Page 4A
OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
OTHER VIEWS
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
You can’t save daylight
Last weekend we “sprang
more sunlight?” he wrote.
We’re the ones being fooled, and
forward,” swapping an hour of
after decades of expanding Daylight
rest for an hour of evening light.
Saving Time, the tide of the public
The precise details of that magical
transaction, however, are still fuzzy
is turning against the practice. Bills
have been put forth in more than a
to our sleep-deprived brains.
It’s the beginning of Daylight
dozen state legislatures ordering their
respective states to no longer follow
Saving Time, a human manipulation
Daylight Saving Time, or push back
of the clocks and, in 2017, an
the changeover until
outmoded and
later in the year.
unnecessary action.
Human
(Until 2005, the
If you, too, have
spring forward used
been unreasonably
biochemistry
to take place in late
tired the last few
changes naturally April but it has been
days, you can
moving
probably blame it on
with the seasons steadily
forward until, this
the changeover.
A little history:
year, when it went
and we don’t
effect in early
The first organized
need to artificially into
effort to tamper
March.)
with time to give
In reality, we
manipulate time to
people a little more
should do away
enjoy summer or with it completely.
daylight was in 1908
in Canada. It made
Human biochemistry
survive winter.
its way to the U.S. a
changes naturally
few years later, was
with the seasons
embraced in some of our bigger cities and we don’t need to artificially
and taken national in 1942. Tinkering manipulate time to enjoy summer or
survive winter.
continues to this day.
The goal at its inception was
And there’s good news: If you
partly to conserve energy, but experts like your daylight, you can keep your
are split if it has any effect at all, and daylight. The same amount exists
some argue it actually has a negative regardless of what your watch says.
So beyond the minor
effect. This includes the fact that
inconvenience of changing each
there are more automobile deaths in
of the clocks in your life twice a
the days after springing forward.
Pop science’s favorite spokesman, year and being robbed of a precious
Neil deGrasse Tyson, summarized
weekend hour each spring (only to be
the silliness of DST on Sunday on his repaid — without interest — in the
Twitter feed:
fall), keeping a routine just because
“What would aliens say if told that it’s a routine is silly.
Earthlings shift clocks by an hour to
And we wouldn’t want aliens
fool themselves into thinking there’s
laughing at us.
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
Repeal health bill forgets
the rural elderly
As a psychologist who came
frequently to Pendleton, I saw many
people whose lives were seriously
disrupted by lack of health care. The
Affordable Care Act gave many such
people hope.
Greg Walden is central in crafting
the proposed health insurance bill in
the House that will radically change the
ACA. This bill will have a serious effect
on many of his constituents. In 2016
over 29,000 people in this congressional
district received their health care
through the ACA Marketplace, and
105,000 people received health care
through expanded Medicaid. For many
of these people, insurance will not be
available under Walden’s bill.
The most extreme instances are
frightening. According to Kaiser Family
Foundation data, a 64-year-old living
on $25,000 income a year in Pendleton
will pay almost $8,100 more each year
in insurance premiums than they do now
under the ACA.
This bill has tax cuts, but no one
making less than $100,000 will see a
penny of this money. Those who benefit
the most are millionaires, who will get
an average of $54,130 in tax cuts a year.
Obamacare needs to be fixed. But
this plan will hurt too many of the
people who Greg Walden represents,
especially those who are most
vulnerable. Representative Walden,
please don’t forget these people.
Dr. Carol Greenough
Tualatin
Limited facilities
shortchanging
Hermiston students
I am writing to encourage a yes vote
on the upcoming school bond election
in May. Hermiston is the largest and
fastest growing city in Eastern Oregon.
A recent population study by Portland
State University forecasts that the
Hermiston School District will continue
to increase its student population by a
total of 800 students by 2023, a short
seven years from now.
In my opinion, that prediction is a
modest estimate given the greater than
expected growth in student enrollment
over the last ten years. (It is my under-
standing that student enrollment has
exceeded the estimated student popula-
tion growth by this same university over
the last ten years.)
Our elementary schools are over-
crowded now and the district is using
modular buildings to make room for our
current students. By replacing Rocky
Heights and Highland Hills Elementary
Schools and building an additional
elementary school, the needs of serving
our elementary students can be met.
Plus, an addition to the high school will
add needed additional classrooms for
our older students.
If this bond measure is not passed,
our children will still need someplace
to go to school if we do not build and
remodel. An additional 56 modular
classrooms would be needed to make
room for these students. The money
to purchase or lease these modular class-
rooms will come from funds intended
for the education of these students,
thereby shortchanging our students’
education.
I feel the Hermiston community
looks forward to growth and is willing
to shoulder the challenges that come
with that growth. It is said that good
schools make for good communities.
Please join me in voting for the
Hermiston School Bond so we can give
our community and our kids the schools
they deserve.
