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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, December 28, 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
Frightful forecast puts
drivers on notice
Winter in Eastern Oregon.
It can be a beautiful time and place, as long as you have the option of
staying indoors next to a burning fire.
Tuesday morning broke to 45 degrees and windy in Pendleton, a balmy
start to what would be a mild day. Residents of the city and in Hermiston
might be surprised to read about the treacherous conditions that were just a
few miles to the south and east.
Things were markedly different atop Cabbage Hill, atop Tollgate and
east of La Grande. Drivers who thought they would just cruise through
the area were sorely
disappointed as
Interstate 84 was closed
in both directions for
much of the day. State
highways in Union and
Wallowa counties were
shut down, too — and
for good reason.
Opinion page editor
Tim Trainor risked life
and limb to make the
drive from Pendleton
to Enterprise to fill in
at our Wallowa County
newspaper.
Photo contributed by ODOT
Highway 82 was
Snow drifts cover Highway 237 in Union County
closed at Island City,
on Tuesday.
but he drove over
Tollgate and through
snow-smacked Elgin, which looks more like the North Pole right now.
Low visibility, blowing snow and deep drifts covered the roadway, and
there was nary a place to get off the road and out of harm’s way. It was a
downright blizzard, and that warm breeze that flashed through Pendleton
was much more menacing at a couple thousand feet of elevation.
We love to live in Eastern Oregon because of its remoteness, because of
a close relationship to nature and because of its wide expanses and empty
space. But those all work against us when winter storms come to town and
we find ourselves behind the wheel.
Drivers must do a mental check when trying to navigate the region.
Studies have shown — from climbers atop Mt. Everest to city-dwellers
just trying to get to the store for a gallon of milk — that in dangerous
situations humans often pile poor decisions atop poor decisions. We don’t
take advantage of our good fortune, and having come out of a hairy situation
clean we tend to put ourselves into an even hairier one.
Mentally, the longer we have traveled the more we have suffered, the
more likely we are to keep going through it. That can be a fatal flaw if
backcountry skiing, say, or trying get yourself to Boise when the roads won’t
allow it.
Eastern Oregonians must sometimes be strong enough to turn around, and
surrender a round to Mother Nature and live another day.
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
As Oregon grows, more
representation imminent
The (Eugene) Register-Guard, Dec. 26
O
regon is solidly on track to gain
a sixth congressional district as a
result of the 2020 Census. In nearly
all of the period since statehood, Ore gon’s
population has grown more rapidly than
the national average — and that trend
has continued since 1980, the last time
Oregon added a member to its delegation
in the U.S. House of Representatives. It’s
not too early for state officials to begin
thinking about how to divide Oregon into
six geographically coherent districts of
equal population.
A sixth district looks likely for Oregon
partly because the state was close to
gaining a new district after the last
Census, in 2010. Oregon’s population
growth has been relatively robust since
then. More than halfway through the
decade, most of the population changes
that will be used to adjust congressional
representation among the states have
already occurred. According to an
analysis by RealClearPolitics, among
the states that might qualify for an
additional House seat, Oregon’s position
is relatively strong.
Figures from mid-2016 show that
Oregon was home to 1.24 percent of
the nation’s population. With a five-
member U.S. House delegation, Ore gon
has only 1.15 percent of the nation’s
representatives. The addition of a sixth
member would give Oregon 1.38 percent
of the 435-member House. The state
would probably remain over-represented
for a decade or two, and then would
become under-represented until it gains a
seventh House member in 30 or 40 years.
All House districts are redrawn every
10 years to ensure that each of a state’s
House members represents the same
number of people. No district can be
divided between two states, so House
members from some states represent
more people than members from others.
Wyoming’s lone House member, for
instance, represents 584,000 people,
while each House member from Oregon
represents more than 800,000.
In Oregon, redrawing political
districts is a responsibility of the state
Legislature. If legislators can’t agree on
a redistricting plan, the job is assigned to
the secretary of state. After the Census
of 2010, the Legislature successfully
completed a redistricting plan for the first
time in several 10-year cycles.
Most of Oregon’s current
congressional districts are geographically
coherent. Rep. Peter DeFazio’s 4th
District, for instance, covers the timber-
dependent southwest quarter of the state,
while Rep. Greg Walden’s 2nd District
takes in all of Eastern Oregon and Rep.
Earl Blumenauer’s 3rd District is centered
in Portland. The most awkwardly shaped
district is Kurt Schrader’s 5th, which
extends from the Portland suburbs to the
coast. The 2020 Census is likely to offer
an opportunity to draw more compact
districts in fast-growing Washington and
Clackamas counties.
Nationally, current population growth
patterns suggest that the long-term shift
of political power from the north to the
south, and from the east to the west, will
continue. Along with Oregon, Arizona,
Colorado and North Carolina are each
considered likely to gain a House seat.
Florida could gain two, and Texas three.
Alabama, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota,
New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode
Island and West Virginia can expect to
lose one seat apiece.
The effect on the partisan balance
in the House is likely to be minimal. In
Oregon, however, a sixth district centered
in conservative- leaning Clackamas
County could present an opportunity for
Republicans, who currently hold only one
of the state’s five House seats. Schrader’s
5th is currently Oregon’s closest to being
a swing district, but after 2020 the state
could have either two swing districts or a
second one that leans Republican.
OTHER VIEWS
A letter to President-elect
Trump about health care
D
ear Mr. President-elect:
give insurers reason to exit quickly. As
Your position on universal
Nicholas Bagley, a leading expert at
health insurance has been
the University of Michigan, says, “If
admirably clear. You support it. You
you’re an insurer, you’re likely to head
did before you ran for president and
for the hills.”
continued to do so in the campaign.
