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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Publisher
Managing Editor
JENNINE PERKINSON
TIM TRAINOR
Advertising Director
Opinion Page Editor
OUR VIEW
The moon shot
Although many are already
dollars would be sure to increase
arguing about “Clinton v. Trump:
results.
The Reckoning,” another November
But such a windfall clearly has
vote may have an even bigger
a downside: A recent nonpartisan
impact on our lives in Oregon.
study showed that the measure
Now that enough
would amount to
signatures have
a $600 per person
The initiative
been gathered, it
increase in state
looks certain that a
next year,
would increase taxes
signiicant initiative
and would depress
the state budget the job market and
will come before all
Oregonians.
growth.
by 25 percent population
How big could
The net loss of jobs
this thing be?
by bringing in would be about
It alone would
by 2022,
about $3 billion 20,000
increase the entire
according to the
state budget by
analysis as well as
per year.
about 25 percent by
reporting by Paris
bringing in about $3
Achen from our
billion per year. Yes, that’s billion
Capital Bureau. The private sector
with a B.
jobs would see fewer jobs and the
Right now it is known as
public sector would see more.
Initiative Petition 28, but will surely
Although its not technically a
receive nicknames from both sides
“sales tax” — something Oregon
before ballots are printed out. We
voters have voted down time and
suggest “The Moon Shot Measure”
time again — this initiative would
— it’ll either send the state into
have similar effects on state revenue
a new stratosphere or blow up
and cost to residents.
Oregon’s economic engine at liftoff.
Proponents will make the case
Once the signatures are veriied,
that giant corporations aren’t paying
the “petition” will drop from the
their fair share of taxes in the state,
title. This initiative — which would
while opponents will describe the
require a majority of Oregon voters
dire consequences of taking more
to pass — would place a 2.5 percent money from the private sector and
tax on corporate gross receipts
handing it to the state government.
sales from the 1,000 or so largest
And both sides will spend millions
businesses in the state.
to get the point across.
The extra dollars in the state
There are months ahead to study
budget would then be shoveled
and report about the wide-ranging
toward education, public safety and
effects of this measure. This
heath and human services. Oregon’s newspaper will surely do so.
struggling education system is
Pay attention when you see
currently 39th in the nation, and the
those headlines. Read closely and
tax dollars it receives per student
carefully. Be informed and educated
is a measly 38th. Proponents of
about the importance of this decision
the measure argue that it is no
and how it could drastically affect
coincidence that those two numbers
the future of this state — for good
are so similar, and that additional
and for ill.
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.
OUR VIEW
Obama’s new overtime pay rules
change the overall mission
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
T
he Obama administration’s new
plan to require overtime pay
for salaried workers earning up
to $47,000 is an understandable but
unrealistic reaction to the problem of
stagnating wages
and a diminishing
American middle
class. People are
working longer hours
for comparatively less
pay, and something
needs to happen to
jostle the system back
into alignment.
But the tight
deadlines to
implement the new
rules don’t match the
reality of the American
workplace. The Labor
Department plans
to double previous
income limits on
overtime pay and
impose new rules on employers as of
Dec. 1. Instead of receiving a inancial
windfall from higher overtime pay,
many salaried employees could wind up
making less as they go on the time clock.
Americans frustrated by the
multimillion-dollar salaries being paid
to corporate chief executives might
react: Heck yeah, it’s about time they
had to share the wealth. But there
are thousands of small employers —
retailers, nonproits and, yes, even local
newspapers — that simply cannot afford
what this policy demands.
The measure comes as President
Barack Obama pushes a congressional
proposal to gradually increase the
minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020
from its current federal level of $7.25.
Note the key difference here: He’s not
recommending such a drastic increase
all at once. He recognizes that American
employers couldn’t withstand the shock.
Yet his administration seeks to impose
draconian rules on overtime pay, giving
employers only six months’ advance
notice.
The newspaper industry is hardly
unbiased on this issue. Across the
board, we face a constant struggle to
stay in business, whether it’s The New
York Times or the Peoria Journal Star.
Our staffers push
themselves hard,
putting in long hours
to fulill a demanding
mission that serves a
public good.
The National
Newspaper
Association, like
other industry groups,
has long embraced
the need for salary
adjustments on a
graduated basis. “The
Labor Department
failed to do its job for
a decade by creating
more graduated
adjustments that small
businesses could live with. Then it
decided to try to force the small-business
economy to leap the whole chasm in a
single bound,” says association President
Chip Hutchison, publisher of The
Times-Leader in Princeton, Ky.
Under the new rules, the mission
will no longer take priority, whether
it’s keeping the public informed or
performing nonproit work to house
the poor or ight cancer. The time clock
will dominate all other considerations.
And if employers can’t afford it, they’ll
either have to reduce salaried full-time
employment or go out of business.
People running, say, fast-food
restaurants who make less than the
$47,000 threshold could soon have
to adjust their résumés. The hours
they accept as an investment to attain
valuable management experience
could soon disappear. The term “hourly
employee” will take on a whole new,
and not terribly impressive, meaning.
The Labor
Department
plans to double
previous
income limits on
overtime pay
and impose
new rules on
employers.
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 211 S.E.
Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
OTHER VIEWS
Is it true what Democrats say
about Republicans and voting?
A
socioeconomic background are
s New York Republicans went
similarly inhibited from voting when
to the polls for their primary
ignorant.”
