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Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, July 1, 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 OUR VIEW Stay safe this Fourth of July Although this Fourth of July will when you are surrounded by a forest full of kindling. Leave the fireworks be greener and wetter than most in Eastern Oregon’s recent history, it is behind, then, when you’re packing the camper. still a dangerous time to be setting We do understand, however, flame to flammable objects and then sending them to burst in the sky in a that some people need to spend shower of sparks and embers. the Fourth of July in their back yard with at least a sparkler in their This is desert country after all. Tall, brown grasses cover our fields hand. If you’re that kind of person, and back yards, just waiting for a the American Red Cross has some spark to cause trouble and damage. advice for how to keep yourself, Which means, as the holiday your family and your property safe. Keep fireworks draws near, it’s a away from children good time for a refresher, so we can Fireworks start and — just in — keep water keep ourselves and an average of case nearby. Wear ear our property safe. and eye protection First, remember that 18,500 fires necessary. all fireworks that per year. And when Light one firework explode or fly into a time and don’t the air are illegal in the risk of injury at attempt to relight Oregon. While that’s is highest for any that fizzle out disappointing for our firing. Never American tradition children ages before make your own of blowing things up fireworks. And into loud bangs and five to nine. don’t throw the beautiful colors, it’s darn things toward necessary to keep people or animals, structures or our part of the world from turning flammable materials. into blackened ash. It’s basic stuff, but statistics show And you don’t have to let a bunch of these common sense rules Oregon’s fireworks laws rain will be broken this holiday weekend, down on your parade: You can and it will cause at least a few costly still get your fix with big shows emergencies. According to the in Hermiston, Stanfield, Ione and National Fire Protection Association, Condon, for instance, and leave the fireworks start an average of 18,500 dangerous part to the professionals. All you’ll need to do then is tip back fires per year and the risk of injury is a cold one and don’t let that hot dog highest for children ages five to nine. And for all the pet owners who burn on the grill. While doing so, find their furry friends freaking out you’ll be doing your part keeping with all the booms and bangs, keep Eastern Oregon unengulfed. those animals indoors in the quietest It’s also worth mentioning, if place in the house you can find. you plan to leave the cities behind Once we get all of this out of the and spend your long weekend in way, we can concentrate on the thing the woods, that fireworks are illegal we’re supposed to be celebrating: on all public land — even sparklers America turning the big 241. Happy and smokebombs and the like. If birthday, USA. We’ll do our part to the stakes are high for in-town keep you looking great. fireworks, they may be even higher 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 What’s wrong with Democrats? The Republican (Springfield, Mass.) T he Democratic Party is a study in frustration — at Donald Trump, at the public’s unwillingness to see problems they consider unmistakable, and to make matters worse, at themselves. Central to their internal angst is House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, who shows no inclination to relinquish her power, despite scattered calls from party figures for her to step down. Pelosi, 77, is expected to remain in her current position of power until after the 2018 midterm elections. The opposition to push her out is not organized. There is certainly no consensus that the party’s woes would be healed with an internal conflict at a time its energies are aimed at opposing Trump’s policies. But Pelosi is not serving her party’s needs by clutching the reins of power. She is an easy target for Republicans and an obstacle for Democrats who want the party to represent a refashioned voice for the future and for millions of Americans who have tuned it out. Pelosi represents the California district that includes San Francisco. She was once the voice of progressive liberal thinking in the House, similar to what the late Ann Richards represented as the governor of Texas in the 1980s. That voice is represented by Senator Elizabeth Warren today. A Warren- Trump race in 2020 would be a titanic showdown of political opposites, and no one should be sure of the outcome. Positioning any Democrat to beat Trump will require the party to reclaim at least some of the large geography it has lost, without sacrificing its fundamental principles or unduly alienating its base. That won’t be easy; with Pelosi, it will be much more difficult. To many voters, Pelosi represents the previous generation. She also stands for the constant anti-Republican and anti-Trump rhetoric which, to many citizens, does not provide solutions for their biggest economic concerns. The party has fallen into a reputation as “bi-coastal,” popular in the Northeast Corridor and on the West Coast but ceding too many states and voters in between. Trump won 30 states. The Democrats cannot beat him without getting some of them back, and it’s hard to see Pelosi serving as the resonant, relevant voice to that goal. The party’s more immediate goal is to win 24 new Congressional seats and reclaim House majority in the 2018 midterms. If that happens, Pelosi’s tenure will be deemed a success. That’s possible. Cries for Pelosi to step down increased after the expensive, much-publicized Democratic Congressional loss in Georgia, but the party came closer than usual in a traditional GOP stronghold. Results in 2018 will not be measured by coming close, but by victory or defeat. Regaining influence for the Democrats will not occur until they reconfigure their message. Pelosi represents an old message that many voters find irrelevant and stale. Maybe that’s unfair, but her continued presence as House Minority Leader will tell voters that nothing has changed with the Democrats, leaving less reason to think election results will, either. The party must reclaim the large geography it has lost. OTHER VIEWS Tie