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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 16, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Saturday, December 16, 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 A place for prayer, a place for politics Pendleton City Council spoke And that’s fine, in our opinion. We don’t see a need to pick at its work session Tuesday about arguments where none exist. opening future meetings with the Yet we do wonder if the prayers Pledge of Allegiance, a moment of keep some community members prayer, or both. away, or at least make some There was plenty of back-and- forth between councilors as they residents feel more comfortable than looked for common ground. others. And that’s really at issue here. If The debate about prayer, and a wider debate about a simple, inclusive the relationship invocation makes The debate between church and the council and the state, has been a public comfortable about the part of the political and in the right relationship scene in America frame of mind, who since its founding. could argue against between Heck, it was one it? church and of the reasons Yet we know for its founding. how hard that state has been needle-threading can Britain, after all, argued since be, the big question had established is whether its the Church of the country’s worth the eventual England as the problem that arises official “religion of founding. when the needle the realm.” Those strays and someone who worshiped gets pricked. differently were not welcome. We think, when recommending Since the founding of the U.S., elected officials have handled public the Pendleton council start meetings with a pledge and not a prayer, they displays of religion in different ways. Many find it difficult to thread came to the right decision. A pledge helps remind councilors of their the needle between two sometimes shared duty and that they’re all on competing principles: the desire to the same team. It’s useful. allow everyone the ability to freely A prayer is a more intimate practice their religion of choice, and moment, a personal conversation the desire for everyone to not have someone else’s religion forced upon between you and your deity. And while some in the audience and on them. the dais may respond and appreciate In Umatilla County, most city that, others may not. And that’s councils do not start their meetings fine — it speaks to the diversity and with a prayer. But the councils in Milton-Freewater and Pilot Rock do. differences that make our country great. According to their city leaders, they Let us pray. Let us legislate. Let have heard no negative feedback us do both separately. about the practice so they continue Amen. to do it. 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 The deserving rich and the deserving poor T his time of year, you look twice billions and trillions of dollars to help at the sketchy drug addict people who won’t help themselves — blocking the sidewalk in front of won’t lift a finger — and expect the Starbucks. You give a second thought federal government to do everything,” to the overly bundled elderly woman he said. Hatch didn’t define this waiting in line at the food bank. You indolent recipient of unmerited wonder what life would be like if that trillions, but surely he was not palsied kid in the trailer had medical attacking agribusiness owners who get attention. Timothy paid not to grow things. Americans are a generous President Donald Trump claims Egan people — so it is always said. But personal knowledge of the undeserving Comment our generosity comes with moral poor. “I know people that work three judgments: There’s a thin line, in the jobs and they live next to somebody minds of many, between the poor who deserve who doesn’t work at all,” he said in Missouri help and those who should get off their butts. last month. The sponger “is making more Similarly with the wealthy. Do entitled money and doing better than the person that’s rich kids who would working his ass off.” otherwise be parking Wow. Sounds awful. cars without Daddy’s And almost certainly help — think Donald not true. Trump did not Trump Jr. and his cite the source of his brother Eric — deserve tale of two households. to inherit a vast estate And it’s doubtful, in without paying taxes on the friendless circle of their unearned largesse? clueless rich people These are old with whom he shares arguments, dating to Diet Cokes, that he Dickens’ heartless Ebenezer Scrooge and actually “knows people” living next to the noble Cratchit family. But once again, welfare bums. these narratives are at the heart of enormous Of the nearly 44 million people getting changes about to take place in how we treat some help to buy groceries with food stamps the rich and the poor. The assumptions are — the largest of the nonentitlement federal fraught with fiction. welfare programs — most of them work, after Let’s start with the most deserving and you deduct for the disabled and those too old least to blame — children. About 9 million or young to hold a job. The benefit amounts American kids, in families that earn too much to about $1.40 per person per meal. Tough to to qualify for Medicaid and not enough to eat one of Trump’s steaks on that amount of afford their own coverage, can now see a change. doctor under the federal Children’s Health As we know, truth is as disposable to Insurance Program. Trump as one of his junk food wrappers. Two million of those children have chronic Better to look at the motive behind the lie. The health conditions — epilepsy, asthma and president used his story of the mooch next diabetes among the ailments. The program has door to kick off a campaign to punish the poor. always had bipartisan support. So why are the The tax cuts, heralding a $1.5 trillion increase working poor now getting notices telling them in the deficit, are hugely unpopular and have their kids may soon be cut off? to be paid for somehow. Shifting attention to Funding for the program technically those parasitic bums takes pressure off the expired Sept. 30 and it has yet to be renewed. rich. The politicians running the asylum in Speaking of which, we now know the Washington say they plan to pay for it, but just real reason, thanks to Sen. Charles Grassley, haven’t gotten around to it yet. They’re busy R-Iowa, why Republicans want to repeal the with other things — an enormous corporate estate tax. All the scare stories about family farms and third-generation businesses going tax cut and breaks for the lobbying class. Priorities. under have been proved to be as mythic as the It was during a recent discussion of subsidized slacker. children’s health care that we got a taste of Andrew Carnegie, in his famous “Gospel the moral fantasies of the insular political of Wealth” essay, said of the estate tax, “Of all elites. Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah — who, to forms of taxation, this seems the wisest.” But his credit, helped create the children’s health in Grassley’s view, the tax hits the virtuous “as program with Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., in opposed to those that are just spending every 1997 — went on a rant against the poor. He darn penny they have, whether it’s on booze or was not specifically talking about children, women or movies.” Well said, Mr. Potter. or the program that he has pledged to renew. ■ He was going after a straw man that has been Timothy Egan worked for 18 years as a around since Ronald Reagan’s Cadillac- writer for The New York Times, first as the driving welfare cheat. Pacific Northwest correspondent, then as a “I have a rough time wanting to spend national enterprise reporter. These are old arguments, dating to Dickens’ heartless Ebenezer Scrooge. YOUR VIEWS Done talking to Rep. Walden after his votes on health care Don’t waste your time attending U.S. Rep. Greg Walden’s community meetings or calling him at his office. Rep. Walden simply does not listen and has no problem lying to your face. Last spring I attended one of his town hall meetings where he promised he would not vote for a health care plan that had a pre-existing health clause in it. He also promised that no one would be denied health care, yet he helped formulate a plan that did just the opposite. He voted at least three times on health plans that even President Donald Trump said were mean-spirited. He also said he was stuck with a terrible Obamacare health plan. In reality he has a blue ribbon Obama plan that has many perks you and I would love to have. He is now hell-bent on passing a tax plan that is riddled with flaws. His district has a high number of elderly people in it, as well as modest and low income families who struggle with health care expenses. His stance on health care and tax reform will greatly damage these people. Both his health and tax plan attacks Medicare and Medicaid benefits. I’m sure Rep. Walden listens to some people, but they are not the common patrons in his district. Instead of talking to him, find and support someone to replace him next fall. Better yet, contact President Trump and ask him to write Rep. Walden an endorsement. Oh, maybe Mr. Bannon also. David Lange Pendleton Measure 101 will benefit those who rely on Medicaid Families living in our rural communities deserve consistent access to quality health care. Without Measure 101, Medicaid funding would be slashed, negatively impacting the health of our friends and neighbors — and our local economy. In Union County, 27.6 percent of our residents rely on Medicaid for access to health care. To put it another way, that’s enough people to form the second-largest town in our county. Medicaid is a critical resource for rural families and communities and Measure 101 protects coverage for thousands of rural Oregonians. Between 2013 and 2015, “Oregon’s rural uninsured rate fell by 51 percent,” according to a voter’s pamphlet statement submitted by rural hospitals and health care providers across the state. We should build on that success to keep all of us healthy and stabilize costs. We can’t go back to a time when people waited too long to go the doctor and ended up in the emergency room, or never even made it to the hospital. Our friends and neighbors should not be put in that position. Where you live should not determine the level of care you receive, or if you are able to receive care. That’s why I’m voting yes on Measure 101 this January. Rebecca Hartman La Grande Rural Oregon will benefit from less internet regulation In response to your piece “Net neutrality debate pits free market against government regulations;” As was discussed in the East Oregonian recently, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai released the draft Restoring Internet Freedom order outlining his plan to roll back Title II regulations. The utility-style regulations, which were implemented under the Obama administration, have been hotly debated for the last two years. In fact, the public comment cycle for the Restoring Internet Freedom proposal generated more than 22 million comments, including over 7.75 million fake comments generated by disposable email domains and more than 1.72 million international comments — virtually all of which opposed the repeal of Title II. But what is largely being overlooked in the back and forth is that the chairman’s proposal will benefit Americans, especially those in rural areas like many throughout Eastern Oregon. The return to the light touch regulatory approach that successfully governed the internet for decades will increase investment and encourage innovation — a win for consumers. There are too many people who still lack access to a broadband connection, in spite of the fact that it is essentially required for many aspects of modern life. The investment spurred by the Restoring Internet Freedom order will help to address the digital divide and will aid in the rollout of 5G technology. Rhetoric aside, Chairman Pai’s proposal is a sound one. It is past time that we get internet regulation back on track. Tom Gurr Pacific Technology Alliance Issaquah, Wash.
