Posts by Hines Brian

Ah, vindication. Confirmation. An Oregonian story: "Oregon tax burden remains in bottom third of states, new report says." No matter how you slice or dice the numbers, Oregonians bear a smaller tax burden than people in most other states, according to a new state report. When all charges are considered, including federal taxes and fees, Oregon's share was $7,663 per person in 2008, the latest numbers available. That ranks 33 out of 50 states. ...Warner's staff has looked at the impact of the tax increases imposed by last year's measures 66 and 67. "It didn't change the relative rankings," Warner…

Brilliant! Genius! Marvelous! Those were my thoughts as I read an editorial in today's Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal, "DeFazio offers a common-sense solution" -- to the possibly unconstitutional mandate in the Affordable Care Act that everyone have health insurance. Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio has a sensible proposal to fix the most controversial part of the federal health reform, the requirement that everyone buy insurance. His idea: Make people put their money where there mouth is. People who object to the health-care insurance mandate could sign a waiver, guaranteeing that no one else would be stuck paying their medical bills. Not…

Conservatives are crowing over a federal judge's recent ruling that the requirement to purchase health insurance in the Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obamacare) is unconstitutional. But Judge Roger Vinson's ruling actually showed that what Republicans have been claiming is false: it isn't possible to repeal the health insurance mandate and leave other more popular parts of the law intact. Vinson came to the legally questionable conclusion that the mandate is unconstitutional. He then went further, saying that the entire Affordable Care Act should be struck down even though only this one part of it fails to pass constitutional muster. (In…

Last night I was inspired by President Obama's State of the Union speech. He seemed like the adult in the room, rising above childish political pettiness with his call for Americans to come together and work to improve our country's position in an increasingly competitive world economy. But it doesn't take a crystal ball for me to predict that almost all Republicans in Congress will ignore Obama's urging to put patriotism above politics, and idealism above ideology. So they'll keep on spouting platitudes about creeping socialism, reckless spending, liberty being threatened, blah, blah, blah. Which drives me nuts. As does…

Republicans keep saying that the 2010 midterm election was a mandate from the American people to repeal the health care reform bill, a.k.a. "Obamacare." That's not true, like so much else that leaves the lips of Republican leaders these days. A  New York Times/CBS poll found that only 20% of people said they want to do away with the entire bill. And of those, it turns out that when asked about specific parts of the bill, very few wanted to repeal anything. The poll first asked people a straight-up question -- should we do away with the law completely, or…

Oregon has some terrific writers and thinkers. John Daniel is one I hadn't known about until I read an essay of his in today's Portland Oregonian. "When blood is not a metaphor" is a terrific commentary about the shooting a week ago of Congresswoman Giffords and the murder of six others by crazed gunman Jared Loughner. Regarding Sarah Palin's crosshairs metaphor, Daniel says: Neither Palin nor anyone on her political action committee intended that a warped 22-year-old or anyone else should use a firearm to shoot Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. But language set loose in public is instantly nationalized and…

Driving home tonight, I heard part of President Obama's speech at the memorial service for the victims of the Tucson shooting and liked what he said. He called for a new era of civility in American politics. Nate Silver, one of the most savvy commentators on politics and current events, wrote: President Obama’s speech in Tucson tonight seems to have won nearly universal praise. I suspect it will be remembered as one of his best moments, almost regardless of what else takes place during the remainder of his presidency. ...Mr. Obama’s decision to focus in some detail on the victims…

I consider Glenn Beck to be dangerous, untruthful, and hugely irritating. So even though I don't like to see his name get used more often than it already does, I was pleased to see that "Becking" has become a new word. As in, the Becking of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. From a moral viewpoint Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is the victim of demagogues such as Glenn Beck and his allies at Fox News and in the Tea Party Movement. This is not about legal liability but about moral culpability. This is about a nation that has lost its moral compass. ...Now the…

I rule! The Salem (Oregon) Statesman Journal bowed before the powerful blog command that I issued yesterday: put a story about Congresswoman Giffords' shooting on your front page. Such didn't happen on Sunday, when it should have, but the editors took my advice and made up for their unfortunate oversight today. Here's the evidence: Portland blogger Jack Bogdanski picked up on my post with his pithy "You thought the O was bad." The folks running the daily newspaper down in Salem appear to have even less sense and a worse attitude. My post and that on Jack Bog's Blog got…