The chaos runs a high risk of leaving
In 2000, you wrote, “We must have
millions of people without insurance
universal health care.” In a Fox News
early in your presidency. Many of them
debate last year, you said, “We have to
will be members of the white working
David
take care of the people that can’t take
Leonhardt class who voted for you. Everyone
care of themselves.” On “60 Minutes,”
who loses insurance will be grist for
Comment
you said, “Everybody’s got to be
criticism of you.
covered.”
As you know, the Republican leaders
in Congress have never been your biggest fans.
I am writing to you now because I am
I think it’s fair to say that they care more about
concerned that Republicans in Congress do
being able to brag that they got rid of Obamacare
not share your goal and are not giving you
than about your political standing. The bills they
good advice on this issue. I’m worried that
are considering threaten your standing.
they are not acting in the best interests of your
But you have alternatives.
presidency or the country. I
The crucial first step
encourage you to be skeptical
I’m worried that
is to avoid repealing the
of them.
insurance expansion without
It is entirely possible for
Republicans in
simultaneously replacing it.
you to sign a conservative
The new Congress comes to
health care bill that lives up
Congress are not
Washington next week, and its
to your belief in universal
acting in the best
members should know where
coverage. It’s a bill that
stand from the beginning.
you could celebrate as a
interests of your pres- you
It won’t work to promise
replacement of Obamacare.
idency or the country. millions of people health
But it would be quite
insurance on spec.
different from the bills that
If you avoid this trap, you
congressional Republicans are I encourage you to be
can then push both parties
pushing.
skeptical of them.
toward a different version of
When they claim that
universal health coverage.
their bills will not take health
“There is a ton of policy space for
insurance away from millions of people,
they’re engaging in magical thinking. They are compromise,” as Bagley says. “There is
room for a really interesting discussion and
trying to fool the media, voters and you.
potentially a breakthrough that could rebrand
They are focusing on a strategy of “repeal
and delay,” in which major parts of Obamacare Obamacare and replace some of the portions of
it that most set Republican teeth on edge.” You
will remain for months or years. In the
will like this, Mr. President-elect: Bagley also
intervening time, they say, they will somehow
says you are “the kind of politician who could
keep people from losing insurance.
But they do not have a realistic plan, despite cut a really interesting deal.”
That deal could give states more flexibility
years of talk. Nor, to be blunt, does your choice
to meet the top-line coverage goals. It could
for secretary of health and human services,
who is one of those congressional Republicans. rely more heavily on subsidies to bring healthy
people into the market — and ultimately
And a repeal is likely to undermine insurance
scrap the mandate. It could permit insurers to
markets long before its effective date.
charge young people less (and older people
Mr. President-elect, you are a businessman.
more). It could create incentives for personal
You understand that savvy executives don’t
responsibility, allowing higher prices for people
simply live in the present. They look to
who have voluntarily gone without insurance.
the future. They’re fond of quoting Wayne
I will be honest that I do not favor some of
Gretzky: “Skate to where the puck is going, not
these ideas and worry that they would cause
where it has been.”
hardships. But I was not elected president, and
Insurance executives can see through the
you were. And all of these ideas are within the
magical thinking of politicians. They know
realm of serious debate about our health care
that a functioning insurance market must
include both healthy and sick people. There are system.
For your sake and the country’s, I hope you
very few ways to guarantee this combination.
insist that Congress deals in reality. Magical
Without Obamacare’s subsidies to help people
thinking isn’t good for a presidency.
buy coverage and its mandate (weak as it is) to
■
require they have coverage, markets will break
David Leonhardt is the managing editor at
down. The healthy will leave, the sick will stay
The New York Times Company and served as its
and costs will soar.
Washington bureau chief since 2011.
After a repeal is signed, the uncertainty will
YOUR VIEWS
A ‘quieter federal land battle
unfolds’
If you really look at what is unfolding, it’s
a battle for who speaks for local residents and
how they use public resources.
Mark Webb, executive director for the
Forest Service-supported Blue Mountains
Forest Partners (collaborative) worked
hard to disband the forest commission — a
commission that friends of Mr. Webb’s sat
on for years, and never once questioned
the legitimacy of the commission. Steve
Beverlin, supervisor for the Malheur National
Forest, told forestry leaders that if road
closures were opposed, no harvest would
come off the forest, meaning “partners” of
the “collaborative” would not see their $70
million “stewardship contract” come to pass.
So, what were Mr. Webb and Mr. Beverlin
to do? Could they sit back and watch “their”
collaborative not be the sole “voice” on the
Malheur National Forest? No. Could they sit
back and watch people they supported for the
commission lose in the primary and see their
“influence” dwindle to nothing, as the forest
commission could be used in Grant County
directly “coordinating” on projects in the
county? No.
They were left with only one course of
action: Disband the commission, steal the
voice from the people of Grant County, and
remove the last effective tool the people had
to affect change on bad projects. This doesn’t
even mention Mr. Webb’s growing influence
and wage as the executive director of the
collaborative, that is in direct conflict with
the commission.
Were Forest Service “collaboratives”
formed to bring people together, or to control
a message? Seems more to the latter any
more. Do what the collaborative says, and
you can proceed; go against the collaborative,
and they send in their executive director to
kill public participation.
Nice model you have, Mr. Webb and
Mr. Beverlin. Maybe you should take in
nationally — oh wait, it already is.
John D. George
Bates, Ore.
Editor’s note: This letter is in response to
an Associated Press article published Dec. 22
in the East Oregonian.
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 managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801
or email editor@eastoregonian.com.