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OPINION
East Oregonian
Wednesday, June 28, 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
The gold at
the end of
the Rainbow
OUR VIEW
It’s unacceptable that 20,000
dwell too much on that either,
people are camping, cooking, living although we understand some
and defecating on our public land.
readers may feel more inclined.
It’s flat wrong and that cannot be
But we will report on the unique
stated strongly enough.
human beings who attend the
But, unfortunately, it is
event, as well as the costs of law
enforcement. We will report on
happening. The Rainbow Family
the environmental legacy of this
of Living Light annual gathering
gathering, and also about the culture
is underway and expected to grow
clash taking place in
through the Fourth
Oregon.
of July on Malheur
Next year, rural We Eastern
have one
National Forest land in
suggestion to the
Grant County.
Rainbows
Which means
Family:
should gather Rainbow
the goal now for
Next year, actually
emergency crews, the
“green.” Call off a
in numbers be
U.S. Forest Service and
gathering in the tens
that nature of thousands. Get 12
taxpayers across the
nation must change.
your best pals and
can handle. of
That goal had been
hit the hills. Bring a
trying to dissuade,
toilet and all the kale
move and block the Rainbow
and granola you can carry. Get
gathering — but it now must shift to naked. Take some of Oregon’s legal
making it as safe as possible while
drugs. Have an absolute blast on our
country’s wonderful public lands.
protecting public resources and
Then pack it all out, that toilet
limiting damage to property.
most especially. Leave the site as
Of course, everyone should
you found it, then come back and
have equal access to America’s
do it again next year. There is no
public lands. Hunters and anglers,
backcountry horsemen and yes, even need to overwhelm what nature can
provide in order to prove you can go
counterculture “greenies,” should
without rules and basic hygiene for a
be free to enjoy what nature has
week or two.
to offer. But it’s not possible for a
This may be wishful thinking,
group of this size, without adequate
however. The gathering has been
infrastructure, to leave the land
going on since 1972 and most are
undamaged. It cannot be done, no
bigger than the year before.
matter how well-intentioned the
Eastern Oregonians and our
caretakers are — and we’re not
forest, law and health representatives
convinced that the Rainbow Family
should be vigilant about protecting
has caretaking atop their list of
our lands. And we should protect
priorities.
those using that land.
They have fun and community
While doing so, perhaps it is
atop that list, sprinkled in with
helpful to think of the pot of gold at
experimentation of the economic,
the end of the rainbow. Some call it
social and chemical kind. So be it.
peace and quiet, nature at its most
Moral judgment is easy, but rarely
natural.
does it do any good. So we won’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.
OTHER VIEWS
Democrats throw in the
towel on tax reform
Corvallis Gazette-Times
L
ast week’s announcement that
Democratic leaders were throwing
in the towel on tax reform during
this session didn’t really come as much
of a surprise, considering the various
legislative forces that had aligned against
the idea.
But it still came as a disappointment
— and, if Oregon citizens are growing
weary of legislative promises that this
important topic or that important topic
will be top of the agenda during the
next session, you can understand that
weariness: It’s not the first time these
particular cans have been kicked down
that particular road.
This session, yet another can got
kicked down the road: Reforms to the
state’s public pension fund, with its $22
billion unfunded liability, also appear to
be joining that tax discussion: Democrats
said all session long that pension reforms
would be tied to tax reform; with tax
reform off the table, so is PERS reform.
It still remains to be seen whether
the last big-ticket item on this year’s
legislative docket, the bill that identifies
major transportation projects around the
state and ways to pay for them, will also
be kicked over to 2019; our hope is that
legislators still see a path forward in this
session for the transportation bill.
A statement last week from three key
Democrats — Gov. Kate Brown, Senate
President Peter Courtney and Speaker
of the House Tina Kotek — certainly
suggested a big deal was dead. The
statement read, in part, that the three had
worked “for months with legislators in
both parties, business leaders, and labor
leaders, to identify ways to reduce state
spending, contain costs going forward,
and finally reform our revenue system.
