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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
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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.