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About Wallowa County chieftain. (Enterprise, Wallowa County, Or.) 1943-current | View Entire Issue (May 23, 2018)
A4 Opinion wallowa.com May 23, 2018 Wallowa County Chieftain Lessons learned from primary election results T he primary election is behind us. Congratulations to everyone who participated in the process. Whether you ran for office, advocated for a posi- tion, volunteered time or simply kept abreast of the issues, you should know you played a key role in one of our coun- try’s greatest opportunities. Congratulations to Bruce Dunn who won the county com- missioner race. We know Bruce will do a bang-up job for the citizens of Wallowa County. Creation of a library district went down in flames, but it was a learning experience for everyone involved. The discus- sion is not over at this point. Clearly, the Wallowa County Commission has no intention to use any of its fed- Paul Wahl eral aid “wind- fall” to keep the library open, so other avenues will need to be considered. I would encourage everyone on both sides of the library issues to remain involved and work to build understanding. Voters supported getting rid of weeds, which kept a valu- able and much-needed program in place. There were similarities between the weed issue and the library district. Undoubtedly, the biggest difference was the bottom line for taxpayers. One had a much larger bite. WAHL TO WALL WHILE BRUCE Dunn will be a new face around Wal- lowa County Courthouse, a familiar visage will be gone. Judge Russell West is retiring as of the end of the month. He has had a long and distinguished career in several aspects of the law from private practice to serving as Circuit Court Judge. Most of you already know that, but did you know that the past few weeks, Judge West’s son Nick has been hanging around Wallowa County as well? West, an OHSU Medical Student and Rural Scholar, is about two-thirds of the way through a six month rotation with Winding Waters Clinic in Enterprise. He’s learning the practice of Frontier Medicine, mentored by experienced Winding Waters providers in the clinic, hospi- tal and emergency department. Both the Wests recently were guest speakers for the Rotary Club of Wallowa County. Seems mountain-climbing runs in their family. We wish all the best to both members of the West family. MEMORIAL DAY weekend is ahead of us. In many worlds, that means the beginning of summer and a slower and more leisurely pace. In Wallowa County, it means buckle your seatbelts, because we’re about to experience our busiest time of year. There is a diversity of opinion on the efficacy of tourism in the county, but it would be hard to imagine us without a tourist season. If you think about it, tourism is connected to natural resources because folks come here to enjoy the beauty of the mountains and the lake, all of which are precious resources we all cherish. If you’ve never done it before, I challenge you to engage folks who are here for a visit. Get to know them and discover what they’re all about. I don’t believe I’ve met a tourist yet who came here hell- bent on racing through our streets at top speed and destroy- ing our environment. For the most part, they’re older or have young families in tow. To visitors reading this column, welcome. Enjoy your stay … and come back. LETTERS to the EDITOR Next time, try the classifieds I apologize to all newspaper wizards for falling asleep during civics class. Plus, I’m an idiot for not realizing that I purchased a news and opinion paper when I moved here (Webster, how about newsopinionpaper?). But, getting back to the issue that caused all of this discus- sion to metastasize, I have a suggestion. Proponents attempt- ing to “sell” something as expensive as the proposed library district should consider, the next time, running it in the classi- fied section of the paper. This suggestion does not come from 50 years in the news- hound, editing or publishing business; just common sense. Maury Bunn Enterprise Tinimura event was a big deal I would like to know more about the visit of Dr. Issa Tini- mura to the Dobbin ranch mentioned in your May 9, 1918, edi- tion (“Out of the Past.”) My mother, Catherine Dobbin (Even- son), described a dinner event at the Dobbin ranch given in Dr. Tinimura’s honor, which was attended by the editor of the Chieftain and several other Wallowa County dignitaries. The Dobbin children were not allowed to attend the din- ner but could monitor it through a ventilation register going from the dinning room ceiling through to the bed room floor directly above. Mother referred to him as the Japanese Minister of Agri- culture. She was nine-years-old at the time. Dr. Tinimura left a gift for the Dobbin