While we are moving forward on several
major cost containment measures, it
has become clear that the Legislature
will not have the necessary support to
achieve structural revenue reforms this
session.”
That is partially because Democrats
are one vote short in both the Senate
and the House of the supermajorities
required to pass tax increases. Senate
Republicans, in particular, have
maintained a united front against any tax
increase.
Other pockets of opposition have
risen this session: Sen. Mark Hass,
the Beaverton Democrat who’s been
carrying the flag of tax reform for at
least the last couple of sessions, last
week pitched an idea to simply increase
corporate income taxes. The plan
enjoyed some support from businesses.
But the idea didn’t go anywhere, in part
because House Democrats objected to
the fact that it didn’t include a tax on
corporate gross receipts.
No wonder that a frustrated Hass
warned in a speech last week that failure
to address these issues would trigger
the sort of pension crisis that’s facing
Illinois: “It will eventually wreck our
schools and swallow our state,” he said.
It now seems that the Legislature will
be able to patch together a budget that
will allow the state to limp along.
It also seems likely that the
Legislature’s failure to act will trigger
yet another wave of citizen initiatives.
Legislators complain about how those
initiatives complicate their work. But it’s
hard to fault citizens for wanting to see
if they can do something about the can
before legislators get the chance to give
it yet another kick.
A vote of conscience and courage
F
orget for a minute about partisan
Poverty, disease and misfortune that
labels and listen to members of the
had been accepted as normal became
U.S. Senate talk about why they
rejected as cruel.
work in politics.
Once we stopped allowing 10-year-
Rob Portman talks about a
olds to work in factories and fields, we
16-year-old constituent who died of a
didn’t go back on it. Once we outlawed
drug overdose — and about honoring
80-hour workweeks at miserly pay, we
his life by fighting drug use. Lisa
didn’t reinstate them. Once we made
Murkowski talks about protecting
health insurance and Social Security
David
children from fetal alcohol disorders,
Leonhardt a universal part of old age, we didn’t
and Lamar Alexander speaks about
repeal them.
Comment
premature babies.
The Senate health care bill would be
There are many more stories like
a reversal on that scale.
these, and they’re not only for show. They
Yes, Obamacare is flawed, and it needs to
reflect deeply held beliefs that senators have
be improved. But the Senate bill would not fix
about themselves.
those flaws. It would instead take away health
Republican or Democrat, they see
insurance from millions of Americans —
themselves as public servants — their preferred middle class and poor, disabled and sick, young
term for politicians — trying to make life better and old — largely to finance tax cuts for the
for their fellow Americans.
wealthy. Ultimately, the bill
Sure, when they’re being
would lead many Americans
honest, they admit that
to lose medical care on
they enjoy the power and
which they now depend.
perks. But even with all
I hope the senators will
the cynicism Washington
listen to some of these
engenders, senators still take
people’s stories. The most
pride in the high ideals of
affecting that I’ve read
politics.
recently is about Justin
This week, these senators
Martin, who has overcome
will face a career-defining
cerebral palsy to become a
choice.
thriving student at Kenyon
It is not an easy one for
College. As the HuffPost’s
many of them. Republicans
Jonathan Cohn reported,
have spent years promising
Martin depends on Medicaid
to repeal Obamacare. Now the Senate is nearing to pay for a wheelchair that helps him get
a decision on whether to do so. Opposing the
around and for health care aides who help him
bill risks marking any Republican as a traitor to in the bathroom.
the party.
