Editorials from around New England

Excerpts of recent editorials of statewide and national interest from New England newspapers:

The Day (Conn.), Jan. 13, 2016

In his final State of the Union Address, President Obama made the case that the Union is in far better shape than when he took office seven years ago and offered poignant criticism of the politics of division and despair.

“Anyone claiming that America’s economy is in decline is peddling fiction,” President Obama told the assembled Senate and House members and a national TV audience.

The federal unemployment rate, which peaked at 10 percent during the Great Recession that President Obama inherited when elected in November 2008, is now at 5 percent. The domestic auto industry, on the brink of collapse when this president undertook a controversial rescue plan, enjoyed its best year ever in 2015. The longest private-sector job creation streak in the nation’s history continues, having produced more than 14 million new jobs.

Yet the president admitted these positive figures do not tell the entire story. Technological change is displacing workers, hitting particularly hard those with less education. For many poor and middle-class Americans, their buying power continues to slip as their wages remain relatively stagnant.

“Companies in a global economy can locate anywhere, and face tougher competition. As a result, workers have less leverage for a raise. Companies have less loyalty to their communities. And more and more wealth and income is concentrated at the very top,” he said.

President Obama persuasively argued that the United States cannot meet its challenges by turning one against the other or misplacing blame. Rejecting the rhetoric of the frontrunner in Republican primary presidential polls, real estate magnate Donald Trump, the president called upon Americans to “reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion.”

“When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is. It’s just wrong. It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country,” said the president in his blunt, and accurate, remarks.

It was heartening to see South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, in delivering the Republican response to the president’s address, sound the same theme.

“During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation,” said Gov. Haley, later confirming Mr. Trump is among those voices.

In rejecting Mr. Trump’s outrageous and un-American call to ban Muslim’s entry to the country, Gov. Haley called upon Americans to continue “welcoming properly vetted legal immigrants, regardless of their race or religion. Just like we have for centuries.”

Unsurprisingly, the president aligned with the Democratic candidates seeking to replace him in calling for reining in the power of Wall Street. It is a necessary step to reverse the trend that has seen wealth concentrated among a privileged billionaire class, while the strength of this nation - its middle class - shrinks.

“Food Stamp recipients didn’t cause the financial crisis; recklessness on Wall Street did. Immigrants aren’t the reason wages haven’t gone up enough; those decisions are made in the boardrooms that too often put quarterly earnings over long-term returns. It’s sure not the average family watching tonight that avoids paying taxes through offshore accounts,” said the president in a summary ready-made for the campaign trail.

On foreign policy, he offered perspective on the danger posed by the Islamic State, acknowledging that such terror groups “pose a direct threat to our people . but they do not threaten our national existence.”

He offered both a compelling argument for continuing the international effort to degrade the Islamic State forces, including the continued use of U.S. air power, and a cautionary note against those eager to introduce American ground forces into a disruptive transformational time in the Middle East “that will play out for a generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia.”

“That’s not leadership; that’s a recipe for quagmire,” said President Obama.

History will judge this presidency kinder than contemporary evaluations. Whatever his failings - and the inability to find a path to bipartisan policy making with Congress was among them, a fact the president acknowledged - this remains an optimistic president. Optimism is rooted in the American spirit.

In choosing a successor, Republican or Democrat, Americans should reject negativity as a campaign strategy. Instead, the country should look for a leader who, in the words of Gov. Haley, inspires Americans to “rededicate ourselves to doing whatever it takes to keep America the greatest country in the history of man. And woman.”

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Online:

https://bit.ly/1RMCsf6

Rutland Herald (Vt.), Jan. 11, 2016

In Vermont, judging by the messaging that has landed in media inboxes thus far in the election cycle, the Republicans will be focused on the economy, economy, economy, with a side helping of government overreach.

This is a message that contrasts with the message of the leading national Republicans - Trump, Cruz and Rubio - which seems to be focused on immigration, terrorism and religion.

The economic message will resonate far better in the Green Mountains than the leading national messaging, While unemployment is low, and the state’s economy is stable, there are long term challenges that belie the reassuring message that low unemployment numbers might be used to support.

Look no further than the last gubernatorial election to see evidence that there is deep dissatisfaction in the electorate. Republican Scott Milne, a virtual unknown who entered the race relatively late and by most accounts ran a patched-together campaign, came within a whisker of defeating sitting incumbent Peter Shumlin.

The Republicans think that this dissatisfaction is rooted in the stagnant economic recovery - unemployment may be low, but wages haven’t gone up noticeably in recent memory, and the state has not attracted many new jobs.

It’s hard to argue that we are better off when, in general, home values are lower than they were before the Great Recession, and in many cases families are stretched thin.

The Democrats are accountable for the efforts they chose to focus on - health care - which did not work flawlessly, or even work very well. The fact that the health care exchange has recovered somewhat is not a strong selling point.

At the same time, the state faces challenges that are an outcome of economic stagnation - the addiction epidemic, and associated spikes in need for social services.

The state is also challenged by demographic change, which in Vermont is more about age than it is about race. While national Democrats may think that the growth in racial minorities may help their chances in national elections, in Vermont the state is simply getting older, on average, while racial diversity is largely static.

