THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 2021
Baker City, Oregon
4A
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news@bakercityherald.com
EDITORIAL
Temporary
move to
museum
sensible
The extended closure of the Oregon Trail Interpre-
tive Center starting next winter will create a signifi -
cant void in Baker County’s list of visitor attractions.
Shrinking that void as much as possible, during
the estimated 2 1/2 years that the Center is closed, is
a vital task.
And the proposal that Baker County and Bureau
of Land Management offi cials are working on —
moving some exhibits from the Center to the county-
owned Baker Heritage Museum in Baker City — is a
good one.
Oregon’s U.S. senators, Ron Wyden and Jeff Merk-
ley, think so, too. They recently sent a letter to Barry
Bushue, Oregon/Washington director for the BLM,
which owns and operates the Interpretive Center,
endorsing the Heritage Museum as the temporary
“Oregon Trail Experience” while the Center is under-
going a $3-million-plus renovation to make it more
energy-effi cient.
(The Center has a considerable appetite for kilo-
watt-hours; according to a BLM survey, the building
is the agency’s least-effi cient structure. The Center
runs up monthly electrical bills averaging about
$10,000.)
The Heritage Museum, at 2480 Grove St., is
already one of Baker County’s fi nest attractions.
Occupying the brick building that once served as the
city’s swimming pool — natatorium — the museum
features notable collections of local artifacts and the
Cavin-Warfel Collection, a world-class display of
rocks, minerals and fossils that Baker City sisters
Mamie Cavin and Elizabeth Cavin Warfel amassed
over almost half a century.
Although it’s hardly feasible to move to the Heri-
tage Museum everything that makes the Interpre-
tive Center such a popular place — an average of
about 44,000 people per year have visited since 2008,
and 2.4 million since it opened in 1992 — the mu-
seum is big enough to offer a reasonable facsimile of
the Center experience.
Also, the museum’s location near downtown Baker
City is ideal. Although most people who visit the
Interpretive Center also spend at least some time
in Baker City and elsewhere in Baker County, the
Center’s location, fi ve miles east of town, does allow
people to exit Interstate 84, tour the Center and
continue on their way.
But to enjoy the Oregon Trail Experience at the
Heritage Museum, visitors will have to drive into
Baker City. It seems likely that some of those people
will decide to explore beyond the museum. That’s
benefi cial for local businesses.
It’s unfortunate that it will take more than two
years to renovate the Interpretive Center, at a cost
roughly one-third of what the government spend
to build the facility. At least the investment should
ensure that the Center will continue to bring visitors
to Baker County for decades to come.
In the meantime it’s imperative that local and
BLM offi cials work together to ensure that Baker
County retains its reputation as a necessary stop on
the itinerary of any traveler interested in learning
about the Oregon Trail.
— Jayson Jacoby, Baker City Herald editor
Letters to the editor
• The Baker City Herald will not knowingly print false
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Mail: To the Editor, Baker City Herald,
P.O. Box 807, Baker City, OR 97814
Email: news@bakercityherald.com
Your views
Polio victims understand the
value of vaccines
I rarely find a subject worth writing a
letter to the editor anymore, I’m too old
and set in my ways to persuade anyone
to my political views. However I admit
Baker City is by and large Republican
and I just saw a story on the news that
said nearly 30% of Republicans refuse to
get the COVID-19 vaccine. If I can just get
a few of you to heed the words of this old
man, then I will feel I’ve finally accom-
plished something good. Please, please
all of you regardless of political party that
won’t get the vaccine for whatever reason,
ask yourself this one simple question:
“How many major diseases have you
had in your lifetime?” I venture to say
the answer is zero. And why is that, very
simply you have been vaccinated for them.
Especially if you are under 50 years of age.
I am 74 and had polio when I was 2
years old in 1948, couldn’t use my left leg
for over a year, plagued to this day with
problems with the left leg. Polio vaccine
wasn’t available until I was 9 years old
in 1955. I wish every day of my life it had
been invented prior to 1946. I have a dear
friend who was a poster child for March
of Dimes, who suffered more than I did.
I know she wishes the vaccine had been
available when she was born as well.
So if you want to save your family so
much pain and anguish, and perhaps save
their life as well by not transmitting the
COVID to them, please please reconsider
and get the shot. You have nothing to lose
but your life.
Bill Ward
Baker City
America needs to stop
rampant illegal immigration
Illegal aliens are overrunning the
country. They cross our borders unre-
stricted. They destroy the environment.
Soon there will be nothing for those who
have lived here for a long time to live
on. Competition for resources is going
to cause future trouble. The people are
getting angry and if the infl ux of the
uninvited keeps up there will be war. It
does no good to talk with Washington,
D.C., where corruption is out of control.
There are many who do well because
of this invasion and they will not listen
to the people. When they sense that we
are on the edge of revolt they say give up
your weapons of war, get some gun con-
trol and there will be peace in our land.
Give up your rifl es and the government
will take care of you and make you safe.