Congress’ paychecks to our good health M embers of Congress are public health. We’re lousy at getting paid $174,000 a year, while kids vaccinated, at reaching at-risk members of Poland’s lower young people with contraception, house of Parliament are paid $32,300 at protecting citizens from lead and a year. endocrine-disrupting chemicals — and Hmm. It looks as if we’re getting simply at keeping people alive. ripped off. Members of Congress seem That leads to my second point: We to underperform compared to members need universal health care. of Parliament in Poland and across the Nicholas In Poland, Canada, Britain and democratic world. Kristof virtually every other advanced Conservatives are right to worry democracy, there is a national health Comment that feeding at the government trough system, with single-payer coverage breeds dependency and laziness. So like Medicare for all. I suggest we introduce pay for performance, Analysts find that Canada’s rollout of using metrics like, say, health. single-payer coverage cut infant mortality by I cite Poland because so many Poles 5 percent. Likewise, researchers have found (including the Krzysztofowicz family, later that cystic fibrosis patients live 10 years longer renamed Kristof) came to in Canada than in the U.S., America for a better life, because of insurance gaps in yet today American babies America. are one-third more likely Granted, there are deep to die in their first year of underlying problems in the life than Polish children U.S. that complicate health are (and twice as likely care. Inequality is immense, as Italian, Portuguese and obesity is widespread, and Czech babies!). Meanwhile, American teenagers have American women are four babies at several times the times as likely to die in rate of European teens. pregnancy and childbirth as But one reason to Polish women, according think that universal health to the World Health coverage would make a Organization. difference is that when If we had Italy’s child Americans make it to mortality rate, we would age 65 — after they get save 12,000 American Medicare — life expectancy babies’ lives each year — that’s 33 children’s of 18 more years for men and 20 more for lives saved every day. women is roughly the same as in Europe. Meanwhile, the U.S. spends far more on When Americans finally get single-payer care, health care — an average of nearly $10,000 we do fine. per person — than other countries do. Poland Likewise, a new study in Annals of Internal spends just $1,680 per person. Medicine finds that in the U.S., being insured This is a stain on America. Choose almost significantly reduces death rates for young and any modern country, and its people pay less middle-aged people. for health care and its children are more likely All health care reform efforts — whether to survive; the CIA’s World Factbook ranks Obamacare or Trumpcare — struggle with the the U.S. 42nd in longevity, and we’ve had a unwieldiness and inefficiency of the existing smaller increase in life expectancy over 25 architecture, built on employer-provided years than other industrialized countries have. coverage. The basic problem is that we’re In short, we as taxpayers are getting spending almost $10,000 per person per year cheated. Should we really be paying senators a on health care, and somebody has to pay for it base rate of $174,000 — Mitch McConnell as or else we ration care and people die. Senate majority leader gets more — to preside Early research finds that Obamacare is over such bad results? helping: One study finds it saving the life of It’s time to apply the discipline of markets. one millennial a day. For the sake of our senators’ own characters, But ultimately the United States should we should pay for work. follow the example of every other advanced If we now pay almost six times as much country and ensure health coverage for per capita on health care as Poles do, and get all. “We’re going to have insurance for outcomes that are far worse, hmm, what do everybody,” President Donald Trump you think? Maybe we pay our representatives promised a week before taking office. Now one-tenth what the Poles get? That would be he backs plans that would lead to 22 million $3,200 a year for a member of Congress. fewer people having coverage. But if Taiwan, Good thing Congress has resisted raising Slovenia, Spain, Japan and just about every the minimum wage! other modern country can have coverage for OK, I’m not really in favor of slashing everyone, so can we. congressional pay; we should pay officials And, members of Congress, here’s the deal: well to attract the best talent. If you ever adopt Medicare for all, I’ll endorse But I offer this absurd proposal for two a pay-for-performance pay raise for all of reasons. First, many Americans, including you along with guaranteed, subsidized health politicians, just don’t understand how poorly insurance. our health care system actually performs by Oh, never mind. That, you already have. international standards. ■ It’s true that American hospitals have Nicholas Kristof grew up on a farm in the finest diagnostic equipment and the best Yamhill. A columnist for The New York Times, specialists, but we falter at basics and at he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1990 and 2006. Choose almost any modern country and its people pay less for health care and its children are more likely to survive. YOUR VIEWS Take care of your property — stop spread of invasive weeds As residents of rural Oregon, we love our elbow room and having space to live comfortably. That space can become a detriment when it is not maintained and this is the time of year when it is obvious that the spread of noxious weeds is getting our of hand. As property owners, learn about weed identification and control, then do it! If it means hand pulling this time of year because the yellow star is in the wrong stage for spraying to control, then get yourselves some gloves and start pulling. There are forests of scotch thistle growing in some areas, with no effort to contain them. Public land managers deserve a taste of this advice as well, the state, city and county roadways are all conduits for the flood of weeds allowed to grow unchecked on public lands. This is important and needs to be reminded of each year. Take pride in land ownership and get rid of your weeds. Colleen Blackwood Pendleton 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.
