Page 4 - Mid Valley Times 12-30-21 e-Edition

Serving the Readers of the Reedley Exponent, Dimuba Sentinel and Sanger Herald.
A Mid Valley Publishing Newspaper
Founded March 26, 1891, in a two-story building on the corner of 11th and F streets, by A.S. Jones
In my OPINION Government leaders looking
out for own best interests
Experiencing the discomfort of covering outdoor sports in December
Fred Hall — Publisher
Jon Earnest — Editor
Dick Sheppard — Editor Emeritus
Thursday, December 30, 2021 | A4 | Mid Valley TiMes Editorial & Opinions
If the voters would entertain the concept of using critical thinking when dealing with the messaging advanced by politicians, it would require that ev- ery single sentence and phrase being uttered by that shameless professional be parsed for its true meaning. “In a New York minute” you're going to find that very little of what they say has any working relationship with the truth!
Covering sports in the win- ter season can be a chore, par- ticularly if it's an outdoor sports like soccer.
Since I had a relatively comfortable fall season cover- ing football — the season had wrapped up by the time and real chilly weather hit — the past three weeks were when I first experienced the first two instances of discomfort out shooting games in 2021. I was even spared cold weather early in the year, as prep sports didn't resume until late February and early March for traditional "fall" sports.
But the elements' revenge came this month; both coming by coincidence at normally cozy Tom Flores Stadium in Sanger. The first instance was on Dec. 10, when I covered the Apaches' boys soccer showdown against Clovis East High in the battle of the state's two top-ranked teams. While it was dry in gen- eral, there was a chill in the air and cools blasts of air that made the turf seem like an ice rink. By the time I finished shooting the double-overtime classic (won
by the Apaches), my feet felt a pair of ice blocks. It took most of my 30-mile drive home to have warm blood pumping again through those extremities.
My second fun night came on Dec. 22, when area rivals Sanger and Reedley boys soc- cer squared off at Tom Flores Stadium. The Pirates have an- other strong squad, and so it ended up being a close, spirited contest that went down to the wire. Sanger eventually won 1-0 on a second-half goal. It was a little warmer on this occasion, but there was a catch – a light drizzle was falling throughout the match and it became more uncomfortable the cooler and wetter the evening became.
Of course, these problems aren't an issue with the other winter season prep sports; bas- ketball and wrestling. Basketball always is a warm (sometimes stifling warm) experience in a gym, at least normally. It is a bit more of a challenge in the coronavirus pandemic era. I will say this: there weren't a great deal of masks worn among the 1,000-plus fans attending the
championship
game of the
Polly Wilhelm-
sen Invitational Tournament.
No issue with
me, I was iso-
lated along the
baseline shoot-
ing photos and enjoyed a great finals matchup between two out- standing teams in Mt. Whitney (now 16-0) and Dinuba (14-2).
The Emperors will be a fun team to cover this season. They don't have a player standing taller than 6-foot-1, but shoot it up-tempo and play pit bull de- fense with some trapping pres- sure. If you're a basketball fan, check them out.
•••
With New Year's Eve on Fri-
day and the New Year's week- end approaching, as always please stay safe on the roads and don't get behind the wheel of the vehicle if you've been drinking. Have a safe venture into 2022!
Jon Earnest is news-sports editor for The Times.
Fred Hall
QUOTE
“Sometimes I get the feeling the whole world is against me, but deep down I know that's not true. Some smaller countries are neutral.”
— Robert Orben (1927-)
Jon Earnest
An excellent example would be the recent statement by Gov. Gavin Newsom in his defense of Proposition 47 and 57, which have been identified as being contributing factors to California's out-of-control crime crisis. New- som tried to say that criminal activity was down here in the state, but overlooked the fact that the threshold for criminality was elevated, resulting in fewer crimes being reported. That doesn't mean miscreant behavior was not a crime, it simply wasn't prosecuted.
We're also being told that the $5 trillion Build Back Better Framework can execute that extravagant spend- ing bill and it's not going to cost the taxpayer a penny! What's the old adage that covers that one? “I was born at night, but not last night.” Many voters are under or poorly educated when it comes to issues impacting their quality of life. The government's only source for funding that monstrosity is the American taxpayer. How stupid does the president believe we are?
We can attribute our most recent salvation from that huge socialist spending mistake to a Democrat senator from West Virginia— Joe Manchin. Thank heavens there is a modicum of common sense in Washington. Manchin seems more like a “stand-up guy” than the 17 Republican senators who have proved to get weak-kneed on any- thing controversial. They voted to pass the infrastruc- ture bill, which contained only 5 to 7 percent of the $1.2 trillion in massive spending being dedicated to actual infrastructure improvement.
