Mountain Views News          Saturday, July 4, 2015

Mountain Views-News Saturday, July 4, 2015 
B8 OPINION 
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LEFT TURN/RIGHT TURN 
HOWARD Hays As I See It 
There are some very stupid ideasemanating from powerful peopleand political wannabes.
From the powerful, PresidentObama wants to put welfare 
housing in wealthy neighborhoodsas a tactic to “end poverty.” He 
obviously wants to emulate thesocietal “success” of forced busing.
Let’s apply common sense tothe President’s plan.
Obama wants to diversify 
wealthy neighborhoods by 
requiring land within those 
neighborhoods be given to thefederal government for the buildingof Section 8 housing. Some existinghousing might be co-opted.
This would not be done throughany abuse of eminent domain. No,
there would be no constitutional 
adherence whatsoever. The 
Department of Housing and 
Urban Development (HUD) is 
ready to simply release new federalregulations that would use yourtax money to overrule local zoninglaws of over 1,200 communities. 
If you live your life filled withhate for rich people, this is great 
news. If you love freedom andopportunity, this is an outrage.
Why would he do this? 
Because this is Barack Obama’s 
vision of transforming America. 
Perhaps he has some idyllic sugar 
plum fairies dancing in his head 
creating wealth for those living in 
the Section 8 apartments.
The reality that escapes thispresident is that the people whosepersonal success allows them to 
afford expensive homes will move.
The value of the properties willdrop like it’s 2008 again.
President Obama will likely 
disagree. Why? Magical thinking.
One of the magicians behindthis big government onslaught isJulian Castro. 
Castro is the current head 
of HUD and an architect of this 
plan. He is also reported to be atop candidate for Hillary Clinton’srunning mate.
These three Democrats could 
create as much misery and poverty 
as the interstate highway systemdid to the cities it splintered.
Liberal Republicans can be justas damaging.
Donald Trump’s brilliant ideais to stop U.S. companies frommanufacturing goods in foreigncountries by adding a 35 percent 
surtax to all U.S. companies’goods imported from their foreignmanufacturing plants.
The Donald’s contributions to the 
disgraced Clinton Foundation. 
When Obama pushed for a 
similar plan, business executivestook it seriously and made plansto incorporate their businesses 
overseas, knowing their goods 
would be unaffordable when 
punished by Obama-Trump’s taxscheme. 
The corporate tax rate is alreadyas high as 35 percent. That’s whyMicrosoft, GE, Apple and morecompanies that support Democratsare compelled to bank a combined$2 trillion in foreign banks.
The United States is the onlyadvanced nation that taxes profitsthat domestic firms earn outside 
its borders, and liberals such asObama think it’s “not fair” that theykeep reserves. So they try to comeup with tax schemes that punishbusinesses whose employees workto keep the companies profitable.
Brilliantly, Obama has 
threatened to tax that money at arate of 14 percent.
Brilliant, if you think GE 
and Microsoft should be Irish or 
Bahamian companies.
It’s interesting to note in 
the Bloomberg Business News 
compilation of dozens of former 
U.S. companies relocating to 
foreign countries to avoid crushingU.S. taxes that over 90 percent oftheir executives still live in the U.S. 
Serious policy makers wouldreduce the corporate tax rate andmake it competitive with foreignmarkets to encourage businesses tobring the $2 trillion and thousandsof jobs back to America.
The problem seems to be 
politics. President Reagan’s TaxReform Act of 1986 lowered the topfederal corporate income tax ratefrom 46 to 34 percent. From 19821986, 
the average unemploymentrate was 8.2 percent. From 19871991, 
the average unemploymentrate was 5.9 percent.
Can any of today’s self-
respecting liberals ever adoptsuccessful Reagan policies or is theirslogan, “country be damned!”? 
Rick Jensen is Delaware’s 
award-winning conservative talk 
show host on WDEL, streaming live 
DEAR CHRIS CHRISTIE, 
STOP PRETENDING YOU 
HAVE A CHANCE TO BE 
PRESIDENT 
Dear Chris Christie. 