We can not tolerate domestic terrorism or
discrimination because of skin color.
It is bs. The government always goes
back on its promises. I say again as I
have said before. It is better to die on
your feet than to live on your knees kiss-
ing the ass of your master, Washington,
D.C. Peace is better than war but if war is
necessary let it begin. I will not surrender
my rifl e.
In this time of confl ict and division,
quoting the Indian chiefs of a century ago
is a waste of time. We must fi nd solutions
for our brave new world. Surely, we can
constantly grow to a half billion, maybe a
billion because of immigration. Everybody
knows that growth is good, until it isn’t.
Steve Culley
Baker City
Republicans, Democrats agree
on this: keep growing the debt
By Chris Reed
“The American Republic will endure
until the day Congress discovers
that it can bribe the public with the
public’s money,” Alexis de Tocqueville
supposedly said after an 1831 visit to
the United States. Whether or not the
French diplomat and political scientist
actually made this observation is a
subject of debate. But whoever came
up with the line was onto something.
The events of the last four years
should mortify Americans who believe
the government should be run by
responsible adults.
Then-Vice President Dick Cheney
famously observed in 2003 that “Rea-
gan proved that defi cits don’t matter.”
But after Republicans took control
of the House in 2010 and challenged
then-President Barack Obama’s
progressive agenda, there was actu-
ally a six-year span in which spending
growth was relatively restrained.
Even so, in January 2017, with
the national debt at $20 trillion, the
Congressional Budget Offi ce issued
a report warning that continuing to
run annual budget defi cits in the $500
billion range was a recipe for disas-
ter. It said debt interest payments
would continue to grow, squeezing the
federal budget and making a “death
spiral” more likely — one in which
the U.S. government would have to
borrow money to fund its operations
at increasingly higher interest rates
because potential investors would lose
confi dence in the viability of a nation
that had spent beyond its means for
decades. Those higher interest rates
would sharply boost the cost of federal
borrowing and thus make the fi scal
crisis even more diffi cult to address.
So what’s happened since? Once in
control of both the White House and
Congress, each party has taken the
opportunity to make this severe threat
much worse. In December 2017, Presi-
dent Donald Trump and House and
Senate Republicans approved massive
tax cuts that mostly helped affl uent
Americans and large U.S. corporations.
The CBO estimated it would add $2.3
trillion to the national debt over 10
years.
Some Democrats — including Rep.
Scott Peters, D-Calif. — denounced
this ballooning of the debt as irrespon-
sible. But other Democrats said that
if Republican lawmakers didn’t give
a damn about red ink, they wouldn’t
when the Democrats were in charge. In
2018, Hawaii Sen. Brian Schatz said, “I
just reject the premise” that supporters
of making college free should explain
how it would be paid for.
Such thinking has became the norm
for his party. Congressional Democrats
approved a $1.9 trillion measure on
March 10 and President Joe Biden
signed it on March 11, billing the pork
barrel package as “pandemic relief.” It
is more accurately seen as intergenera-
tional fi scal abuse.
Yes, of course, some of the emergency
spending measures adopted in 2020 —
on bipartisan votes — were necessary
to help the millions of people who lost
their jobs in the early days of pandem-
ic lockdowns and to help public schools
and local and state governments deal
with COVID-19.
But only 5% of the “pandemic relief”
is going to pandemic public health
needs, according to the Commission for
a Responsible Federal Budget. By far
the biggest chunk — more than $900
billion, per the commission — is being
given to individuals and states regard-
less of whether their fi nances actually
took a major hit.
Remember, the great majority of
Americans never lost their jobs during
the pandemic recession. So why should
people who make $75,000 (a middle-
class income in most states) or less get
a $1,400 cash payment and additional
$1,400 payments for each dependent
child? And why should couples who
make $150,000 (an upper-class income
in many states) or less each get $1,400
and additional multiples for their
dependents? Why can’t this aid be
means-tested?
Remember, state revenue didn’t take
nearly the hit expected at the start
of the pandemic. Overall, it was only
down 1.6%, according to the National
Association of State Budget Offi cers.
While of course states had to pay
for unexpected costs related to the
pandemic public health emergency,
the $300 billion already provided by
the federal government should have
covered their costs. Yet the “pandemic
stimulus” includes $350 billion more
for states, many of which will just roll
these borrowed federal dollars into
their rainy-day funds. Why can’t this
aid be means-tested?
Republicans are right to howl about
these massive giveaways. But they
have no credibility after their massive
2017 giveaways to wealthy individuals
and corporations — which Democrats
were right to howl about at the time.
If CBO analysts fretted in 2017
about America surviving with $500
billion annual defi cits, this fi scal year’s
$4.2 trillion defi cit should freak them
out. But having the national debt jump
to $30 trillion should freak everyone
out — especially the younger and
poorer people likely to pay the heaviest
price when the “death spiral” arrives
and their nation goes broke.
Chris Reed is the deputy editorial and
opinion editor of The San Diego
Union-Tribune.