4 A
❘
SATURDAY EDITION
❘ JANUARY 6, 2018
Siuslaw News
P.O. Box 10
Florence, OR 97439
NED HICKSON , EDITOR
Opinion
❘ 541-902-3520 ❘
NHICKSON @ THESIUSLAWNEWS . COM
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L ETTERS
Huckabee’s comparison of Trump with
Churchill is its own ‘Darkest Hour’
(Editor’s Note: Viewpoint
submissions on this and other
topics are always welcome as
part of our goal to encourage
community discussion and
exchange of perspectives.)
“The Darkest Hour” is as
powerful as Gary Oldman’s
portrayal of Winston
Churchill’s response to Nazi
Germany’s seemingly immi-
nent defeat of England.
Knowing anything about
Churchill, his history and
those times makes preposter-
ous the favorable similarities
Mike Huckabee saw to Trump
in the movie, tweeting “... see
The Darkest Hour about
Churchill. A reminder as to
what real leadership looks
like.” He then elaborated in
additonal tweets, “Churchill
was hated by his own party,
opposition party, and press,”
“Feared by King as reckless,
and despised for his blunt-
ness,” and “But unlike Neville
Chamberlain, he didn't retreat.
We had a Chamberlain for 8
yrs; in @realDonaldTrump we
have a Churchill.”
I assume the derogatory
comparison of Obama to
Chamberlain is to be expected
of Huckabee.
But in favorably comparing
Trump to Churchill, Huckabee
neglects to recall that
much owed by so many to so
few.”
In making his apples-to-
oranges comparison,
Huckabee might have remem-
bered Trump received five
deferments from the Vietnam
draft, never occupied a public
GUEST VIEWPOINT
B Y A RNOLD B UCHMAN
F LORENCE /S COTTSDALE
Churchill was an officer in the
British Army during the first
World War; received numer-
ous medals for valor; served
in public posts for over five
decades, twice as prime min-
ister and once leading Britain
as prime minister during
World War II; brought coun-
tries together to defeat the
Nazi tyranny; won the 1953
Nobel Prize in Literature and
gained a lasting place in the
annals of oratory with phrases
like “blood, toil, tears and
sweat” and “never was so
service post prior to the presi-
dency, has befriended auto-
crats, turned America inward
from traditional alliances and
revived the “America First”
attitudes that surfaced as
Churchill was standing up to
German aggression.
Before proclaiming that
“with Trump we have another
Churchill,” Huckabee would
do well, in passing, to note
that the coiner of “covfefe” is
unlikely to gain literary
immortality with his tweets or
oratorical stature with verbal
tics like “believe me,” “beau-
tiful” and using “the blacks,”
“the Muslims” or “the gays”
as a way of dog whistling a
group’s otherness.
Huckabee’s comparison is
factually incomplete and intel-
lectually odious.
But to the predisposed
mind it is affirming.
Proclamations like “Hated
by his own party, opposition
party, and press,” “Feared by
King [the Establishment] as
reckless,” “...despised for his
bluntness,” and “...unlike
Neville Chamberlain, he did-
n’t retreat,” bolster Trump’s
own media canpaign and
prime surrogates for his litany
in an effort to recast his char-
acter weaknesses, moral defi-
ciencies and knowledge gaps
in a positive light.
This vulgar perversion of
Churchill’s strengths is the
ironic downside to a power-
ful movie as America faces
what politically may rival
Watergate as its darkest hour.
IN V ENEZUELA
In response to James Sherwood’s Letter
to the Editor (“Real Cause for Venezuela’s
Suffering,” Jan 3), Venezuela was a basket
case long before the Trump administra-
tion.
By 2011, there was a shortage of two
million homes. Housing shortages were
further exacerbated when private con-
struction halted due to the fear of proper-
ty expropriations by its socialist govern-
ment.
Inflation in 2014 reached 69 percent,
and was the highest in the world. By
2015, inflation was 181 percent and 800
percent in 2016.
The cause of the Venezuelan crisis is
control of the economy by its own gov-
ernment.
— Ian Eales
Florence
K EEP HEALTHCARE FOR
O REGON CHILDREN
The ballot is most likely in your hands,
and if you read the voters pamphlet you
could be confused because some seeming
to support measure 101 are trying to trick
voters into voting “no.”