I don’t see eye to eye on most public policy issues, and your decisionto root for the Dallas Cowboys is at best regrettable. However, I come to you today withsome honest advice your cadre of “yes” men and women seem unable to offer: Don’t runfor President. 
Have you looked at the latest polling data? I’m sure you think you can recapturethose heady days when you were the Republican frontrunner and one of the most popularpolitical figures in the country. Spoiler alert: You can’t, especially considering it tookSuperstorm Sandy, an act of nature that you won’t even admit climate change had a role inunleashing, to inflate your poll numbers.
According to the latest Fox News poll (your people), just 2 percent of likely voterssaid they would vote for you. That puts you in 11th place among Republican presidentialcandidates, and since Fox News is inviting just the 10 top finishers to its first debate inAugust, you seem destined for a place at the kids table of presidential politics.
At this point, when I Google “Chris Christie popularity” these are the adjectives Isee: Plummeting, nosedived, record-low, cratered, humiliating. Should I go on? Even 
Voldemort, the Harry Potter villain who tried to murder a baby, has a higher favorabilityrating that you.
The numbers are even worse at home. In an April Quinnipiac University poll, 65percent of New Jerseyans don’t think you’d make a good president. You’re even less popularin the Garden State than Jon “I lost $2 billion” Corzine. I would say these are the constituentswho know you best, but as WNYC’s Matt Katz notes, you’ve spent over 200 days out of NewJersey since being sworn in last year to a 2nd term.
Based on your travel time, residents in Iowa are among those who know you best,
which is probably why you’re polling at just 4.3 percent there among Republican Presidentialcandidates, according to the Real Clear Politics Average. And in case you didn’t notice,
that’s Donald Trump who’s polling ahead of you.
Even in New Hampshire, home of the first-in-the-nation primary where Republicansskew more moderate, you’re in 7th place with the support of just 5 percent of voters,
according to a new CNN/WMUR New Hampshire Primary Poll.
And you seem to be getting desperate.
According to Paul Mulshine at the Star-Ledger, you’ve been pandering to voters inboth states with your stand on ethanol. Back in March, you told Iowa voters (you know,
the folks who sell ethanol) that you’re in favor of expanded ethanol use. However, once youshowed up in New Hampshire, you changed your tune, implying that you’re against thenational ethanol mandate. 
You are aware voters in both states have access to Google, right?
It’s not just ethanol. You’ve become a pandering, flip-flopping opportunist oncommon core, immigration, guns, climate change - even pig gestation crates, where the9,000 or so in New Jersey are dwarfed by the 20 million in Iowa. Do you even remembertelling GOP voters in South Carolina to be wary of flip-flopping presidential hopefuls justlooking for votes?
Maybe that’s why you felt the need to hide behind a bunker while braver politicians inyour party, like Governor Nikki Haley, called on the state to remove the Confederate Flagfrom the South Carolina statehouse. It’s not exactly the best YouTube clip, a loud-mouthedpolitician with a reputation of speaking bluntly afraid to stand up for his values out of fearof alienating voters.
Maybe that’s why Nikki Haley remains popular among South Carolina voters andan up-and-coming figure in your party, and you’re defining moment as governor remainsyelling at a heckler on the boardwalk while clutching an ice cream cone.
Most laughably, despite your history of tall-tales and outright mistruths, you chose“Telling it like it is” as your campaign slogan. I don’t know who your campaign advisors are,
but not even Rose Nylund of St. Olaf is gullible enough to buy that.
So my advice is not to run for president, stop making alternating trips to battlegroundstates and the Tonight Show, and focus on doing the things you promised to do as governor.
New Jerseyans are still waiting for you to balance the state’s budget without gimmicks,
come though on the state’s obligations to the pension system and aid those still in need ofhelp after Superstorm Sandy.
Who knows. If you’re actually do the job you were elected to do, maybe DonaldTrump would pick you as his running mate.
© Copyright 2015 Rob Tornoe, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspapersyndicate. Rob Tornoe is an award-winning political cartoonist and syndicated columnist.
Rob can be reached at RobTornoe@gmail.com. 
“America! America! 