Of the 17 defectors, many of them are often iden- tified as voting against party interests. That sorry list includes Roy Blunt of Missouri, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Shelly Capito of Wet Virginia, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Susan Collins of Maine, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Mike Crapo of Idaho, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Chuck Grassley of Iowa, John Hoeven of North Dakota, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Rob Portman of Ohio, Jim Risch of Idaho, Mitt Romney of Utah, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Todd Young of Indiana.
That was a pretty dumb vote when one considers that 93 to 95 percent of the money will be wasted on progres- sive projects and not used to improve crumbling infra- structure. We have no idea why politicians continue to do such really dumb things that are so easily exposed, while telling us how they've actually enriched our lives. If you can, please let me know how $950 billion in spending on social programs and telling me that it improves the infra- structure has somehow been a service to most Americans. Thank you Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski, et al for nothing!
It's bad enough that we are forced to live with the increase in criminal activity and misrepresentation of issues, we are treated as if we are so dumb we'll believe everything we are told by elected officials and bureau- crats. That's despite the fact that the United States is a Republican form of democratic government which elects people to represent the interests of those that are best for all citizens and their wishes.
That obviously is not the case today. Almost every- thing they say and do is done while aiming at their next election or the wishes of special interest groups and do- nors. Although these people are generally reimbursed with excellent salaries, they do not make enough money to have them become millionaires while still in office. Maybe the person they truly represent is themselves.
But, as always, that's only one man's decision.
Democrats' drug proposal would cut patient costs, but also restricts access
By Erik Paulsen
Guest columnist
It's commendable that Dem- ocrats in Congress are deter- mined to include prescription drug-pricing reforms in their Build Back Better spending bill. Far too many Americans struggle to pay for their medi- cations, and high out-of-pocket drug costs are potentially life- threatening, especially for those with chronic diseases.
Unfortunately, the latest ver- sion of lawmakers' drug-pricing plan contains bad ideas as well as good ones. In particular, it al- lows Medicare to set prices for a range of popular drugs, in an effort to save the government money. But this would reduce access to state-of-the-art medi- cines for millions of seniors, while severely setting back medical innovation.
As the bill moves toward fi- nal revisions, let's hope for the sake of patients that legislators drop these worrisome provi- sions, and instead focus on poli- cies that will make drugs more affordable.
To be sure, there are impor- tant initiatives to celebrate in the drug-pricing proposal. For one, it would limit annual out-of- pocket drug spending to $2,000 for those enrolled in Medicare
Part D. It would also cap out-of- pocket insulin costs at just $35 a month — a major victory for the one in four seniors who live with diabetes.
We've needed reforms like these for years. According to a recent poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation, a third of patients living with a serious health con- dition struggle to afford their prescription drugs. Three in ten Americans say they've failed to adhere to a prescribed drug regimen because of cost.
In fact, widespread drug non-adherence results in an estimated 125,000 deaths each year in the United States. Re- ducing out-of-pocket drug costs is the most direct way to ad- dress this crisis.
Yet Democratic lawmakers could undermine these impor- tant measures by including a price-setting scheme that will result in fewer medicines available for seniors. Under the proposed legislation, the Department of Health and Hu- man Services would be free to "negotiate" the price of at least 20 Medicare-covered medicines within the next seven years.
But these wouldn't be "ne- gotiations" in the normal sense. Given Medicare's buying power and the punitive excise tax the legislation would impose on
drug makers who refuse to go along, the federal government would in fact be able to dictate price. Should a manufacturer walk away despite the tax, Medicare would simply refuse to cover the drug in question.
In the short term, this ar- rangement would deny seniors access to medicines that the gov- ernment deems too expensive.
In the long term, government price restrictions could be even more harmful, as they would lead to a decrease in medical innova- tion. If the government is free to name its own price, the incen- tive to invest in medical break- throughs will evaporate. At a time when so many illnesses still lack adequate treatments, a pol- icy that obstructs research into breakthrough cures, therapies, and vaccines is unacceptable.
The lives of millions of chronic-disease patients depend on affordable access to the lat- est prescription medicines. Congress can help these Amer- icans with reforms that lower what they pay out-of-pocket for drugs. But policies that restrict drug access, and hamper medi- cal innovation, should have no place on the healthcare agenda.
Erik Paulsen represented Minnesota's 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Rep- resentatives from 2009 to 2019.