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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.