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OPINION
East Oregonian
Saturday, July 29, 2017
Founded October 16, 1875
KATHRYN B. BROWN
Publisher
DANIEL WATTENBURGER
Managing Editor
TIM TRAINOR
Opinion Page Editor
MARISSA WILLIAMS
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Circulation Manager
JANNA HEIMGARTNER
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Production Manager
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OUR VIEW
Multipronged
approach right course
on pension reform
When it comes to reforming
contribution toward PERS died in
committee.
Oregon’s Public Employees
A multipronged approach is the
Retirement System, state leaders
right course to take. Legislators, for
need to avoid taking one step
their part, can only make changes
forward and two steps back.
As the Legislature recently
to the system going forward. The
task force, though, isn’t addressing
sputtered on pension reform, Gov.
the benefits issue. Its mission is
Kate Brown appointed a seven-
member, public-private task force to finding ways the state can pay
scrutinize ways to make the most of down a chunk of what it expects to
owe. It’s also looking at whether
state assets to reduce the system’s
dedicating specific
$22 billion pension
revenue streams
liability.
Brown gave the
The mission is to help reduce the
obligation makes
task force a goal of
reducing the liability finding ways the sense.
In its first
by $5 billion and
state can pay
meeting Monday,
suggested selling
down a chunk of the task force
state assets,
although not certain
to focus its
what it expects agreed
properties, such as
work — expected to
prisons and state
culminate in a report
to owe.
parks. Sales could
due to the governor
include properties
by Nov. 1 — on
such as “buffer zones” around
big-ticket items that can get to the
state prisons or youth correctional
$5 billion figure.
facilities. It’s also possible the
Meanwhile, the board overseeing
PERS discussed Friday whether to
state could enter public-private
partnerships or cut costs in other
downgrade assumptions about how
much return the system will get
ways, such as by moving certain
on its investments. Changing the
state offices to lower-rent areas.
assumptions about returns on the
Those are good steps and should
investments could greatly increase
be taken, but many would generate
the pension’s unfunded liability,
one-time-only savings and none
which would mean state agencies
address the real root of the PERS
and school districts would have
problem — the system’s structure
to put even more money into the
and the benefits themselves. Public
system in the coming years.
employee unions have vigorously
The governor and lawmakers
fought any reduction of benefits
need to be advocates for system
and the unions exert heavy political
changes to reduce the financial
clout. Brown and other lawmakers
threat the liability poses to the state’s
acknowledged near the end of
future well-being. Until those issues
the legislative session that any
are addressed, the liability will
structural or benefit reform would
continue to grow, public employers
have to be tackled at the next full
session in 2019, thereby kicking the will have to increase the amount
they pay into PERS for employee
can down the road once again. In
benefits and the task force’s work
this past session, a bill that would
will provide only short-term help.
have required a 1 percent salary
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
Poachers should be held
responsible for their crime
I am writing this letter to thank the
East Oregonian for publishing Kathy
Aney’s excellent article, “Shooting
migratory birds flies in the face
of federal law,” in the July 22-23
edition. What a heart-breaking story
to read on a Sunday morning when six
hummingbirds were drinking from our
feeders in our flower garden.
Whoever shot and murdered the
ferruginous hawk in Coombs Canyon
deserves time in jail, a hefty fine of
at least $1,000 and needs to learn
responsibility for their egregious act by
engaging in 200 hours of community
service.
The person who committed this
cowardly act placed the crosshairs of
their rifle on the feathered white breast
of the largest hawk in North America
as it trustingly sat on a rock in Coombs
Canyon alongside its nest. What a
mighty hunter you were when you took
the life of our most regal hawk then left
it to rot and decay.
With a wingspan of 56 inches (8
inches wider than a sheet of plywood),
the gerruginous hawk can soar for
hours as it hunts its prey of rabbits,
hares, ground squirrels, prairie dogs and
pocket gophers. This bird did nothing to
any human except trust your presence in
its territory — too late, unfortunately.
Shame on you for murdering this,
our most regal of hawks. What you did
was a callous, despicable, cowardly act
of murder by an adolescent-minded,
uncaring, self-centered fugitive.
You are now an outlaw in the eyes of
the law and wanted for a federal crime.
May the good lord provide for your
capture and punishment — sooner rather
than later.
Jack Simons
Pendleton
OTHER VIEWS
A Trump Tower of absolute folly
D
onald Trump’s campaign
the case. But regardless of whether he
against his attorney general,
has his facts straight, Trump’s logic
Jeff Sessions, in which he is
is a straightforward admission that
seemingly attempting to insult and
he wants to eject his attorney general
humiliate and tweet-shame Sessions
because Sessions has not adequately
into resignation, is an insanely stupid
protected him from legal scrutiny
exercise. It is a multitiered tower of
— an argument that at once reveals
political idiocy, a sublime monument
Trump’s usual contempt for laws and
to the moronic, a gaudy, gleaming,
norms and also suggests (not for the
Ross
Ozymandian folly that leaves many
Douthat first time) that he has something so
of the president’s prior efforts in its
substantial to hide that only omerta-
Comment
shade.
style loyalty will do.