God shed his (or her)
grace on thee” 
- English professor 
and author 
Katharine Lee Bates 
In Susan’s column a 
couple weeks ago, shebemoaned the lousyweek it had been – and 
you couldn’t blame 
her. There was Donald 
Trump, who couldn’t 
let the media attention on the GOP race go on anylonger without him being the focus of it. Then therewas the killing by Dylann Roof of nine parishionersat the Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston. Roof 
warned against blacks because “They rape ourwomen”. Trump warned that Mexico was sending“rapists” across the border. One of them is runningfor president.
But wouldn’t you know – right after camea week that could be regarded as one of the moresuccessful of President Obama’s second term, and 
one of the most transformational for our nation. 
The week culminated with the president’seulogy for the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, a victimof the Charleston shootings. He focused on thesubject of God’s grace, what Katharine Bates wroteof in “America the Beautiful”. It’s something not“earned” or “deserved”, the president explained,
but something there all the same. The killer, thepresident said, “failed to comprehend what Rev.
Pinckney so well understood – the power of God’sgrace.”
Though Roof had intended his actions 
to start some sort of “race war”, the president 
reminded that “God works in mysterious ways.” 
The reaction brought thousands together in 
solidarity at Charleston and other black churches 
around the country, and a belated recognition 
that the Confederate flag has no place outside 
a museum. The president described it as “a 
reminder of systematic oppression and racial 
subjugation”, and it’s now coming down all over 
the country - including at the South Carolina 
statehouse. 
But the president reminded we “can’t settle forsymbolic gestures”, that we need to do the “hardwork for more lasting change”. It’s not enough tohave God’s grace, the president said, “It is up to usnow to make the most of it.” 
The week began with pundits predicting acrippling blow for the president, with even membersof his own party turning against him to deny fast-
track authority on the Trans Pacific Partnershiptrade deal. Those Democrats had a sure-fire wayof peeling off Republican support, as well. All theyhad to do was include a provision to help Americanworkers whose jobs might be affected by the pact– something they knew no Republican couldaccept – and they were right. In the end, though,
the president got the authority he wanted – whilesigning into law the provision helping Americanworkers as a separate measure.
The big news came through the SupremeCourt. It affirmed that although we have the rightto free speech, we don’t have the right to express it 
in a way implying state sanction – like putting theConfederate flag on a license plate. In another caseout of Texas, the Court ruled that housing policiesthat have a discriminatory impact are in factdiscriminatory and wrong – regardless of whethersomebody expressly stated an intent to go out anddiscriminate. 
A major decision came Thursday when, afterfive years and over fifty votes by Republicans todo away with it, the Court affirmed that PresidentObama’s Affordable Care Act, through which 16million Americans now have coverage, bringingthe lowest rate of uninsured since they startedkeeping track, is here to stay.
This wasn’t about any Constitutional issue, butrather a last-ditch effort by opponents to scour theentire 11,000 pages for the slightest technicality theycould build a case on. With the Court’s decision, 
Republicans are no doubt relieved as they won’thave to answer to the 8 million Americans who 
might have lost coverage had it gone the other way.
Their credibility, though, has already takena hit. They’d warned Americans would lose whatcoverage they had before the ACA. Accordingto a recent Rand study, 80% kept their insurers.
They said private employers would stop offeringinsurance. According to the Rand study, thebiggest gain in coverage has been through privateemployers.
They warned of it being a job-killer and 
wrecking the economy. The Court’s decision camea couple weeks after the Bureau of Labor Statisticsreporting 12.6 million private sector jobs createdover the past five years as the product of the longeststreak (63 straight months) of job growth on record.
Unemployment is at its lowest level in seven years.
The budget deficit has been cut by two-thirds underPresident Obama; from nearly 10% of our economyto less than 3% of it. 
Back in her day, Katherine Bates was what wasknown as a “spinster”. She lived for 25 years withfellow Wellesley College professor (and Dean andEconomics Department chair) Katharine Koman.
Surviving letters attest to the immense love anddevotion throughout the relationship, which endedwith Koman’s succumbing to breast cancer in 1915(Bates died in 1929). In 2012, the organizers ofLGBT History Month named Katharine Bates oneof its LGBT history “icons”.
