Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/417786
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS Apparently, you're pretty busy. I'm a little surprised that you have time to read the paper, frankly. And you're not alone. Only 36 percent of our countrymen both- ered to vote in the midterm elections. A lot of people were busy that day. Unless we are prepared to admit that control of con- gress will be determined largely by non-voters, we need to take a fresh look at reinvigorating the basic cur- rency of democracy—voting. And that's exactly why Ver- mont Senator Bernie Sanders wants to make Election Day a national holiday. Turnout in the midterm elections hasn't been this low since 1942, and back then my grandmother was busy changing my now 72-year-old dad's diaper. Grandpa Stanford was busy, too, fighting fascism in Eu- rope. So if turnout was a little low in the middle of World War II, I'm willing to give the Greatest Generation a pass. But a lot has happened since then. We lowered the voting age, passed the Civil Rights Act and the Vot- ing Rights Act, and, with the Motor Voter Law, made it easier to register to vote. The United States has sys- tematically welcomed more and more Americans into the fold, and now what? Vot- ing? Eh, who has time. Turnout was down in 2014 compared to the usual poor job Americans do. In some places—such as Alaska, Col- orado, Maine, and Wiscon- sin—competitive statewide elections led to increased turnout. But if we're pre- pared to say that Maine's high-water mark of 59.3 per- cent is a success, then we need to take a hard look at ourselves. If the whole coun- try voted like Maine, the United States would rank 143rd in the world, right be- hind Russia. Nope. And if our best isn't good enough, then our worst is downright awful. Georgia had competitive elections for both governor and sen- ate, and turnout fell 6 points from 2010 to 34.1 percent. That's almost half the voter turnout rate in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia. Many on the left are rightly pointing to the num- ber of Americans who couldn't vote because of new voting restrictions. The Brennan Center for Justice found that the number of people kept away from the polls by these new laws ex- ceeded the winning margins in close elections. For exam- ple, the Brennan Center es- timates that 100,000 North Carolinians were unable to vote because same-day reg- istration was outlawed. On Election Day, Sen. Kay Hagan lost by 48,000 votes. But voting restrictions disenfranchise people who want to vote but can't be- cause of unfair laws. In the North Carolina example, the people unable to vote be- cause same-day registra- tion wasn't available only amounted to 3.5 percent of the vote, or would have had they voted. We need to get rid of those voting restric- tions, but that won't solve our largest problem when two-thirds of Americans are skipping elections. That's where Sanders' idea comes in. The biggest reason people don't vote is that life gets in the way. When asked by Gallup why they didn't vote, 45 percent of nonvoters cited schedule conflicts with work or school. Another 34 percent said they were too busy, sick, out of town, or forgot. Only 20 percent cited general disgust with politics or apathy. You could have Je- sus debating healthcare with Satan, and people would still have to show up to work or get fired. That's why Sanders thinks we should make Election Day a holiday. He's got a bill ready and plans to file it when the lame duck Con- gress reconvenes. "While this would not be a cure-all, it would indicate a national commitment to cre- ate a more vibrant democ- racy," said Sanders. Sanders proposes calling this new holiday National Election Day. And while I like his idea, I would amend it to make sure Sanders is never in charge of naming things again. His idea isn't just about getting more people to vote. It's about getting people to remember that they are in charge. We should call it De- mocracy Day. The chances of Congress passing this law are lower than zero. But, c'mon they've got a lot on their plate. You get it, don't you? We're all so busy these days. JasonStanfordisaregu- lar contributor to the Austin American-Statesman, a Dem- ocratic consultant and a Tru- man National Security Proj- ect partner. You can email him at stanford@oppre- search.com and follow him on Twitter @JasStanford. Jason Stanford Make Election Day a holiday Cartoonist's take If you would like to see and hear the newly elected Superintendent of the Tehama County Department of Educa- tion, the Tea Party Pa- triots will host Charles Allen in the 6:30 p.m. portion of their 6 p.m. meeting tonight at the West- side Grange, 20794 Walnut St. in Red Bluff. A mild suggestion: Any- one with concerns or animos- ity over Common Core should be aware that Mr. Allen has, in all likelihood, nearly zero ability to nullify it for our county schools. The controversy and out- rage over MIT economist Jonathon Gruber's surpris- ingly frank and revealing statements should inform our view of the formulation, leg- islation and implementation of Obamacare. Obama's apol- ogists, defenders, spinners, liars and apparatchiks have no credibility whatsoever if they try to minimize Gruber and his statements. To summarize, for those with blinkered viewing lim- ited to the networks and non-Fox news sources, and who don't either listen to conservative talk radio or read the many legitimate conservative blog sites, here's what Mr. (or is it "Per-fess- er") Gruber had to say: 1) "If you had a law which said that healthy people are go- ing to pay in…and sick peo- ple get money—it would not have passed;" 2) "Lack of transparency is a huge politi- cal advantage. And basically, call it the stupidity of the American voter, or whatever, but basically that was really, really critical for the thing to pass." 3) "Americans are too stupid to understand the dif- ference" (when Democrats al- tered the language of the bill to gather public support). 