family of three small hand-painted Japa- nese porcelain dishes. Rod Evenson Milwaukie, Ore. Planning key to family meals I n last month’s column the subject was the importance eating meals together as a family. This month the subject is how to make time to do that. How do you find time to prepare and cook a meal for your family that is tasty, inexpensive, nutritious and easy? And, oh yes, it can’t be complicated, time-con- suming or contain any ingredients you can’t readily buy at the store. It sounds like a tall order, but with a little planning, it is possible. The Internet is awash with informa- tion on how to make family mealtimes easier and less stressful. Here are a few tips gleaned from writer Libby Beer, who writes for “A Fine Parent” (afineparent. com). Beer says, first, go for the convenience food. Frozen vegetables and fruit, along with canned fruits and vegetables, can be the start of a healthy dinner. Contrary to what some people believe, canned and frozen fruits and vegetables are every bit as healthy as the fresh variety. Items that come in jars are a plus, as are items that are partially cooked, such as rice. One Pan Spaghetti (the recipe can be found on the OSU website foodhero. org), coupled with a salad and/or steamed vegetable can be ready in under an hour. Keeping your pantry and freezer stocked with items you can throw together for a quick dinner is critical to getting a meal on the table in a short amount of time. Items such as canned EATING HEALTHY Ann Bloom beans and tomatoes, canned fruits and instant rice are all helpful. A well-stocked refrigerator is also helpful. Items such as eggs, cheese and some vegetables that keep for longer periods of time (i.e. carrots) can supple- ment other meal items. If you have time on the weekends to make soups, brown hamburger, cook pasta or make a casserole, all of which can be frozen for future use, this will save time in the long run. A few min- utes spent menu planning for the week will help with the question, “what’s for dinner?” Leftovers, such as cooked chicken from the night before, can be repurposed into a stir fry with a few vegetables and a side of brown rice. Beer also advises investing in what she calls convenience tools. Items such as a rice cooker, a slow cooker/crock pot and a pressure cooker (which is different than a pressure canner) are all aids to get- ting meals completed in record time. Slow cookers, or crock pots, are also handy for “holding” a meal so if some family members need to eat earlier or T he philosopher George Santayana famously said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Keeping this maxim in mind, I would like to review a few broad facts about the tax policies and economic records of our last three two-term presidents, with a skeptical eye toward measuring the self-proclaimed “success” of our current commander in chief. I will focus primarily on three economic barometers –– the budget deficit, the unem- ployment rate and stock market performance. When President Bill Clinton took office 25 years ago, he inherited a 1993 budget defi- cit of $255 billion and an unemployment rate of 7.3 percent. He raised taxes in upper income brackets, and although Republicans predicted disaster, eight years later he handed George W. Bush a 2001 budget surplus of $128 billion, an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent and a stock market that had tripled in value during Clinton’s two terms in office. But Bush declared that several consecu- tive budget surpluses meant that the federal government was overtaxing us, so he lowered rates, especially on wealthy taxpayers. And like President Clinton, he relaxed restrictions in the banking and housing industries, mak- ing credit easier to get. For a few years, the housing market appeared to respond positively, until 2006 when the bubble of fast-rising home prices finally burst. The stock market began to fall in 2007, and the unemployment rate started to climb in 2008. By September 2008, the economy was in full panic mode. George W. Bush’s last year in office saw the collapse of long-term investment firms such as Merrill Lynch, and the bailout of AIG and the entire banking system. His final act as president was to sign legislation to help sal- POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY John McColgan vage a failing U.S. auto industry. President Obama inherited a 2009 budget deficit of $1.43 trillion and an economy that was hemorrhaging jobs at a rate of about half a million per month. The stock market bot- tomed out six weeks after Obama took office with the Dow below 7000, which was down about 40 percent from when Bush was inau- gurated in 2001. In March 2009, Obama signed the Eco- nomic Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the