Our state is getting older, and there aren’t enough families with enough children to change that trend. This is a trend for all the New England states, yet in Vermont it feels more pronounced.

The state’s economic growth has been concentrated in the greater Burlington area and Franklin County, while small points of light elsewhere - in St. Johnsbury, Rutland, Barre, Springfield, Brattleboro and Bennington - have not been strong enough to effectively counteract the demographic slide by attracting new families and young entrepreneurs.

The efforts of Democrats in recent years have been judged, fairly or not, to be aimed at the least fortunate among us. There are few who would say that lending a hand to the poor is not a worthy effort. But it does carry political risk - at a certain point, the amount of money spent can outweigh the willingness of taxpayers to foot the bill.

We may all be in favor of helping addicts out of their downward spirals. But we may not all be ready to bear the cost.

The same goes for many of the environmental efforts that the Shumlin administration and Democrats have shepherded through the lawmaking process. The cleanup of Lake Champlain is crucial to the state, and it’s better that Vermont came up with the plan than it would have been to have one imposed upon the state by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Yet the state’s clean water act has introduced many new regulations and responsibilities for state government. While we may all be in favor of a clean, algae-free lake, the cost of getting that result may carry with it some political price.

This means that the Democrats may actually be hurt politically by doing the right things for the state.

At the same time, it’s equally difficult for Republicans to claim credit for much in the last several years, other than doing what they could to influence the laws and policy enacted by the majority party.

So the strategy of economy, economy, economy may get traction. What remains to be seen is whether it will lead to any true shift in political power for Vermont.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/1li2W9F

The Republican of Springfield (Mass.), Jan. 15, 2016

For all those people who blamed Sam Walton for destroying Main Street, U.S.A., news of 269 Walmart closings worldwide make for especially poignant news.

As much as McDonald’s has defined chain eating establishments, Walmart stands as a symbol of all-purpose merchandising under one large roof. The chain has been both praised and vilifed, but there is no question it has altered the American retail landscape.

Its downsizing signals that even huge chains are discovering the need to reposition itself. In Walmart’s case, this appears less due to the effect on online shopping on the “mall mentality,” which has led other chains to close stores, and more on oversaturation.

Of stores to be closed, 90 percent are within 10 miles of another Walmart. The corporation said it plans to open 50 to 60 Supercenters and 85 to 95 Neighborhood Markets in the U.S. this year, with more than 200 stores to be opened internationally.

In the final 40 years of the 20th Century, no chain more symbolized changing shopping habits than Walmart. Founded by Sam Walton as the hyphenated Wal-Mart in 1962, the high-volume, discount-price chain was blamed for destroying Main Street, U.S.A., by overwhelming countless smaller, local stores, particularly in the South and Midwest.

Walton maintained that had he not begun his chain, somebody else would have done the same thing. As small stores closed by the thousands, Walmart grew exponentially and its founder was listed among Time’s 100 most influential 20th Century people in 1998, six years after his death at 74.

Walton received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1992, and for a six-year stretch in the 1980s, was considered the richest U.S. citizen. His chain has been hailed for job creation and charitable endeavors, and for providing affordable one-stop shopping.

But Walmart has also been targeted for labor violations as well as environmental questions, one of which surfaced recently when live birds were found in the food section at the Chicopee store. In Greenfield, the potential impact of a huge Walmart on its traditional downtown remains a source of passionate debate, as it has been for decades.

Massachusetts stores will not be affected by the closings. They affect 154 U.S. stores, including all 102 smaller format stores known as Walmart Express.

Walmart is here to stay, but the closings signal that even the biggest corporate giants must face the reality of changing times. For this chain, it carries special meaning because this time, Walmart is reacting to change, not creating it.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/1Ox4ogL

The Telegraph of Nashua (N.H.), Jan. 15, 2016

Inflation calculators are one of our favorite things about the Internet.

It’s interesting to plug in the current cost of, say, a pound of ground beef and see that paying $4.20 today is the equivalent of paying 79 cents per pound in 1973 dollars.

It becomes an even more interesting exercise for commodities that fluctuate wildly, like gas or home heating oil.

According to the Governor’s Office of Energy and Planning, the statewide average for a gallon of gas is $1.99, which works out to about 37 cents a gallon in 1973 dollars. You could still get gas for that price back then, though prices escalated rapidly starting in November 1973 as a result of the decision by Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut back on production. The Arab oil embargo, as it was known, caused U.S. energy prices to spike and by the spring of 1974, the price of a gallon of gas had climbed above 50 cents per gallon.

It was a classic case of supply and demand, which also explains why prices have fallen in recent months. U.S. oil producers have doubled their output, which has caused the price of oil to drop by about 70 percent in the past 15 months.

How does it feel to be paying mid-1970s prices for a gallon of gas?

To paraphrase a popular 1973 song by Tony Orlando and Dawn: Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Gas Pump.

If it feels like karma is evening things out for all the times we were paying through the nose and it felt like we were being gouged, it’s more than that. There are tangible benefits to having lower prices for gas and home heating oil.

