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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (March 11, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, March 11, 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 EO MEDIA GROUP East Oregonian • The Daily Astorian • Capital Press • Hermiston Herald Blue Mountain Eagle • Wallowa County Chieftain • Chinook Observer • Coast River Business Journal Oregon Coast Today • Coast Weekend • Seaside Signal • Cannon Beach Gazette Eastern Oregon Real Estate Guide • Eastern Oregon Marketplace • Coast Marketplace OnlyAg.com • FarmSeller.com • Seaside-Sun.com • NorthwestOpinions.com • DiscoverOurCoast.com Turn the page on occupation OUR VIEW In a way, Oregon finally gets in control and who devised the plan remain unconvicted. That may not to turn the page on the occupation last long, however, as Ammon, Ryan of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, little more than and their father, Cliven, face even more serious charges in a Nevada a year after a 41-day standoff came court of law. to a close. Perhaps it is truly the occupation Feds re-seized the public property that will never end. in February 2016, an event that Yet, for Eastern Oregonians, gained international attention. To we should consider the book of some who watched, it was a clear justice closed for all story of government intents and purposes. overreach. To others, it was no doubt More than a We should take a book off the domestic terrorism. year after the new shelf and start a To a Portland jury, it was somewhere in standoff, the new chapter, one ranchers and between. book of justice where residents can speak That jury on without fear about Friday returned in Oregon the land they love guilty verdicts on comes to and listen to others. two defendants and The rabble-rousing not guilty verdicts to a close. outsiders didn’t start two others who had that conversation, and been charged with they sure aren’t going conspiracy. Duane to have the last word. Ehmer, who lived in Irrigon when Leadership from federal officials the occupation began, was one of the is likely to be nil in the next few men who was set free. years, but perhaps that offers an Remember that back in October, opportunity to rebuild from the Ammon Bundy and six others were community up. We should reject acquitted on the same conspiracy outside agitators and instead focus and weapons charges after a five on the local economy and the week trial — results that shocked local environment. When thinking legal experts but confirmed the about public lands, we should not feelings of many Bundy supporters. be hyperbolic about problems, Whether legal or illegal, it was pessimistic about solutions, nostalgic clear Ammon and his brother Ryan about the past or nihilistic about the were ringleaders in the occupation. future. It’s disappointing that some Let’s put the occupation behind us minor players were found or pleaded and step forward as a region. guilty for their crimes, while those 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 Oregon tuition hikes again The (Albany) Democrat-Herald A s state support has waned over the years for Oregon’s public universities, students have filled the gap by paying more and more and more in tuition. And it looks as if that’s going to happen yet again, as lawmakers grapple with a $1.6 billion shortfall that could leave the state’s public universities and colleges millions short of what officials believe those institutions will need. Just last week, the University of Oregon’s board of trustees authorized a plan to increase in-state undergraduate tuition by 10.6 percent. It’s the largest tuition increase at that university since 2010. Portland State University officials are considering a similar increase. Oregon State University officials are mulling a 4 to 8 percent tuition increase, in addition to possible cutbacks in programs: President Ed Ray has said the university could be looking at a $20 million annual shortfall. OSU officials are mulling curtailing salary increases, going slow on new hires and leaving some open positions vacant. The University of Oregon is considering cutbacks, with reports surfacing that it will cut $9 million from its budget. It was just two years ago that sunnier budget times allowed Oregon lawmakers to approve a budget that included a 22 percent increase in spending on the state’s public universities. That was enough of a boost to pull Oregon out of the cellar in terms of the amount of support it provides to higher education: The Oregonian reported last week that Oregon now ranks 37th in the nation in that category, which isn’t great, but is better than the bottom-five ranking the state usually earns. However, It might be that we’re getting ready to resume that familiar slide to the bottom: The first-draft budget from Gov. Kate Brown called for flat-lining spending for the state’s seven universities at $667 million. University officials were hoping for an additional $100 million in funding. A later draft budget from legislative budget leaders added a bit to that number, but didn’t come close to filling the hole. The legislative budget also assumed that lawmakers would not be able to identify additional sources of revenue. The problem with a flat budget is that it doesn’t take into account some of the very factors that are driving the state’s $1.6 billion shortfall: Increased obligations for public pensions and rising costs for medical insurance, not to mention inflation and salary increases. Ray has said that 70 percent of OSU’s budget goes to personnel, so that limits the university’s options in trimming costs. One budgetary option that universities do have, however, is raising tuition. The problem there, of course, is that if you raise tuition too much, the costs eventually drive students away (something like that might be happening at the University of Oregon). And as the economy continues to improve, potential students might well elect against assuming mountains of debt in order to earn a degree. There are some ways to manage that, though: OSU, for example, is working on ways to keep students on track in school so that they can graduate in four or five years instead of six or seven, with obvious savings. But those sorts of strategies can only go so far. It’s still early in the legislative session, so there’s plenty of time for changes to the state budget. Nevertheless, you would think that everyone understands the long-term risks of asking students, again and again and again, to cover the funding gaps in our state universities. Will it require a full-fledged meltdown at one or more of our schools to hammer the point home? Let’s hope not. OTHER VIEWS The Republican health care crackup T he Republican health care bill trying to pay lip service to every could represent the moment obsolete prejudice in the various wings when the old order of American of the party. politics completely cracks up, the end You end up with this hodgepodge of a certain era in American politics. legislation that pleases nobody and That era began around 1974, when takes the big crises afflicting our country and makes them