDWLRQDQGIDPLO\IULHQGO\WD[ candidate for a party in search of What Comes
policy. And then to make sure nobody accused 1H[W$QGLQFHUWDLQZD\VKHZDVYLFWLPL]HG
him of being some sort of redistributionist
by a conservative electorate that fears the
squish, he attached those ideas to a sweeping
future, that wants any “new” synthesis to
FDSLWDOJDLQVDQGFRUSRUDWHWD[FXW
simply recreate the glories of a vanished
Politically it was by no means a crazy
American past.
strategy. For all his blunders, George W. Bush
But he was also a victim of his own fateful
is still the only Republican candidate for
look backward, his assumption that what
president to win the popular vote in the last
worked for the last Republican president could
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be made to work again. It didn’t, it couldn’t,
unite and lead a fractious party. Parts of
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Bushism look more optimistic, inclusive and
wins the nomination in 2016, George W. Bush
economically relevant than either the angrier
has gone down to defeat.
Tea Party message that Rubio piggybacked
Ŷ
on in his 2010 Senate campaign or the generic
Ross Douthat joined The New York
“Mr. Republican” messages that John McCain Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009.
and Mitt Romney lost with in 2008 and 2012.
Previously, he was a senior editor at the
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Atlantic and a blogger for theatlantic.com.
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 city of residence and daytime phone number. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.