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OPINION
East Oregonian
Thursday, December 7, 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
Tax bill passes in
the dead of night
In the wee hours of Saturday
Democrats) were left out.
The tax bill includes a tax
morning, Senate Republicans passed
break for people who own private
what could be one of the most
airplanes. There is also a tax break
important bills in recent history.
for parents whose children attend
If it becomes law, it will revamp
the national tax code, disrupt the
private school.
While those clearly help upper-
national health care system, add
income Americans, they also hurt
trillions of dollars to the national
poor and middle-class homes. Cuts
debt and impact every pocketbook
to state and local tax deductions will
in America. So why did it pass just
reduce funding to public schools,
before 2 a.m., in the dark of night
where most middle-class and poor
and with nary a public hearing?
Americans are educated, while
Everybody knows that most 2
private school parents now save a
a.m. decisions are boneheaded,
few extra dollars.
and something we
There is no
regret in the morning
Everybody
economic rationale
light. So why are we
for this kind of thing.
passing important
knows that
Rich Americans
legislation at that
donated to the
hour?
most 2 a.m.
It didn’t have to
Party,
decisions are Republican
and the Republican
happen like this.
There is plenty
boneheaded, Party is giving them
they want. It’s
to like about the tax
and something what
that simple.
bill. Reducing the
promised to
corporate tax rate
we regret in the keep We you
informed
from 35 percent to 20
morning light. about the bill as it
percent, a number in
moved — at that we
line with other first-
failed. How could
world countries, is
long overdue and will help American we not? Not even the senators who
voted on the 479-page bill, which
companies compete in a global
included hand-written notes in the
marketplace. Most lawyer-heavy
margins, knew what was in it more
corporations were finding ways
than a few hours before it was
around the paying the 35 percent
approved.
rate anyway — many by parking
That’s problematic for democracy.
billions of dollars in offshore tax
shelters — so perhaps the lower rate But it’s also problematic for the law
itself.
will actually increase tax receipts.
In the rush to pass the bill, the
Yet there is plenty wrong with the
Senate GOP accidentally nullified
bill, too. The tax code was crying
out for simplification, modernization many corporate deductions, among
those most important to their
and real reform — things the GOP
corporate donors.
bluffed at tackling. They came up
The Wall Street Journal reported
short.
that a research credit was forgotten,
The final Senate bill (and the
House bill, for that matter) is deeply which could cost corporations up to
$10.3 billion in tax write-offs.
unpopular with voters. That is the
That may get taken care of
most obvious reason why it was
through reconciliation by the House
squeezed through in the dead of
and Senate, or by the hundreds
night.
of lobbyists who will sneak their
The Trump tax cuts had a 48
wishes into the bill before it
percent disapproval rate and just
arrives at the president’s desk for a
32 percent approval through much
signature.
of November, making it the least
The American tax system is far
popular tax cut in recent history,
from being broken, and far from
according to FiveThirtyEight. Yet
being fixed. Tax policy swings back
those numbers are remarkably
and forth with the pendulum of
similar to Trump’s approval and
partisan control, and Republicans
disapproval ratings — and are
had their chance to create a more
probably more tied to the President
fair, open taxation system that
himself than his tax bill because,
lowered rates for many Americans.
again, nobody knew the details of
On that, the Grand Ol’ Party
the bill until the final hour.
fell short. And once they no longer
Much of the disapproval rests on
hold the power in both houses of
the fact that rich Republican donors
Congress and the White House,
and lobbyists seemed to get direct
expect much of this tax plan to be
access to writing the bill, while
rescinded.
middle-class voters (and elected
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
Welcome different religions
as holidays approach
The (Frankfort, Ky.) State Journal
C
ommentators on both the left
and the right have praised this
newspaper’s efforts to promote
transparency in government — and
with good reason. To paraphrase
Kentuckian and former Supreme Court
Justice Louis Brandeis, sunlight is the
best disinfectant. With public scrutiny,
policies, procedures and ideas grow
stronger.
We find laughable the notion
that public business should remain
cloaked in secrecy for the public’s
own good — whether it’s the drafting
of public pension reform legislation
or the selection of Frankfort’s Capital
Plaza developer. Yet, when it comes to
religion, some who would praise us for
this stance may fall prey to a fallacy
similar to the idea that darkness is a
better disinfectant than light.
In our predominantly Protestant
community, the fear of exposure to
denominations or religions different
from our own is real — if rarely
articulated in mixed company. That fear
is both misguided and troubling.
It is misguided because a person’s
beliefs — or non-beliefs as the case may
be — mature only in the crucible of
exposure to differing viewpoints. (You
don’t truly know what you believe until
a debate has forced you to check your
premises.)
It is troubling because in our
relatively homogeneous community,
this ignorance of others’ beliefs can
potentially lead us to dehumanize our
fellow man whether we realize it or not.
This holiday season, don’t just
pay lip service to the importance of
understanding other denominations or
religions; live it.
Talk with a Catholic about his or
her church’s understanding of the
Immaculate Conception and how that
shapes Catholic views on the Virgin
Mary. Brush off Maccabees and
remember why it is that Jews celebrate
Hanukkah. You might even be tempted
to light a candle or spin a dreidel
yourself.