Let us walk through the levels of
Which, of course — now we’ve
stupidity one by one. First there is the policy
reached the peak of the tower of folly — he
level — generally the lowest, least important
probably will not get if Sessions goes, because
in Trumpworld, but still worth exploring.
no hatchet man will win easy confirmation,
To the extent that any figure in the Trump
and until Sessions is replaced the acting
administration both embodies “Trumpism”
attorney general will be Rod Rosenstein, the
and seems capable of executing its policy
man who appointed Robert Mueller as special
ambitions, it is Sessions, who is using his
counsel in the first place!
office to strictly enforce immigration laws
So it’s basically madness all the way to the
and pursue an old-school
top: bad policy, bad strategy,
law-and-order agenda.
bad politics, bad legal
You may hate his
maneuvering, bad optics,
agenda (as most liberals
a self-defeating venture
do) or dislike parts of it (as
carried out via deranged-
I do), but it is clearly the
as-usual tweets and public
agenda that Trump ran on,
insults.
and the attorney general’s
And if it were any other
office is one of the few
president behaving like
places where it is being
this — well, rather than
effectively pursued. So
repeat arguments I’ve made
cashiering Sessions would
before, I’ll quote Bloomberg
be a remarkable statement
View’s Megan McArdle,
(though hardly the first) that
writing a few months ago in
the president cares almost
response to my admittedly
nothing for his own alleged
extreme suggestion that
platform and governing
Trump’s behavior might
philosophy.
justify removal under the
Next in our tower of
25th Amendment:
folly is the institutional level. Trump has
Imagine, if you will, that George W. Bush
had difficulty staffing his administration, his
had started acting like Donald Trump partway
secretary of state is muttering about leaving,
into his second term …. Is there any question
and his White House is riven by factionalism
that people would be talking about invoking
and paranoia. Meanwhile, he is both under
the 25th Amendment to remove him? Not
investigation by Senate Republicans and
for political reasons, but because it would be
dependent on their good will to keep the
obvious that some tragic mental impairment
investigations contained to just the Russia
had befallen the commander in chief.
business.
Adults of mature years know not to
Trying to defenestrate Sessions, the lone
engage in histrionic self-pity in public, not
Republican senator in Trump’s corner during
necessarily because they avoid self-pity but
the primary campaign and a popular figure
because, outside of high school parties, this is
among his former Senate colleagues, will
a singularly ineffective way to make people
make things worse for the president on both
like and support you.
fronts.
Competent leaders do not preside over
It demonstrates a level of disloyalty
staff who are leaking what is essentially
that should send sane people running from
one long and anguished primal scream
Trump’s service, it tells other Cabinet
to any reporter they can get to hold still.
members to get out while the getting’s
Seasoned professionals do not, suddenly
good (and to leak and undermine like
and for no apparent reason, say things in
crazy on their way), and it further alienates
public that make them better targets for legal
Republican senators whom Trump needs to
investigations …
confirm appointees (including any Sessions
And so the only possible explanation
replacement) and to go easy on his scandals.
for such a quick succession of stunning
Next on our tour is the level of mass
lapses in judgment would be a severe stroke,
politics, where Trump’s war on Sessions is
an aggressive brain tumor or some other
one of the few things short of a recession that
neurological disaster that had rendered him
could hurt him with his base — which he
unfit to continue in office, at least until it
needs to hold, since he isn’t doing anything to could be treated. I don’t even think this would
persuade anyone outside it.
be controversial, even among his supporters.
Of course many Trump supporters will side “Poor fellow,” they’d murmur, “the strain of
with him no matter what and lots don’t care
the office has destroyed his health. He has
about Sessions one way or another. But the
given more than his life for his country.” Time
Trumpian core also includes conservatives
to let him rest and heal while someone else
who like Sessions for ideological reasons,
shoulders his Sisyphean burdens.
who trust Trump in part because Sessions
Trump hasn’t had a stroke or suffered a
vouched for him, and who don’t like or trust
neurological disaster, and his behavior in the
very many other people (the family, the New
White House is no different from the behavior
Yorkers, the ex-Democrats) in Trump’s inner
he manifested consistently while winning
circle. Which is why Trump’s campaign
enough votes to take the presidency.
against Sessions has already brought him
But he is nonetheless clearly impaired,
negative coverage from Breitbart, Tucker
gravely deficient somewhere at the
Carlson and various pro-Trump or anti-anti-
intersection of reason and judgment and
Trump pundits — making it an extraordinary
conscience and self-control. Pointing this out
act of political malpractice from a White
is wearying and repetitive, but still it must be
House that lacks a cushion for such follies.
pointed out.
Next there is the legal level. By his own
You can be as loyal as Jeff Sessions and
admission, Trump’s beef with Sessions
still suffer the consequences of that plain and
centers on the attorney general’s recusal from
inescapable truth: This president should not
the Russia investigation, which from Trump’s be the president, and the sooner he is not, the
perspective led to the appointment of a special better.
counsel he now obviously yearns to fire.
■
This blame-Sessions perspective is warped,
Ross Douthat joined The New York
since it was Trump’s decision to fire James
Times as an Op-Ed columnist in April 2009.
Comey (an earlier monumental folly) that was Previously, he was a senior editor at the
actually decisive in putting Robert Mueller on Atlantic and a blogger for theatlantic.com.
Trump is gravely
deficient
somewhere at
the intersection
of reason and
and judgment
and conscience
and self-control.
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.