April 19, some opponents of
Poll taxes, literacy tests, and other
Donald Trump clung to the hope that
Ted Cruz, or perhaps John Kasich,
impediments to voting have been ruled
might deny Trump a few delegates
unconstitutional by courts or outlawed
in some of the state’s congressional
by legislation for many years.
districts. One reason for that hope
Harsanyi is by no means the
was New York’s highly restrictive
irst conservative to suggest a test
Byron
voter registration rules, which
for voting. After Harsanyi’s article
York
required party-changers to register
appeared, National Review’s Jonah
Comment
as Republicans many months earlier
Goldberg tweeted, “I’ve been making
in order to be eligible to vote in the
a similar argument for years,” linking
GOP primary. Some crossovers who intended
to pieces from 2007 and 2014.
to vote for Trump, the thinking went, would
Others have proposed similar ideas.
discover when they arrived at the polls that
In March, National Review’s Kevin D.
they could not do so.
Williamson, a determined
The #NeverTrumpers
Trump opponent,
were hoping, in other words,
expressed his hope that the
that rules limiting voter
constitutional structure of
participation might help
checks and balances might
their cause.
somehow stop a Trump
Likewise, during the
victory, since it is “designed
primary season some anti-
to frustrate ‘We the People’
Trump Republicans paid
when the people fall into
close attention to the GOP
dangerous and violent error
delegate-selection process
of the sort with which they
in Colorado, Wyoming,
are now lirting.”
and North Dakota, the
The various discussions
three states that chose
of Trump and voting
not to have presidential
raise questions about the
preference votes in 2016.
position conservatives and
Winning there depended
Republicans have taken on
on the participation of a
the most contentious voting-
relatively small number of highly motivated
related issue of recent years, the ight over
Republicans who worked through precinct,
voter ID. For a long time, conservatives and
county, district, and state caucuses. Yes,
Republicans have advocated commonsense
several thousand Republicans participated
measures to ensure the integrity of elections.
in conventions there, but there’s no doubt
Those measures boiled down to one thing: a
Colorado, Wyoming, and North Dakota had
voter should be able to prove who he or she is
less voter participation than nearly all states
when voting. The solution, voter ID, was not
with primaries. For #NeverTrumpers, fewer
only reasonable but publicly supported and
voters equaled higher hopes.
approved by the courts — after all, if one has
Trump called the system in those states
to present ID to board a plane or buy Sudafed,
“rigged” and accused some Republican
why is it overly burdensome to require the
leaders of trying to frustrate the will of the
same to vote?
voters. “It’s about the voters, it’s not about
Democrats have long responded by
the bosses,” Trump said the week of the New
accusing conservatives and Republicans of
York primary, which he won with 60 percent
attempting to suppress the vote. Conservatives
of the vote. “We’re going to show that it’s
and Republicans strongly denied the charge.
about the voters. I win all of the time when it’s But now, with the new conservative/
up to the voters.”
Republican arguments made in the context
Now Trump has effectively clinched the
of Trump’s rise — a test for voting, limited-
Republican nomination, and one conservative
participation elections, condemnations of
voice against Trump has radically upped the
democracy in general — it’s hard not to
ante on limiting voter participation. In a May
wonder whether Democrats were right about
20 Washington Post op-ed, David Harsanyi,
the other side all along. There are clearly some
a senior editor at The Federalist, argued that
conservatives and Republicans who dislike the
millions of voters are so ill-informed that
voters’ choice — Trump — so much that they
they cannot be trusted to make responsible
would limit the voters’ right to choose.
decisions and must therefore be “weeded
One last issue. The Democratic charge
out” — barred from voting “for the good of
of GOP voter suppression almost always
our democratic institutions.”
came with an allegation of racism — the
“By weeding out millions of irresponsible
accusation that Republicans were speciically
voters who can’t be bothered to learn the
trying to disenfranchise minority voters.
rudimentary workings of the Constitution,
Now, however, conservative and Republican
or their preferred candidate’s proposals or
voter-limitation talk comes in the context
even their history, we may be able to mitigate
of Trump’s victories in the GOP primaries,
the recklessness of the electorate,” Harsanyi
which mostly did not involve minority voters.
wrote.
So perhaps the best way to describe what is
Harsanyi proposed a test for voters along
happening is that Trump’s success has brought
the lines of the test given to immigrants
to the fore an anti-democratic streak that has
seeking to become United States citizens.
long been present in some conservatives and
The test would pass constitutional muster,
Republicans.
Harsanyi said, because it would somehow
■
“ensure that all races, creeds, genders and
Byron York is chief political correspondent
sexual orientations and people of every
for The Washington Examiner.
Poll taxes,
literacy tests
and other
impediments
to voting have
been ruled
unconstitutional
by courts.
YOUR VIEWS
Good and evil switch places
when people switch genders
“Woe to those who call evil good, and good
evil; Who put darkness for light and light for
darkness … woe to those who are wise in their
own eyes.” (Isaiah 5:20-21)
To force a policy on our youth where boys
who in their own eyes think they are girls
are encouraged to use girls’ bathrooms and
locker rooms (or visa versa) is to call evil
good. This is the policy currently dictated
by our president and encouraged by the East
Oregonian. According the EO we need to get
used to “students stating their gender instead
of having it stated for them.”
This what happens when we fail to stand
for truth and allow the government or the
newspaper to call evil good. Our conscience
will be compromised. We will no longer
know the difference between right and wrong.
Darkness will begin to set in and evil will
proliferate.
This will be the result: Our children will
have no protection and confusion will shroud
the light of truth, especially sexual confusion
in young impressionable adolescents.
The most vulnerable, especially those
facing gender issues, will be devastated by
the social engineering programming of those
“wise in their own eyes.” Those convinced
to have sex change operations (no other
counseling is allowed) are 20 times more
likely to commit suicide.
You can call evil good and you can call
male female, but in the end we are what we
are and no amount of social engineering or
double talk will change that fact.
These are our children, our heritage and
our birthright. Time to say “over my martyred
body will we allow you to destroy our kids
and their future.”
Stuart Dick
Irrigon
Be heard!
Comment online at eastoregonian.com.