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OPINION
East Oregonian
Tuesday, March 14, 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
Trump sends WOTUS
back for review
President Donald Trump is working
to make good on a campaign promise
to dump the “waters of the United
States rule.”
Earlier this month Trump signed
an executive order calling for the
Environmental Protection Agency and
the Corps of Engineers to review the
final rule, and to revise and rescind the
rule as necessary.
Good. The rule was overly broad,
and expanded the already considerable
reach of those agencies.
EPA and the Corps worked on the
rule for a couple of years in the hopes
of reconciling two separate Supreme
Court decisions in cases involving the
Clean Water Act. The object was to
better define what constitutes “waters
of the United States,” which the act
gives the federal government authority
to regulate.
The language of the rule would
extend regulation to isolated bodies of
water that have a “significant nexus”
with navigable waters of the United
States.
While the rule makes clear
reference to exempted established
farming practices, the bureaucracy has
flouted these exemptions in the past by
imposing narrow and unconventional
interpretations of what is allowed.
Despite the government’s protest
to the contrary, farm and ranch
groups worried the feds would use
the opportunity to expand their
authority over “waters,” and therefore
adjacent lands, not previously subject
to regulation under the Clean Water
Act. Such a designation could have
profound and expensive consequences
for landowners.
Twenty-eight states asked the
Obama administration to delay
implementing the rule when it came
out in 2015, arguing the agencies had
failed to follow proper procedure in
formulating the rule. Thirteen states
promptly sued in 2015 when the final
order was released.
Even the Corps had its doubts,
writing a scathing email to EPA
officials prior to the release of the
final draft. Unhappy with the way
EPA wrote the document, the Corps
determined the rule would not
withstand a court challenge.
And it was right.
North Dakota U.S. District Judge
Ralph Erickson granted a preliminary
injunction delaying the rule’s
implementation.
Erickson said the states were
likely to succeed on the merits
because the agencies had adopted an
“exceptionally expansive” regulatory
scheme, allowing the EPA to regulate
“waters that do not bear any effect on
the ‘chemical, physical and biological
integrity’ of any navigable-in-fact
water.”
The litigation is ongoing, and the
rule remains under nationwide stay.
Getting rid of the rule as written
is a good first step in reducing the
reach of the administrative state. But
that’s not enough, because it will leave
unresolved the ambiguity created by
the disparate Supreme Court rulings.
Farmers, ranchers and regulators
need clear, unambiguous guidance
on the true extent and limit of the
government’s authority.
On that point the next rule must be
quite clear.
OTHER VIEWS
Facts are enemies of the people
office isn’t always right, but it has a
he U.S. economy added 10.3
very good track record compared with
million jobs during President
other forecasters; even more important,
Barack Obama’s second term,
it has always been scrupulous about
or 214,000 a month. This brought the
avoiding partisanship, and therefore
official unemployment rate below 5
percent, and a number of indicators
acts as an important check on politically
suggested that by late last year we
motivated wishful thinking.
were fairly close to full employment.
But Republicans rammed Trumpcare
But Donald Trump insisted that the
through key committees, literally in
Paul
good news on jobs was “phony,” that
Krugman the dead of night, without waiting for
America was actually suffering from
the CBO score — and they have been
Comment
mass unemployment.
pre-emptively denouncing the budget
Then came the first employment
office, which is likely to find that the bill
report of the Trump administration, which at
would cause millions to lose health coverage.
235,000 jobs added looked very much like a
(Editor’s note: The CBO review estimates 24
continuation of the previous trend. And the
million people will lose health insurance if the
administration claimed credit: Job numbers,
bill is passed as-is).
Trump’s press secretary declared, “may have
The truth is that while the office got some
been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.”
things wrong about health reform, on the whole
Reporters laughed — and should be
it did pretty well at projecting the effects of a
ashamed of themselves for doing so. For it
major new bill — and far better than the people
really wasn’t a joke. The United States is
now attacking it, who predicted disasters that
now governed by a president and party that
never happened. And whatever criticisms one
fundamentally don’t accept the idea that there
may have of its forthcoming score, it will surely
are objective facts. Instead, they want everyone be better than the ludicrous claim of Tom Price,
to accept that reality is whatever they say it is.
the secretary of health and human services,
So we’re just supposed to believe
that “nobody will be worse off financially” as
the president if he says, falsely, that his
a result of a plan that drastically cuts subsidies
inauguration crowd was the biggest ever; if he
and raises premiums for millions of Americans.
claims, ludicrously, that millions of votes were
But this isn’t really about whose analyses
cast illegally for his opponent; if he insists, with of health policy are most likely to get it right.
no evidence, that his predecessor tapped his
It’s about Trump and company attacking the
phones.
legitimacy of anyone who might question their
And it’s not just about serving one man’s
assertions.
vanity. If you want to see how this attitude can
The CBO, in other words, is in the same
hurt millions of people, consider the state of
position as the news media, which Trump
play on health care reform.
has declared “enemies of the people” — not,
Obamacare has led to a sharp decline in the
whatever he may say, because they get things
number of Americans without health insurance. wrong, but because they dare to challenge him
You can argue that the decline should have
on anything.
been even sharper, that there may be troubles
“Enemy of the people” is, of course, a
ahead, or that we should have done better. But
phrase historically associated with Stalin and
the reality of the law’s achievement shouldn’t
other tyrants. This is no accident. Trump isn’t
be in question, and you should worry about
a dictator — not yet, anyway — but he clearly
the consequences of Trumpcare, which would
has totalitarian instincts.
drastically weaken key provisions.