The original Obamacare lie
ou hear it from Republicans,
When Barack Obama ran for
pundits and even some
president, he faced a choice. He could
Democrats. It’s often said in
continue moving the party to the
a tone of regret: I wish Obama had
center or tack back to the left. The
done health reform in a bipartisan
second option would have focused on
way, rather than jamming through a
government programs, like expanding
partisan bill.
Medicare to start at age 55. But
The lament seems to have the
Obama and his team thought a plan
ring of truth, given that not a single
that mixed government and markets
David
Republican in Congress voted
Leonardt — farther to the right of Clinton’s —
for Obamacare. Yet it is false —
could cover millions of people and
Comment
demonstrably so.
had a realistic chance of passing.
That it’s nonetheless stuck
They embarked on a bipartisan
helps explain how the Republicans have
approach. They borrowed from Mitt
landed in such a mess on health care. The
Romney’s plan in Massachusetts, gave a big
Congressional Budget Office released a
role to a bipartisan Senate working group,
jaw-dropping report Monday estimating
incorporated conservative ideas and won
that the Republican health plan would take
initial support from some Republicans. The
insurance from 24 million people, many of
bill also won over groups that had long
them Republican voters, and raise medical
blocked reform, like the American Medical
costs for others. The bill
Association.
effectively rescinds benefits
But congressional
Lying can be Republicans ultimately
for the elderly, poor, sick and
middle class, and funnels the
decided that opposing any bill,
an effective
money to the rich, via tax cuts.
regardless of its substance,
The AARP doesn’t like the
political tactic. was in their political interest.
bill, nor do groups representing
The consultant Frank Luntz
Believing your wrote an influential memo in
doctors, nurses, hospitals,
the disabled and people with
advising Republicans to
own alternative 2009
cancer, diabetes and multiple
talk positively about “reform”
sclerosis. Other than that, Mrs.
also opposing actual
facts, however, while
Lincoln, it’s a great bill.
solutions. McConnell, the
If Republicans still pass
is usually not so Senate leader, persuaded his
it, they will take political
colleagues that they could
smart.
ownership of the flawed U.S.
make Obama look bad by
health care system — after
denying him bipartisan cover.
making it much more flawed. Sen. Tom
At that point, Obama faced a second
Cotton, R-Ark., has said the bill is so bad that choice — between forging ahead with a
it would “put the House majority at risk next
substantively bipartisan bill and forgetting
year.” On the other hand, if Republicans fail
about covering the uninsured. The kumbaya
to pass their own bill, they’ll look weak and
plan for which pundits now wax nostalgic
incompetent, which is also not a good look to
was not an option.
voters.
The reason is simple enough: Obamacare
How did the party’s leaders put themselves is the bipartisan version of health reform.
in this position? The short answer is that they
It accomplishes a liberal end through
began believing their own hype and set out to conservative means and is much closer to the
solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
plan conservatives favored a few decades ago
Obamacare obviously has flaws. Most
than the one liberals did. “It was the ultimate
important, some of its insurance markets
troll,” as Michael Anne Kyle of Harvard
— created to sell coverage to the uninsured
Business School put it, “for Obama to pass
— aren’t functioning well enough. Alas, Paul
Republican health reform.”
Ryan, Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump
Today’s Republican Party has moved so
are not trying to fix that problem. They’re
far to the right that it no longer supports any
trying to fix a fictional one: saving America
plan that covers the uninsured. Of course,
from a partisan, socialistic big-government
Republican leaders are not willing to say as
takeover of health care.
much, because they know how unpopular that
To understand why that description
position is. Having run out of political ground,
is wrong, it helps to recall some history.
Ryan, McConnell and Trump have had to
Democratic attempts to cover the uninsured
invent the notion of a socialistic Obamacare
stretch back almost a century. But opposition
that they will repeal and replace with ...
to universal government-provided insurance
something great! This morning they were also
was always too strong. Even Lyndon Johnson, left to pretend that the Budget Office report
with big congressional majorities, could pass
was something less than a disaster.
programs only for the elderly and the poor —
Their approach to Obamacare has worked
over intense opposition that equated Medicare quite nicely for them, until now. Lying can
with the death of capitalism.
be an effective political tactic. Believing your
So Democrats slowly moved their
own alternative facts, however, is usually not
proposals to the right, relying more on private so smart.
insurance rather than government programs.
■
As they shifted, though, Republicans shifted
David Leonardt is the managing editor of
even farther right. Bill Clinton’s plan was
The Upshot, an arm of the New York Times,
quite moderate but still couldn’t pass.
and an op-ed columnist for the paper.
Y
Bonnie Luisi, school board member,
Hermiston
Taxes are expensive!
The East Oregonian reported March
9 that the Hermiston school property
taxes were $4.09 per $1,000. That may
be true for the basic tax, but the various
school taxes are very close to 50 percent
of the total property tax.
I have a modest home valued at about
$150,000. My tax payment last year was
$2,804.24, with the various school taxes
(including bond issues) at $1,363.35 or
49 percent of the total tax.
Enough is enough! Vote no on more
taxes.
Jim Tiede
Hermiston
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.
Be heard!
Comment online at www.eastoregonian.com