Energy expenditures accounted for 8 percent of New Hampshire’s Gross Domestic Product in 2010, according to the state energy office. Lower prices leave more money in the pockets of New Hampshire residents and businesses.

They are especially helpful to people at the bottom of the economic ladder, who pay a higher portion of their incomes for energy costs.

If there’s a downside, it’s being felt mostly in oil-producing states. This is, admittedly, a tough time to be in the oil business, especially for small operators. According to The New York Times, about 70 producers have filed for bankruptcy protection, and some of the oil giants have implemented layoffs in response to the softening market.

The price of oil briefly dropped below $30 a barrel this week - the first time that has happened in more than 10 years - and there are fears it could drop below $20 per barrel.

As it turns out, $30 has the same buying power as did $5.61 in 1973 dollars, according to the trusty inflation calculator. Wouldn’t you know it - that was about what a barrel of oil cost before the OPEC- driven price spike.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/1li5ft8

The Providence Journal (R.I.), Jan. 15, 2016

Out west in Oregon, ranchers and activists are playing out a grievance that’s been a century in the making.

In remote Harney County, Ore., a jurisdiction larger than the state of Maryland, a group of out-of-state, self-styled constitutionalists have taken occupation of a federally owned wildlife refuge. They say they want to call attention to the heavy hand of the federal government, whose many regulations and cumbersome bureaucracy have made it challenging for ranchers to graze their cattle on federal land.

They have done so despite the lack of support from the people who live in Oregon, including the ranchers whose arson sentence they ostensibly came to protest. Harney County Sheriff Dave Ward, who said he shares the activists’ concerns about the direction of the country, said the interlopers should “go home, be with your own families and end this peacefully.”

Even sympathizers say they have been betrayed. They responded to a call for a rally of support, but were surprised and dismayed when a handful of activists splintered from the rally and headed for the refuge headquarters, 30 miles outside of the county seat of Burns.

On the eastern seaboard, it’s easy to forget how much land the federal government controls in the West. Federal agencies oversee more than half of Oregon’s territory and a higher percentage in the nearby states of Nevada, Idaho and Utah.

Those who run cattle in these states must pay fees for access to federal lands. It was Cliven Bundy’s refusal to pay overdue fees to the Bureau of Land Management that led to last year’s standoff at his Bunkerville, Nev., ranch. The Feds backed down from a confrontation with Mr. Bundy and his supporters, emboldening those who now occupy the refuge in Oregon. Those occupiers include two of Mr. Bundy’s sons, Ammon and Ryan.

The ranchers have a legitimate beef with the government. Federal regulations are burdensome and the bureaucratic machinery grinds more slowly than it does on state or private lands. But ranchers do benefit from below-market grazing fees and expansive access to public land.

The occupation that has shut down the wildlife refuge, created in 1908 by President Theodore Roosevelt to protect threatened birds and other species, is illegal and short-sighted. When activists on Monday cut a barbed wire fence that kept cattle off protected lands, they turned an armed but peaceful act of civil disobedience into a criminal attack on the public good.

Sheriff Ward was right: The activists should go home. By their posturing and lawbreaking, they have undermined their own cause, cost themselves support and made themselves ridiculous. It’s time to end this standoff before someone gets hurt.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/1npL2Dt

Kennebec Journal (Maine), Jan. 12, 2016

As more of our daily activities move online, more of our personal data moves over the Internet. And more data means more data breaches.

It’s too soon to tell of any if there are any Mainers among the 320,000 Time Warner Cable customers whose email passwords were recently snatched, but wherever the unlucky ones are, they have been made very vulnerable.

Social Security and credit card numbers are the kinds of things a hacker might be able to extract from an email file, and if the account holder used the same password for other websites, confidential banking and medical records are also at risk.

So are the account owners’ contacts, who may already be receiving innocent-looking emails with links that would introduce malware to the receiver’s computer, spreading the mayhem.

There were at least 766 reported data breaches in the nation last year, compromising the security of hundreds of millions of records. One of the biggest targets was the health care industry, where 121 million records were accessed by hackers, including 79 million records from the breach in the systems of a single company - Anthem Inc.

If people could choose to keep all of their personal information off the Internet, this might not be such a serious problem. But that is neither possible nor desirable in an economy that gets more efficient as the speed of information increases.

The responsibility to keep the information secure is firmly on the shoulders of the companies that benefit from electronic commerce. But there also is a role for government.

Most states, including Maine, have laws that require businesses and institutions to notify consumers when their data has been breached, but there is still no federal law that requires notification.

Congress debated four bills last year that would create a federal standard for information security, but it could not agree on a unified approach. A sticking point was that Republican sponsors wanted any act to supersede tougher state laws, while Democrats wanted a federal law that would set a minimum standard for security but not one that would pre-empt state law.

A minimum federal standard is consistent with other information protection laws that precede the invention of the Internet. If members of Congress are concerned that companies would still have to navigate a patchwork of laws, they could make sure the minimum standard is the same as the toughest of the state rules.

Laws that require companies to notify consumers when their data has been compromised won’t end data breaches, but they will contain the damage. Government at all levels should make sure that sensitive information is secure.

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Online:

https://bit.ly/236zg1m