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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 18, 2016)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Friday, November 18, 2016 Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor MARISSA WILLIAMS Regional Advertising Director MARCY ROSENBERG Circulation Manager JANNA HEIMGARTNER Business Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW Tip of the hat; kick in the pants Tip of the hat to the city of Hermiston, which is sprucing itself up for the holiday season with a spruce tree. The 32-foot evergreen is now temporarily — but hopefully firmly — implanted in Second Street near city hall, and will be the focal point the city’s month-long Winter Festival. That festival runs from Dec. 1 to Dec. 23, and includes live entertainment and light shows Thursday-Saturday evenings. It’s a great way to get people downtown to check out shops, mingle with neighbors and get into the holiday spirit. The city has reached out to civic groups and individuals to pitch in with decorations and cheer, creating the from-the-ground-up kind of event Hermiston is known for. Larry Davidson, a Hermiston man who previously lived in both Milton- Freewater and Pendleton, donated the tree. The man and tree who have roots in much of Umatilla County deserve a hat tip in their direction, too. Now let it snow. A tip of the hat to our local House Republicans, who this week were appointed to important positions in the Republican caucus. In just his second term, Greg Barreto will be the second most important person in the House’s minority party, backing up GOP leader Mike McLane. In addition, Greg Smith, our other local representative in the House, was named head of the GOP budget committee. With local representatives holding vital roles in the session — albeit in Oregon’s currently powerless party — our region has a better chance of getting its issues heard, addressed and solved. Good luck to both representatives in doing so. This session, where dollars will be few and responsibilities many, will be exceedingly difficult. A tip of the hat to the Weston-McEwen TigerScots, winners of the state volleyball tournament earlier this month. The team entered the tournament as the No. 5-seed, but beat three teams with better records on their way to the title. The girls only lost two sets at the tournament, both to No. 1 seed Culver in a 3-2 semifinal upset win. The program has won the title three times since 2004, all under coach Shawn White, but this is the first for this group of girls, including all-tournament selections Sara von Borstel, Sarah Finifrock and Ali Schroeder, all seniors. 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 Before dismantling the ACA, a few words of caution Minneapolis Star Tribune T he Affordable Care Act has been in the Republican Party’s cross hairs since its 2010 birth. This week’s election means that the party now has the political trifecta it needs to dismantle the law: Donald Trump will be in the White House, and the GOP controls the U.S. House and Senate. That repealing some or all of the health-reform law is likely atop President-elect Trump’s agenda does not excuse Minnesota lawmakers from providing relief to consumers facing steep price hikes on the individual health insurance market for 2017. Gov. Mark Dayton has proposed a reasonable though costly $313 million plan to substantially discount premiums. The lack of progress in setting a date for a special legislative session to enact this is reprehensible. Minnesotans need to know now if help is coming for premiums due for Jan. 1 coverage. The state aid issue must be settled swiftly, but sweeping post-election uncertainties mean a far more deliberative approach is critical in enacting other state-level changes. This week, the Minnesota Medical Association, the Minnesota Hospital Association and the Minnesota Council of Health Plans also urged a go-slow approach to react to what Congress and the new president will do. Several reforms that have been prominently touted by Minnesota Republicans, who will likely control both state legislative chambers, don’t address postelection concerns. There may not be a federal healthcare.gov marketplace to send Minnesotans to if MNsure is shut down. The same problem holds true with a proposal to allow Minnesotans to access federal subsidies outside MNsure. There may not be any more federal subsidies for consumers — a regrettable reversal that would increase the uninsured rate. Resurrecting Minnesota’s former publicly-run high-risk insurance pool, which served high-cost patients denied insurance coverage, may not be so simple, either. Trump told the Wall Street Journal last week that he is open to keeping ACA protections for those with pre-existing conditions. But if insurers still can’t deny coverage, who would go into the high-risk pool? And how would this pool, or a similar but more workable “reinsurance” strategy, be paid for? That brings up the biggest question of all: the level of future federal funding for public-health programs. These are substantial sums. Minnesota received $6.35 billion in fiscal 2016 for its medical assistance program. Another $335 million helped pay for MinnesotaCare. It’s premature to act until state lawmakers know how much they can afford to do. Trump’s broad call to roll back regulations could mean that states will take the lead in coverage and controlling costs. This could be a positive development in a dismal health-reform landscape. Providing quality, affordable care has long been a widely shared goal in Minnesota, which has a laudable history of public-private teamwork. It’s now needed more than ever. Lawmakers who campaigned on how much the ACA hurt consumers have a special responsibility to ensure that the law’s rollback would not put coverage even further out of reach. Trump’s broad call to roll back regulations could mean that states will take the lead in coverage and controlling costs. OTHER VIEWS You must serve Trump O f all the conservatives who risks being subject not only to his opposed Donald Trump during whims, but also to the whims of his campaign for the presidency, secretaries and undersecretaries who his most vehement opponents were mirror his all-too-readily-apparent the men and women who had served vices. in past Republican administrations, But here the Republican Senate and particularly in the departments of has a crucially important role to State and of Defense. One hundred and play. Trump cannot appoint Cabinet twenty-two Republican foreign policy officials without the approval of many Ross hands signed a letter denouncing Douthat