Embrace it. Your own faith will only
benefit from the experience.
OTHER VIEWS
Donald Trump could
really use a friend
S
how me a person who has no true
His conclusion? “I’ve never needed
friendships and I’ll show you
anything from him,” Barrack told
someone with little if any talent
Kranish. “I was always subservient to
for generosity, which is a muscle built
him.” That’s obviously how Trump
through interactions with those who
prefers the people around him. On
have no biological or legal claim to you
bended knee. In full genuflection.
but lean on you nonetheless.
The Trump biographer Michael
Show me a person who has no true
D’Antonio told me, “He has
friendships and I’ll show you someone
hangers-on and he has employees and
Frank
who can’t see the world through
he has other dependents, but I don’t
Bruni
another’s eyes. A novel or movie
think he has friends.” He’s too twitchily
Comment
gets you only so far down the road to
suspicious. Too vain. And so that
empathy; to go the distance, you need
twitchiness and vanity go unchecked.
more intimate, immediate experience of hurts
They metastasize.
and aspirations not your own. You need friends.
“He had no friends in his military academy
Show me a person who has no true
who stuck,” D’Antonio said. “He had no
friendships and I’ll show you someone with
friends in college who stuck. He was a USFL
no adequately moderating influences on his
owner, and all the other owners wound up
whims, no sufficient cushion for his moods. I’ll hating him.”
show you a full-blown narcissist or full-throttle
I ran D’Antonio’s assessment by Mike
paranoiac or some combination of both.
Tollin, who produced and directed a
I’ll show you the president of the United
documentary about the USFL, a short-lived
States.
competitor to the NFL. He told me that Trump
On Tuesday, two of his campaign aides,
“showed no interest in, and seemed largely
Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie,
incapable of, genuine friendship.”
published a book about their time with him,
I asked Tollin what a person unschooled
“Let Trump Be Trump.” It’s a cunning volume, in friendship might also be unpracticed at.
adulatory on the surface but with just enough
“Compassion?” he responded. “Compromise?
grime underneath to promote sales.
Those are things you learn from friendship.”
Racing through it, I had three main
Chris Christie was supposedly a friend of
thoughts. One, Trump needs fiber.
Trump’s. I think I can end this paragraph here.
(McDonald’s isn’t so much his guilty pleasure
The real estate tycoon Richard LeFrak is
as his daily trough.) Two, Trump needs friends. ostensibly friendly with Trump. He told The
Three, so much of Trump can be explained
Times’ Alan Feuer in early 2016, “If we’re both
through the absence of them. His rages and
in Florida, Donald might call and say, ‘Come
rampages are fruits of his friendlessness.
have dinner at Mar-a-Lago.’” But if LeFrak
In the book he doesn’t have people he
suggested that Trump instead come to his
communes and commiserates with in any
place? “He probably won’t do it.”
raw, real way. He has people he yells at and
For Trump, “friendship” isn’t a two-way
people he sucks labor and favors from. He has
street. It’s a cul-de-sac. You can spin round and
minions, Lewandowski and Bossie among
round there, in the shadow of his castle, or you
them.
can take your vehicle somewhere else.
They gush about the pleasure savored by
Is he all that much different with his kids?
Trump’s dinner companions: “He would regale When Ivanka and the crew sat with CNN’s
them with stories from his amazing life.”
Anderson Cooper last year to give testimonials
“Friends” are his rapt audience when there’s no about Trump’s presence and parenting back
other audience around.
in the day, they repeatedly (and perhaps
And they’re replaceable. Trump bluntly told inadvertently) noted that for quality time with
Lewandowski that someone else could easily
him, they went to his office, his construction
be put in his job. Soon enough someone was.
sites. They met him on his terms and terrain.
Lewandowksi and Bossie crow of having
Everyone does, and that’s anathema to
observed the man up close, but Trump, cold
decency and good governance. He gathers and
and monarchic, exists across a moat of his own discards allies at will. He acts to sate his own
making.
needs, unworried about the impact on others.
I’ve been struck by this before.
For him they don’t fully exist. There’s no space
In October, The Washington Post published
for them, because he has never forced himself
a fascinating profile of Thomas Barrack, a
to carve it out.
billionaire real estate investor described as
“I think of it as an absolute void,”
“one of President Trump’s oldest friends.” The D’Antonio said. It’s no way to live, and it’s no
profile’s author, Michael Kranish, wrote that
way to lead.
Barrack often wonders how he has lasted 30
■
years with such a tempestuous, egomaniacal
Frank Bruni joined the New York Times in
man.
1995.
YOUR VIEWS
Walden’s support for tax bill
cost him support of local voter
Through no fault of my own, I have been
dealing with a chronic health condition these
past 10 years.
My annual medical expenses have typically
approached $10,000, with a few years nearly
hitting $15,000 — and that is with good health
and prescription drug insurance.
Knowing now that Greg Walden, our
Oregon representative to the House of
Representatives in Washington, D.C., voted
for legislation that eliminates my ability to
try and recover some of my medical expenses
through my taxes has me ripping the “Walden
for Sportsmen” bumper sticker off my pickup.
Does anyone have a “Walden for Healthy
Sportsmen Only” bumper sticker?
Rich Zita
Pendleton