When history comes to judge today’s
By late Monday, enough Republicans were
senators, do they want to have made life harder
nonetheless expressing skepticism about the bill on Justin Martin?
to put its success in serious doubt. Susan Collins
I hope the senators will also take the time
of Maine, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Dean
to ask themselves why virtually no health care
Heller of Nevada have all distanced themselves expert supports the bill. Conservative health
from the bill. But we’ve seen a version of this
care experts have blasted it, along with liberal
story before. House Republicans also expressed and moderate experts. The Congressional
serious doubts — only to wilt after party leaders Budget Office says it will do terrible damage.
made superficial changes to the bill. The Senate Groups representing doctors, nurses, hospitals
bill remains alive until it’s dead.
and retirees oppose the bill. So do advocates
In the meantime, I hope that each senator
for the treatment of cancer, heart disease, lung
takes some time away from the daily swirl of
disease, multiple sclerosis, cystic fibrosis and,
Capitol Hill to think back to the reasons they
yes, cerebral palsy.
entered politics. I hope they understand that this
I hope the senators will watch a two-minute
bill is a test of conscience and of courage.
video created by doctors around the country. In
A “yes” vote is still the politically easy vote
it, each one looks into the camera and explains
for any Republican. But it is also a vote that
how the bill would damage medical care. “This
will come back to haunt many senators when
bill would dramatically affect my patients,” said
they reflect on their careers — and when more
Dr. Gregory Lam of Circleville, Ohio, “and my
objective observers pass historical judgment on ability to care for them.”
those careers.
I hope the senators grasp the weight of the
There is little precedent for a bill like this
decision they face, for the country and for
one. That’s why Mitch McConnell, the majority themselves.
leader, kept it secret for as long as possible.
It takes only three Republican senators to
Americans have often fought bitterly about how prevent millions of their fellow citizens from
large our safety net should be and about the
being harmed. Which of them has the courage
precise forms it should take.
to make the right choice over the easy one?
But once the country commits to a
■
fundamentally more generous, decent safety
David Leonhardt is an op-ed columnist for
net, it becomes an accepted part of society.
The New York Times.
Once we
made health
insurance and
Social Security a
universal part of
old age, we didn’t
repeal them.
YOUR VIEWS
Oregon lawmakers taking steps
to fix education problems
As a city of Union councilor, I know
that schools and services here in rural
Oregon are in desperate need of investment.
Finally, legislative leaders Speaker Tina
Kotek (D-Portland) and Senator Mark Hass
(D-Beaverton) have agreed on and introduced
a compromise plan that would bring in
much-needed revenue. The legislature must act
swiftly to support their plan. With little time left
this legislative session, we cannot afford to wait
to take action on revenue reform.
In Union County, we have class sizes that
are 28 percent larger than the national average
and a school year that is over a full week
shorter than the average school year in Oregon.
With the additional investments that would
be brought in with the compromise plan
proposed by Speaker Kotek and Sen. Hass,
school districts would be able to plan for a $8.5
billion state school fund budget instead of the
$8.2 billion school budget that the Legislature
is passing. We should all realize that another
budget shortfall will likely result in significant
impacts to the quality of education that our
children deserve. This session, legislators
must end our perpetual budget shortfalls and
put Oregon families first by fully funding our
schools.
For years, our students across the state of
Oregon have been denied the opportunities
and tools they need to succeed because
corporations don’t pay their fair share in taxes.
The compromise plan is a responsible step
toward addressing the current funding shortfall
for Oregon’s educational system and providing
a long-term solution. Rural Oregon, especially,
after decades of significant disinvestment,
cannot wait a day longer on this legislature to
act.
Senator Hansell and his colleagues must
make raising revenue their top priority this
legislative session. I’m counting on him to
finally hold corporations accountable so
Oregon can prove that it values education.
Randy L. Knop
Union
People will leave Pendleton if
rural hospitals have to close
A little over a year ago, during a visit to our
family in Pendleton, my wife had a late evening
medical emergency and I took her to the new
hospital. She got excellent care. I shudder to
think what would have happened if St. Anthony
Hospital were to close; your community, that
sacrificed so much to build this new facility, is
counting on continuing funding.
I respect Greg Walden, as he worked well
with our former representative Brian Baird.
However, it needs to be made clear the link
between national health insurance and the funds
it directs to rural health that keeps St. Anthony
operating.
Who is going to move their business
or keep their family in Pendleton without
decent medical facilities? My guess is even a
U.S. representative with guaranteed lifetime
healthcare wouldn’t retire to such a place.
Pat Campbell
Vancouver, Wash.
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Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.