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Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Wednesday, March 8, 2017 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 Hurdles remain for Trumpcare Donald Trump and Republicans, consumers. ▪ Reduce the tax credits given to with a major assist from Greg middle-income Americans to help Walden, unveiled their first serious offset insurance costs. attempt to re-imagine the American ▪ Change the way those subsidies health care system after Obamacare. will be distributed. It has not received a favorable ▪ Scale back Medicaid response from some, both ▪ Remove limits on tax-free conservative and liberal, and its future is in doubt. Obviously, putting Health Savings Accounts ▪ Change the restrictions on how forward comprehensive health care much insurance companies can reform is difficult work, and it’s no charge older Americans. wonder that the first iteration of the It would keep portions of the law, Republican plan will need major too, including the ability for children tweaking. to stay on their parents’ insurance President Donald Trump said last month: “Nobody knew health until age 26. care could be so ▪ Keep the complicated.” requirement of No Republicans insurers to cover But that’s not with true. Anyone who voted in favor people pre-existing medical has spent hours of the ACA, conditions and bars on the phone with companies from their insurance and many charging those company, trying to people more. decipher whether a have come certain physician or ▪ Keep out against procedure is covered government- essential by their plan, the initial plan provided knows that health health benefits, backed by care is immensely including maternity complicated on and preventive President Trump care an individual and services. family basis. Now ▪ Keep imagine trying to figure it out for prohibitions on annual and lifetime more than 300 million people. limits for how much insurance Complex is an understatement, companies have to pay to cover a and perhaps we short-changed the customer. So that’s Trumpcare in a nutshell. imperfect Affordable Care Act, aka At least version 1.0. Obamacare, for at least getting a The president tweeted this week, few of the many problems under using for the first time using the temporary control. words “my bill.” It would be the first But no Republicans voted in policy directly tied to him that went favor of the ACA, and many in the through the normal channels of how last eight years made its repeal their signature campaign promise. So it is this country was crafted to make no surprise that the bill released this legislation — if it can survive that process. week — supported by Trump and Executive orders are much easier keeping some major tenants of the and can be done with the stroke of a ACA — has come in from virulent pen. Trump will soon learn how hard conservative opposition Very briefly, here’s what the GOP it is to push a massive bill through Congress, even when his party is in bill would do, were it to become control of both houses. Obama was law: able to do it, but he used up a ton ▪ Repeal both the individual of political capital in the process. and employer mandates (which Whether Trump has that capital, allows the government to penalize and the political skill to maneuver individuals who go without his idea through a complex process, insurance and businesses who don’t remains to be seen. offer insurance to their employees). Whether it’s good for America is ▪ Repeal government subsidies another question altogether. that reduce insurance costs for 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. YOUR VIEWS Morrow Co. school admins Don’t repeal ACA until failed to act on misconduct a better system in place Morrow County Supt. Dirk Dirksen contends his administration “stays alert and asks people to report it” (behavior that constitutes sexual misconduct). In the case of Jake McElligott, the Irrigon High School administration and Supt. Dirksen had the mandatory report of sexual grooming two years before Mr. McElligott left Irrigon High School. Instead of honestly investigating the report of sexual grooming and taking appropriate action, the Irrigon and district administration chose to cover for Coach McElligott. Had the Irrigon principal, Craig Bensen, athletic director Blaine Ganvoa and Supt. Dirk Dirksen responded with integrity and the professionalism expected from the authority entrusted in them, this tragedy would never have happened. Our youth must be protected. I am not making excuses for Jake McElligott, but had the administration done their job this heartache would never have happened, the girls would not have been taken advantage of and a large portion of the high student body would not have had their moral values compromised. For Congress to get rid of the Affordable Care Act— also known as Obamacare — before coming up with another comprehensive plan would hurt thousands of central and eastern Orego- nians. It would also cause the layoffs of many medical staff, and possibly the closure of clinics. The ACA/Obamacare has been valuable for central and eastern Oregon. In 2013, before the Act took effect, 19.2 percent of central Oregonians were uninsured. In 2015, that number dropped sharply to 5.3 percent. In 2013. 16.4 percent of eastern Oregonians were uninsured. That number dropped to 5.3 percent in 2015. Many of these newly insured people are on Medicaid. These numbers come from the Oregon Health Insurance Survey, which is done by the state every other year. We need to make sure our represen- tative in Congress, Greg Walden, knows how we feel about this issue before drastic changes are made. Paula Surmann Sisters Stuart Dick Irrigon 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. OTHER VIEWS The information vacuum inside the Trump Russia controversy P ut aside, for a moment, the on the collusion angle. raging controversies over this What all that suggests is that there or that aspect of Donald Trump, is an information vacuum at the core the Russians, and the election. And of the Russia election controversy. then ask: What do we know about the Everybody is talking about things they allegation at the heart of the matter: don’t know even happened. Did Trump, his campaign aides, or his The vacuum has not stopped