4) (Per Rich Lowry, na- tionalreview.com) "Gruber crowed about the exertions undertaken to make an un- popular tax on expensive health-insurance plans, the so-called Cadillac tax, more palatable. It was levied on employers instead of employ- ees. No one (i.e. voters) real- ized, Gruber explained, that the tax would be functionally the same even if not directly imposed on workers." 5) Gruber dismissed as the writings of "my adolescent children" concerns about the law such as: "ballooning costs, increased taxes, bureaucratic outrages, shabby facilities, dis- gruntled providers, long waiting times, lower- quality care, special inter- est nest-feathering and de- structive wages and price controls." Far from the im- mature expressions of chil- dren, those were written by John McClaughry, a former Vermont state senator and adviser to President Ron- ald Reagan, "who (Mr. Mc- Claughry) knew something about health care systems." 6) Gruber bragged and showboated to "Frontline" in a June 13, 2012 interview about his role in an Oval Of- fice meeting with several ex- perts, as well as President Obama. White House visitor logs for July 20, 2009, have Gruber meeting with Obama in the West Wing for almost four hours. Gruber: "The next time I see him (Obama) is summer 2009. The big is- sue there is that he really wants to make sure I'm mov- ing forward on cost control. [Coverage looked good] but he was worried on cost con- trol. So we had a meeting… on what can we do to get credible savings on cost con- trol that the Congressional Budget Office would recog- nize and score as savings in this law." Gruber then explained that when employer-pro- vided health insurance is not taxed, unlike wages or sal- aries, it is effectively a "tax subsidy" and they all, includ- ing Obama, brainstormed for ways to get some of the "$250 billion per year in (lost) tax revenue" into the CBO calcu- lation. "And Obama is like, 'Look, I can't just do this… politically. The bill will not pass. How do we manage to get there through phases and other things?' And we talked about it. And he was just very interested in that topic." Review, please, #4 above to understand that Obama was part of, if not the inspiration for, the duplicitous machi- nations to turn a direct tax into "savings" that employ- ers/insurance companies would pay. Gateway Pun- dit Jim Hoft: "Obama was at the center of this deception. He specifically ordered Gru- ber and other 'healthcare ex- perts' to find ways to game the CBO numbers so that the bill would pass…Gruber has clearly identified President Obama as the source of the lie behind the Cadillac Tax. The story is…about the delib- erate lie the President used to pass this monstrosity of a healthcare law." Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala.: "The strategy was to hide the truth from the American people. That is a threat to the American republic." Gru- ber's comments confirm what we on the right have criti- cized for 5 years regarding "the ethos of modern pro- gressive liberalism—smarter- than-thou zealotry masquer- ading as for-the-greater-good pragmatism." (Ian Tuttle) "Complexity is a staple of liberal policymaking. It is a product of its scale and reach, but also of the imper- ative to hide the ball. Taxing and spending and redistrib- utive schemes tend to be un- popular, so clever ways have to be found to deny that they are happening. (Obamacare's) supporters didn't want to straightforwardly admit how much the law was raising taxes and using the young and healthy to subsidize ev- eryone else." (Rich Lowry) Moreover, Jonathan Gruber typifies the policy wonk/rent seekers that attach them- selves to the progressive ma- chine. The New York Post's Kyle Smith chronicled the largess from taxpayers that found its way into Gruber's hands: $392,600 from the HHS pay- roll; $400,000 of Obamacare money from Minnesota; an- other $400,000 each from Wisconsin and Vermont, in addition to sums from West Virginia, Maine, Colorado and Oregon. He wrote numerous op- eds without disclosing that he was "on the take." Gruber, Obama (Care), Pelosi, Reid— frauds all. Don Polson has called Red Bluff home since 1988. He can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com. The way I see it Fooling the American voters When asked by Gallup why they didn't vote, 45 percent of nonvoters cited schedule conflicts with work or school. Another 34 percent said they were too busy, sick, out of town, or forgot. Only 20 percent cited general disgust with politics or apathy. Assemblyman Dan Logue 150Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico 95928, 530895- 4217 Senator Jim Nielsen 2634 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico 95928, 530 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate. ca.gov Governor Jerry Brown State Capital Building, Sacra- mento 95814, 916445-2841, fax 916558-3160, governor@ governor.ca.gov U.S. Representative Doug LaMalfa 507Cannon House Office Building, Washington D.C. 20515, 202225-3076 U.S. Senator Dianne Fein- stein One Post St., Ste. 2450, San Francisco 94104, 415 393- 0707, fax 415 393-0710 U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer 1700 Montgomery St., San Francisco 94111, 510 286- 8537, fax 202 224-0454 Contact your officials Don Polson "Complexity is a staple of liberal policymaking. It is a product of its scale and reach, but also of the imperative to hide the ball. Taxing and spending and redistributive schemes tend to be unpopular, so clever ways have to be found to deny that they are happening. (Obamacare's) supporters didn't want to straightforwardly admit how much the law was raising taxes and using the young and healthy to subsidize everyone else." — Rich Lowry OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Tuesday, November 18, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6