It’s sad that they would resort to this
kind of subterfuge, legal or not.
The Oregon legislators worked togeth-
er to pass this legislation. Now, we need
to reaffirm it.
I will vote “yes” so Oregon children
can have healthcare.
—Nancy Rickard
Florence
L OWER COSTS OR MORE
CHAOS ?
Mr. Peck, in his recent Guest
Viewpoint (“Be Informed When Placing
Your Vote on Measure 101,” Jan. 3) sup-
porting a “no” vote on Measure 101, men-
tions the previous Guest Viewpoint by Dr.
John Egar and myself (“No On Measure
101 will Raise Healthcare Costs,” Dec.
30), in which we researched and listed
various reasons, and facts, to support a
“yes” vote.
Mr. Peck references those facts as
merely “statistics” but didn’t address
them in any way.
If M101 fails, every Oregon healthcare
premium could rise significantly.
Medical providers, hospitals and clin-
ics will shift their new unreimbursed
treatment costs — for potentially 400,000
“former” Medicaid-Oregon Health Plan
enrollees no longer receiving coverage —
to other insurance carriers.
Almost every professional healthcare,
physician and hospital organization in the
state supports M101. Approximately 70
percent of the state revenue raised by the
underlying House bill will come from
those various provider organizations —
yet they support M101.
If M101 fails, Oregonians turn their
back on billions of dollars in federal
E DITOR
The Siuslaw News welcomes letters to the editor
as part of a community discussion of issues on the
local, state and national level.
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Libelous, argumentative and anonymous letters
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editor.
P OLITICAL /E LECTION L ETTERS :
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ria.
Send letters to:
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WHERE TO WRITE
LETTERS
GOVERNMENT IS TO BLAME
TO THE
P OLICY
matching funding. The match rate is usu-
ally at least three times any state Medicaid
funding.
For the 400,000 Oregonians added to
the OHP since 2012, the Feds will pay
about 95 percent of the Medicaid-OHP
costs at this stage.
Only about 30 percent, or less, of the
new state revenue comes from the assess-
ment — or premium tax — on various
carriers issuing healthcare policies.
Ignored is the fact that premiums in the
“individual market” are expected to see a
6 percent net reduction due to the new
“insurance stabilization” efforts built into
the bill.
This decreases premium prices more —
6 percent more — than the 1.5 percent tax
may raise them.
Why ignore this?
The underlying bill affirmed by M101
has already been through a complex
Legislative process. It created an insur-
ance stabilization process when it was
apparent the GOP-dominated Congress’s
would fail to refund any federal process,
and was actually encouraging risk-pool
fragmentation.
M101 represents and affirms a state
legislative bi-partisan 3/5th majority vote
that provides needed and critical certainty
of funding for the near-term.
Improvements, without the chaos of
cutting benefits or coverage for up to 1
million Oregonians, will come in future
Legislative sessions.
—Rand Dawson
Siltcoos Lake
Pres. Donald Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
NW
Washington, D.C. 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414
FAX: 202-456-2461
TTY/TDD Comments:
202-456-6213
www.whitehouse.gov
Gov. Kate Brown
160 State Capitol
900 Court St.
Salem, Ore. 97301-4047
Governor’s Citizens’ Rep.
Message Line:
503-378-4582
www.oregon.gov/gov
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office
Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
541-431-0229
www.wyden.senate.gov
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office
Bldg
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753/FAX: 202-
228-3997
541-465-6750
www.merkley.senate.gov
U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio
( 4 th Dist.)
2134 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6416
541-269-2609
541-465-6732
www.defazio.house.gov
State Sen. Arnie Roblan
( Dist. 5 )
900 Court St. NE - S-417
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1705
FAX: 503-986-1080
Email: Sen.ArnieRoblan@
state.or.us
State Rep. Caddy
McKeown
( Dist. 9 )
900 Court St. NE
Salem, OR 97301
503-986-1409
Email: rep.caddymckeown
@state.or.us
West Lane County
Commissioner
Jay Bozievich
125 E. Eighth St.
Eugene, OR 97401
541-682-4203
FAX: 541-682-4616
Email:
Jay.Bozievich@
co.lane.or.us