associates collude with Russians to President Trump’s accusers, who influence the 2016 campaign? are suggesting there is incriminating Byron The answer is, we know nothing. evidence of collusion the public has York After all the investigating, after all the not seen. “There are transcripts that Comment talk, after all the yelling — the public provide very helpful, very critical knows nothing. There may be people at insights into whether or not Russian the highest levels of U.S. government secrecy intelligence or senior Russian political who know the answer, but even that is not leaders — including Vladimir Putin — were clear at the moment. cooperating, were colluding, with the Trump The most definitive statement of the current campaign at the highest levels to influence the outcome of our election,” Democratic Sen. situation came Sunday on NBCs “Meet the Chris Coons told MSNBC Friday. “I believe Press.” James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence, admitted that he does not they exist.” The problem, for Coons, and other know of any evidence that proves collusion, or Democrats, is that his belief might not be even points toward collusion. based in fact. On Saturday, Coons’ office “Does intelligence exist that can released a statement saying he did not mean definitively answer the following question, whether there were improper contacts between to suggest “that he is aware of transcripts indicating collusion between the Trump the Trump campaign and Russian officials?” campaign and the Russians.” And on Sunday, NBC’s Chuck Todd asked Clapper. facing questions from Fox News’ Chris “We did not include any evidence in our Wallace, Coons went into full retreat. report ... that had anything, that had any Wallace asked this: “Do you have any reflection of collusion between members evidence, at this point, and this investigation of the Trump campaign and the Russians,” Clapper answered. “There was no evidence of has been going on for a long period of time ... do you know of any hard evidence of that included in our report.” “I understand that, but does it exist?” asked collusion between what I call TrumpWorld and the Russians to interfere in this Todd. presidential campaign? Not suspicions, not “Not to my knowledge,” said Clapper. contacts — but evidence of collusion?” “If it existed, it would have been in the “Chris, I have no hard evidence of report?” asked Todd. collusion,” Coons answered. “I think what “This could have unfolded or become hard evidence there may be will be discovered available in the time since I left the either through a full release of President government,” Clapper responded. “But at the Trump’s financial interests and concerns time, we had no evidence of such collusion.” and taxes, or the intercepts that I believe our Remember that Clapper was head of intelligence community and FBI have of national intelligence until Jan. 20. There conversations between and among Russian have been reports the Trump Russia hacking officials.” investigation was going on last summer, that The Coons “Fox News Sunday” interview it accelerated in the fall, and that it has been could prove a revealing moment in the Trump moving along ever since. So Clapper was Russia election affair. When Coons admitted there for most of the investigation. And he that he had seen no evidence of collusion, says he knows of no evidence of collusion. where did he suggest it might be? In the Other government officials who know president’s tax returns. less than Clapper — but who should still Just how that might be possible is not know something — are in the dark. On Feb. clear. But there is no doubt Democrats work 27, Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, who every day to pressure Trump to release his is the chairman of the House Intelligence taxes (something candidate Trump broke with Committee, said, “We still have not seen any tradition by refusing to do). If Democrats evidence of anyone that’s — from the Trump come up with a dry hole on the Russia election campaign or any other campaign, for that matter, they might, like Coons, just seamlessly matter, that’s communicated with the Russian segue to Trump’s taxes. government.” In the meantime, there are mounting Pressed about alleged contacts, Nunes said, demands for a special prosecutor, or a “9/11- “That doesn’t mean they don’t exist, but I don’t have that. And what I’ve been told is, by style commission” to investigate an alleged many — by many folks, is that there’s nothing event — TrumpWorld-Russia collusion — that even the nation’s top investigators, after there.” months of investigation, don’t know actually A few days later, Rep. Adam Schiff, happened. Nunes’ colleague and the top Democrat on To be clear, it’s possible that the Intel Committee, expressed frustration incontrovertible evidence of collusion exists with the FBI for not sharing information on somewhere in the government’s classified the investigation. “I would say at this point investigation machine. It might be that the we know less than a fraction of what the FBI FBI director, or some other official, will soon knows.” release information to settle the question once Nunes and Schiff — who both have and for all. But right now, even as there are security clearances and, as the prime House calls to escalate the investigation, some very overseers of the intelligence community knowledgeable people are beginning to admit should know what they are talking about — both agree: they know nothing about evidence they know of nothing there. Recently an anonymous Washington of collusion. Nunes appears to believe that is politico told Axios’ Mike Allen of the Russia because there isn’t any such evidence. Schiff election case, “This is the rare case where the appears to believe that is because the FBI has smoke IS the fire.” That’s clever, but no, the been hiding the evidence. But both say they smoke is not the fire. The fire is the fire. And don’t know much. The situation seems no better in the Senate, right now, no one seems to know if there is any fire at all. where the biggest recent controversy has ■ been over Intelligence Committee chairman Byron York is chief political correspondent Richard Burr acting at the behest of the White for The Washington Examiner. House to tell reporters there’s no there there