all worse. Ted Kennedy introduced a bill to The Republican health plan would supplement America’s employer-based make America’s economic chasm insurance system with a government David worse. It would cut health subsidies program. The Democratic dream of Brooks that go to the poor while eliminating universal coverage continued through Comment the net investment income tax, which Hillary Clinton’s time as first lady and benefits only the top 1 percent. reached a partial culmination with the The Republican plan would further passage of Obamacare. destabilize the social fabric for those at the Combating government health care was a bottom. Throwing perhaps 10 million people central Republican preoccupation through all off the insurance rolls will that time, and the passage of increase fear, isolation, social Obamacare provoked the Tea tension, chronic illness, Party reaction and final arrival suicide and bankruptcy. of Goldwaterite populist The Republican plan will conservatism. fuel cynicism. It’s being By 2010, however, both the pushed through in an elitist, Obama administration and the anti-democratic, middle of the Tea Party opposition were out night rush. It seems purposely of step with the times. They designed to fail. The penalties for those who both still thought the big political issues in American life were universal health care and don’t purchase insurance are so low they seem the size of government. sure to guarantee Republican-caused death In fact, another set of problems had spirals in the weaker markets. magnified and come to overshadow the old This thing probably won’t pass, but even if set. This new set included: it passes it will probably lead to immense pain First, the crisis of opportunity. People with and disruption. That will discredit market- fewer skills were seeing their wages stagnate, based social reform, cost the Republicans their the labor markets evaporate. congressional majorities and end what’s left of Second, the crisis of solidarity. The social the Reagan-era party. fabric, especially for those without a college It will also point the way to a new era. degree, was disintegrating — marriage rates The central debate in the old era was big plummeting, opiate abuse rates rising. government versus small government, the Third, the crisis of authority. Distrust market versus the state. But now you’ve got in major institutions crossed some sort millions of people growing up in social and of threshold. People had so lost trust in cultural chaos and not getting the skills they government, the media, the leadership class need to thrive in a technological society. This in general, that they were willing to abandon is not a problem you can solve with tax cuts. truth and decorum and embrace authoritarian And if you don’t solve this problem, thuggery to blow it all up. voters around the world have demonstrated If President Barack Obama had made these that they’re quite willing to destroy market crises the center of his administration, instead mechanisms to get the security they crave. of the ACA, Democrats wouldn’t have lost They will trash free trade, cut legal skilled Congress and the White House. If the Tea immigration, attack modern finance and Party had understood the first two of these choose state-run corporatism over dynamic crises, there would have been no opening for free market capitalism. Donald Trump. The core of the new era is this: If you want Trump came along and exploited these to preserve the market, you have to have crises. But if his administration’s health care a strong state that enables people to thrive approach teaches us anything, it is that he has in it. If you are pro-market, you have to be no positive agenda for addressing them. He pro-state. You can come up with innovative can tap into working class anxiety negatively, ways to deliver state services, like affordable by harnessing hostility toward immigrants, health care, but you can’t just leave people on foreigners and the poor. But he can’t come up their own. The social fabric, the safety net and with a positive agenda to make working class the human capital sources just aren’t strong life more secure. enough. So we have a group of Freedom Caucus New social crises transform party Republicans who still think the major philosophies. We’re in the middle of a problems in the country today can be cured transformation. But to get there we’ve got to with tax and spending cuts. We have a Trump live through this final health care debacle first. administration that has populist impulses ■ but no actual populist safety net policies. David Brooks became a New York Times And we’ve got a Republican leadership in Op-Ed columnist in 2003. He is currently a Congress mired in Reagan-era thinking and commentator on PBS. This bill will point the way to a new era. YOUR VIEWS Americans must focus on fixing country, not leaving it Andrea Zendejas’s recent letter is disturbing both in content and in spirit, and her suggestion that dissenters “go back where you came from” is ridiculous on its face. Many of us are deeply concerned that actions coming from the current administration appear to be frivolous at best, unconstitutional at worst, and mean-spirited across the board. That doesn’t mean we don’t love our country. We do, and we want it to remain a place where every human being can be not only allowed but encouraged to achieve the best that he or she is capable of. We must remain a country where freedom of expression is encouraged, not repressed; where our public officials must maintain high standards of behavior and be held accountable when those standards are violated; and where the institutions responsible for disseminating information about government actions must in every case present that information in a clear, unbiased, and trustworthy fashion. Obviously, not all those ideals are being upheld at the present time. This does not mean that those of us protesting inappropriate actions or statements wish our country ill. On the contrary, we want it to heal and to remain a beacon of hope and freedom and strength that the world can admire and emulate. Ms. Zendejas, I can’t “go back where I came from,” because my family’s roots are deep in this soil. The family joke is that some of my mother’s ancestors came here in 1635 on the ship “Increase” … and some of my father’s ancestors were here to greet them. But it doesn’t matter when we arrived. We’re here now. We love our country. We want it to thrive. If you live in a house you love and the roof begins to leak, you don’t move out. You fix the leak. And in the process, you look around for related damages or other potential problems. That, my friend, is what we are doing. We feel that the person we have hired to repair the roof is actually up there ripping off shingles and sawing through trusses. We want him down off the roof and replaced by someone who knows what he or she is doing and can be trusted to do it properly and openly. To simply stand aside and wring our hands while this is going on is irresponsible and ultimately self-destructive. Lynda Carraher Umatilla 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.