In “America the Beautiful” she wrote of 
colors; “amber waves of grain”, “purple mountain”,
“alabaster cities”. Friday night, the White Housewas bathed in the colors of the rainbow. Earlier that 
day, the Supreme Court confirmed that althoughsome still attempt to use “religion” as an excuse topractice bigotry, as a nation we no longer dictatewho one can love - and who one can marry. AsStephen Colbert put it, “It’s hard to believe gaysachieved full constitutional personhood only fiveyears after corporations did.”
The White House bathed in those colors 
seemed an affirmation of the call to “crown thygood with brotherhood (and sisterhood) from seato shining sea.”
President Obama announced, “We’ve made 
our union a little more perfect.”
The president was being modest. 
Happy Fourth. 
WHO HAS THE WORSE 
IDEA: 
OBAMA OR TRUMP? 
BOB TORNOE 
RICK JENSEN 
The dream of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, NewtGingrich and Mitt Romney has now been realized. Their solution—
their idea for universal health care has been passed by both houses,
signed by the president and upheld twice now by the Supreme Court.
Yes, they call it Obamacare. Yes, they strangely call it socialism. Butyes, it was their idea. And now it’s here to stay. 
Market-based mavens, you’ve got your way. Time for celebration! Also time to stop callingObamacare a bill. It’s a law now. It’s been the law for four years. And it was always your law. 
Passionately opposed to socialized medicine, President Reagan called for a mandatoryhealth insurance program while governor of California. It was legislation that sounded, well,
sound, but was never going to be law. It was the “abolish the Fed” position of its day. 
But Reagan did supply socialized medicine to the poor. Prior to Reagan’s presidency andhis signing of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), peoplewith no means to pay could be turned away at hospitals. EMTALA was an unfunded mandatethat led to astronomical health care costs over the next few decades. People who couldn’t affordinsurance got health care in the ER and those who could afford insurance footed the bill.
Which is, you know, socialism. The solution was to have an individual mandate to purchaseprivate health insurance. But again, that was never going to pass.
In fact for over 40 years spanning seven presidents, American health care got worse and moreexpensive. At this same time other industrialized nations improved upon single payer modelsand hybrids of private and public models. Americans’ health care system devolved into a haveand have not parable: Best in the world if you have money, worse than you could imagine ifyou don’t. 
Politicians assured us we had the best health care system in the world. With a majorasterisk. In 2000, the World Health Organization ranked us as 37th in the world (Colombiawas 22nd). We paid more for less. An illness could cause bankruptcy. Our health system wasvery unhealthy. 
But then came “change.” In the original proposal by Obama, the Affordable Care Actincluded a public option, referred to as ”Medicare you can buy into.” This public option waswildly popular with doctors and supported generally by a majority of voters. It was a perfectway of creating competition in the market place, setting a bar for private insurance companies.
It was also, as noted by its opponents, an easy transition into a single payer system, puttingAmerican health care on par with the rest of the industrialized world (and most emergingcountries, too). But the public option died in the Senate, never making it into the final law. 
The public option was dead. Now in this wake of this second Supreme Court decisionupholding the existing compromised ACA law, the public option is cremated, buried andgone. There’s no political will for Medicare for all. The allegedly super-liberal-commie plan isthe twice-upheld-by-SCOTUS law of the land. 
President Ulysses S. Grant recalled the moment he received the surrender letter fromGeneral Robert E. Lee and wrote in his memoir: “I felt like anything rather than rejoicing atthe downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for acause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, andone for which there was the least excuse.” 
Grant refers to slavery as the worst cause for which people have fought. Conservativesvehemently fighting against their own idea—with no actual plan for its replacement otherthan the exact same plan with a different name—has to be the lamest cause for which peoplehave fought. It’s time to stop that now. 
The battle is over. The public option will never happen. Take a victory lap, Republicans. 
Tina Dupuy is a nationally syndicated op-ed columnist, investigative journalist, award-winningwriter, stand-up comic, on-air commentator and wedge issue fan. Tina can be reached at tinadupuy@
yahoo.com. 
TINA DUPUY 
OBAMACARE RULING IS A 
CONSERVATIVE WIN 
This idea is as short-sighted as on WDEL.com 
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