Stimulus Package, which included a tax increase on upper income brackets. The recovery from the deepest reces- sion since the Great Depression was far from immediate, and the lagging indicator of unemployment reached its worst rate of 10 percent in October 2009. But the slow, con- sistent upward movement of the economy was underway, and by January 2017, Pres- ident Obama was able to hand over a 2017 budget deficit of $666 billion, an unemploy- ment rate of 4.8 percent, and a Dow Jones average at 20,000 points. With the economy trending positively, it was not surprising that President Trump’s numbers continued to move in the right direc- tion throughout 2017. By December of last year, the Dow had reached 25,000, which was an increase of about 25 percent in Trump’s first year. With unemployment at 4.1 percent and holding steady, President Trump and a Republican Congress narrowly approved a sweeping tax cut bill, which lowered rates M eMber O regOn n ewspaper p ublishers a ssOciatiOn Published every Wednesday by: EO Media Group USPS No. 665-100 P.O. Box 338 • Enterprise, OR 97828 Office: 209 NW First St., Enterprise, Ore. Phone: 541-426-4567 • Fax: 541-426-3921 Contents copyright © 2018. All rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Ann Bloom is a nutrition program assistant for the OSU Extension Service in Wallowa County. She can be contacted at 541-426-3143. Riding the economic merry-go-round Wallowa County’s Newspaper Since 1884 VOLUME 134 later, dinner is ready when it is needed. Two other suggestions she offers for the busy home cook is to follow this for- mula for meals: a protein, a starch and a vegetable. She also recommends when you prepare something, double the batch and freeze the remainder for later. Try having breakfast for dinner — pancakes, some scrambled eggs and applesauce (homemade or out of a can) also counts as dinner. And remember: It isn’t all or noth- ing. There are going to be nights when it is impossible to get a home-cooked meal on the table when everyone can gather together for it. That’s OK. Beating yourself up over it doesn’t help. Cutting corners is not the same as giving up. Providing your family a home- cooked, nutritious meal is a journey, not necessarily a destination. It’s the overall effort that counts. If it helps, get the children involved in menu-planning and food preparation. Even very young children can do simple things such as stirring or setting the table. If they are involved in the preparation of their meals they are more likely to try new foods and be more interested in sit- ting down to a family meal. And, there’s always cold cereal. Interim Publisher Editor Reporter Reporter Newsroom assistant Ad sales consultant Office manager Chris Rush, crush@eomediagroup.com Paul Wahl, editor@wallowa.com Stephen Tool, steve@wallowa.com Kathleen Ellyn, kellyn@wallowa.com editor@wallowa.com Jennifer Powell, jpowell@wallowa.com Cheryl Jenkins, cjenkins@wallowa.com generally, but especially for upper income Americans and corporations. The initial reaction of investors in the first few weeks after the law was passed was euphoric. The market climbed in January, and some companies handed out $1,000 bonuses to employees. But that response has been tempered since then, and the stock market dropped in February, and has now been rela- tively stagnant for about four months. The unemployment rate dipped to 3.9 per- cent in May, but monthly job creation has remained at about 200,000 since Trump took over, which is on a par with the record of Obama during his last seven and a half years in office. And now that President Trump has decided to wage a trade war with other coun- tries, there are different elements of uncer- tainty added. One day he announces sweep- ing new tariffs, and a week later, he declares that some countries will be exempt. All of this makes it harder for American manufacturers and farmers to plan for the future. Bringing the matter closer to home, our tax preparer has estimated that my wife Pep- per and I will pay about $500 less in federal taxes next year under the new law. But we are not celebrating, because $40 a month will not go far if recent tax credits that we have enjoyed under the Affordable Care Act are undermined. Rising health insurance premiums are anticipated because of the elimination of the individual mandate, and the 2018 budget defi- cit is now projected by some analysts to once again exceed $1 trillion. That is poor fiscal management during a year where the econ- omy is generally humming. We have seen this movie before. We had better sober up before it is too late to avoid repeating our previous failed national economic experiments. 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