senators who opposed or doubted him Trump as a menace to U.S. values and throughout the campaign — from Comment world peace. George W. Bush’s CIA Mike Lee and Jeff Flake to John director, Michael Hayden, suggested McCain and Lindsey Graham. These that Trump was a useful idiot for Russian senators cannot force him to pick a secretary interests. Both neoconservatives and realists of state from the ranks of #NeverTrump — Robert Kagan and Paul Wolfowitz, Brent foreign-policy hands. But they can look at his Scowcroft and Richard Armitage — indicated short lists and suggest names that would win that they would vote for confirmation easily (like Hillary Clinton. Stephen Hadley for the But now Trump will be Defense Department), while the commander in chief, making it clear that other the leader of the free world, nominations (Newt Gingrich the man responsible for for secretary of state, say, maintaining the rather or Sheriff David Clarke as frayed and tattered-looking head of Homeland Security) Pax Americana. It’s safe to would be met with prejudice assume that the figures who and voted down. denounced him most vocally If this happens, if a layer will not be in line for key of experienced leadership is positions. But for others, established at the top, then especially the many younger it will signal to younger public servants who would personnel that they can normally staff a Republican serve without fearing that administration, a hard the government they’re question looms: If they fear entering has already been how Trump might govern, Trumpified, or that they will can they in good conscience work for him? be isolated if the man at the top goes haywire. The answer, for now, is that they can and These men and women should not be ready should — and indeed, precisely because they to serve permanently, regardless of what their fear how Trump might govern, there is a moral new boss does in office. If a Trump presidency responsibility to serve. lurches into naked authoritarianism — abusing For the next four years, the most important executive authority in unprecedented ways, check on what we’ve seen of Trump’s worst issuing immoral or illegal orders to the impulses — his hair-trigger temper, his military — then there will be an obligation rampant insecurity, his personal cruelty — not to serve, but to resign. And the gray area won’t come from Congress or the courts or between these two obligations will create a lot the opposition party. It will come from the of territory in which Trump appointees could people charged with executing the basic succumb to moral corruption, justifying their responsibilities of government within his toleration for enormities on the grounds that administration. “the greater good requires me to stay.” This is particularly true in foreign policy, But unlike in the campaign, when where presidential power has its fewest Republicans who endorsed him early were limits — where the chief executive can start effectively enabling his rise to power, at this wars with near-impunity, deal out death particular moment there is no further rise to from the skies, rattle the global economy be enabled. Trump is the president-elect, he with an executive order, and decide with will be the most powerful man in the world, barely anyone else’s input to launch a nuclear whether good people decide to go to work for weapon. In foreign policy, too, the choices that him or not. So if he is willing to make some presidential appointees have to make on their responsible appointments, the good of the own, in diplomatic and military contexts, can world requires that responsible people accept have life-or-death consequences very quickly. them, in the hopes that the first potential evil So to the extent that Trump’s approach to of his presidency — incompetence, leading governance threatens world peace, that to instability, leading to disasters — can be threat can be mitigated by appointees with avoided. experience and knowledge and magnified if Other evils may await, but sufficient unto their posts are filled by hacks and sycophants this day this one. So if he calls, answer. instead. ■ It may be, of course, that Trump wishes to Ross Douthat joined The New York fill the most important posts with sycophants. Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009. In which case anyone who goes to work for Previously, he was a senior editor at the his State Department or Defense Department Atlantic and a blogger for theatlantic.com. There is a moral responsibility for conservatives and Republicans to serve a Trump presidency, even if they fear how he might govern. YOUR VIEWS Labeling and demeaning political opponents must stop Dear George (Murdock), I read your recent opinion piece in the East Oregonian and was surprised at how different the tone was from what I see in our face-to-face interactions while working on projects together for the betterment of the community. I’d like to offer an alternative letter that I would have liked to have seen from our elected representatives: While peaceful protests that allow for people to exercise their freedom of expression is an important part of our democracy, violence and destruction must be condemned in the strongest terms. In the same spirit, as we discuss different views on policy and our new president works to enact changes that he and those who voted for him hope will bring greater prosperity to the country, we must condemn in the strongest terms the bullying, intimidation, harassment or marginalization of anyone based on their race, sex, gender identity, nationality or economic status. The use of labels and assumptions stops now. The divisiveness, name-calling and broad stereotyping of those we disagree with stops now. Now is the time for our best selves to come together and do the difficult, honest work of identifying and understanding the common values that connect us, and truly educating ourselves about the issues facing those we disagree with. It’s the time to confront our own misconceptions, biases, fears and the human impulse to be more exhilarated by outrage than by humility. I have the privilege of dealing with people who hold a wide range of opinions, political positions, religious views and personal life experiences. And while I may disagree with some of them about how we get there, I know that they all hold the same hopes for the prosperity, health and happiness of their families that I do. Roberta Lavadour 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 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 phone number. Send letters to 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.