And much, perhaps most, of his party is
Republicans, however, are in denial about
happy to go along, accepting even the most
recent gains. The president of the Heritage
bizarre conspiracy theories. For example, a
Foundation dismisses the positive effects of
huge majority of Republicans believe Trump’s
the Affordable Care Act as “fake news.” In
basically insane charges about being wiretapped
Louisville over the weekend, Vice President
by Obama.
Mike Pence declared that “Obamacare has
So don’t make the mistake of dismissing
failed the people of Kentucky” — this in a
the assault on the Congressional Budget Office
state where the percentage of people without
as some kind of technical dispute. It’s part of a
insurance fell from 16.6 to 7 percent when the
much bigger struggle, in which what’s really at
law went into effect.
stake is whether ignorance is strength, whether
And as for the likely impacts of Trumpcare
the man in the White House is the sole arbiter
— well, they literally don’t want to know.
of truth.
When Congress is considering major
■
legislation, it normally waits for the
Paul Krugman joined The New York Times
Congressional Budget Office to “score” the
in 1999 as a columnist on the Op-Ed Page and
proposal — to estimate its effects on revenues,
continues as professor of Economics and Inter-
outlays and other key targets. The budget
national Affairs at Princeton University.
T
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
Hermiston school buildings
in need of replacement
As an alumnus of Hermiston High
School and father to current HHS students,
I urge you to vote yes for the upcoming
bond for the Hermiston School District.
I was a fourth grade Highland Hills
Husky when it opened in 1980. For many
of us, 1980 seems not all that long ago.
But, if you are a building that houses
hundreds of students day after day for that
many years you are worn out. HHES has
now educated my children, as well. When
visiting them at school I would find myself
comparing the structure to when it was new
and to other schools. The building has areas
chipping away, the heating and cooling
system seems non-existent and obviously
inefficient, restrooms are irreparable from
use, access for students with physical
challenges is difficult, and so on.
Now as a parent, when I look at that
building I see is a lot of open space and so
many doors! In today’s environment, we
unfortunately look at safety of our children
from a much more severe perspective. The
old design of Rocky Heights and Highland
Hills is not conducive to secure campuses.
In a recent safety audit performed by the
Hermiston Police Department, Highland
Hills and Rocky Heights fell well short of
meeting current safety standards, due in
large part to their lack of life-safety alert
systems and outdated design. Having a
controlled access to the school buildings
where students and visitors use centralized
entrance/exit is essential to that safety.
Driving around town one notices the
number of modulars at our schools. Though
the school district planned for significant
growth when building new buildings,
the district’s growth has exceeded those
numbers and that space. I am concerned
that children walk to different buildings
to get to class at a young age or that a
high school student must walk into the
main building from modulars to use the
restroom.
I encourage you to attend the
informational meetings, ask to visit the
buildings, or investigate the district website
to learn about the challenges of the district
and how voting “yes” will help Hermiston
students.
Please vote YES for the Hermiston
School District Bond presented on the May
ballot.
Jason Middleton, school board member
Hermiston
Creative bookkeeping
Steve Chrisman has done one heck
of a job on turning the fortunes of the
airport around, and with that came an
additional assignment to do the same at the
Convention Center. After eight months at
the helm, mission accomplished, the city
manager wants to return him full-time back
at the airport and hire a full-time manager
for the Convention Center. If this decision
was based on those figures published in the
East Oregonian, it leaves a lot of questions.
Having worked in a “statistical analysis”
section in the Air Force and had my own
business, I learned a long time ago that
you can manipulate numbers to support a
position either right or wrong. In the case
of the Convention Center, there is not a
direct correlation between revenues created
and profits. A projection of $200,000
in revenue is impressive, but not if you
exceed that by $300,000 in expenses.
I sat through council meeting after
meeting when streets were the hot topic
and the standard answer from the council
was always, “We just don’t have the
money, we need more revenue sources.”
Now evidently we have more revenue, yet
the council has added a utility “tax” and
significant increases for to water and sewer
rates still programed for the future.
If anything, since this remarkable
turnaround has been achieved with a
part-time manager, do you really think
we now need a full-time manager, or is
this newfound prosperity just too much
to comprehend? I guess Neil Brown has
the inside track when he says that the
Convention Center is not here to turn a
profit, it’s to fill the hotels and restaurants,
which creates those highly sought-after
dishwashing and housekeeping jobs. My
hope would be that the Convention Center
would at least break even so we could turn
our attention to the Vert before it implodes.
Rick Rohde
Pendleton
Obamacare revision a tax cut
for the wealthy
I don’t normally write letters to the
editor about specific legislation, but it’s
important for people of Congressman Greg
Walden’s district to know that the proposed
revision of the ACA (Obamacare) will
significantly reduce coverage, particularly
for poorer people in Eastern Oregon.
Worse yet, from my perspective, it will
give a huge tax break to the wealthiest 1
percent of the nation’s citizens. According
to the Joint Committee on Taxation
analysis, the proposed bill would deliver
roughly $157 billion over the coming
decade to those with incomes of $1 million
or more, according to a congressional
analysis. And folks making $200,000 to
$999,999 a year would also get sizable tax
cuts. Between the two groups we would see
taxes cut by $274 billion dollars.
To put that into perspective, the entire
state budget for Oregon in 2015 was $33
billion.
That Greg Walden supports such
inequality is disturbing to say the least.
I hope Rep. Walden starts to think about
the less fortunate people in Oregon rather
than giving tax breaks to most of Donald
Trump’s billionaire cabinet members.
George Wuerthner
Bend
LETTERS POLICY
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Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendle-
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