Idaho Freedom Foundation President Wayne Hoffman is not waiting for Gov. Brad Little’s State of the State address when the Legislature convenes next month. The man who has an ever-expanding influence over the Idaho House delivered one of his own Thursday.
Speaking to the Kootenai County Republican Women Federated in Coeur d’Alene, Hoffman took aim at:
• Public education — “First thing I’d do is I’d pass universal education choice. That’s very simple. Our public schools are grotesque, and adding more money is not going to solve the problem,” Hoffman said. “More money is not the answer. There are schools in Idaho where 90 percent of the kids graduate and they can’t read, write or do math.”
Neither the Idaho State Board of Education nor the State Department of Education were aware of any school producing such abysmal results.
A voucher program works pretty well for upper-income families living in urban centers with ready access to quality private schools.
What about kids living in rural Idaho?
Or children whose families are struggling to make ends meet?
Who’s going to look out for children with learning disabilities and physical disabilities?
• Health care — “There is no law that says the state of Idaho or any other state for that matter has to participate in the Medicaid program,” Hoffman said. “So in other words, if you had a conservative Senate and a conservative House, you could actually pass a bill repealing Medicaid in Idaho.”
This goes beyond abolishing the Medicaid expansion program covering low-income working adults, which the voters of Idaho passed in 2018 over Hoffman’s strenuous opposition. He’s talking about health care for children of the working poor and for ailing senior citizens without means.
On top of causing more human misery, it would throw the cost of health care onto state and local taxpayers.
• Food stamps — “You could also repeal food stamps. There’s no federal law that says if you’re poor and you can’t afford food, that the state of Idaho or the state of Wisconsin and the state of Florida is supposed to provide food stamps. We just do that. We’ve accepted FDR’s programs, LBJ’s programs, all these lefty programs, and we’re just on auto-pilot now.”
Remove food stamps, Hoffman says, and three things would happen:
“If you’re poor and you can’t afford food and you need a government welfare program and you don’t want to work, you might move to Spokane. … Some people might go: ‘You know what? I’ve got to go get a job. …’ But the third and the most important thing — and you said it — churches, charities, families, other community organizations would step up.”
In a low-wage state such as Idaho, many of the people getting food stamps already work.
Charities, such as food banks, often fill a gap that food stamps leave behind. ‘
As the Lewiston Tribune’s William L. Spence documented a decade ago, private charities lack the resources to replace government programs — especially during a recession.
And as for leaving Idaho for more lucrative welfare benefits — how is someone who can’t afford to eat going to find the money it takes to move to Washington or Oregon?
• Higher education — This year’s $2.5 million budget cut in retaliation for the institutions of higher learning continuing to promote diversity was just the beginning.
“None of the social justice programs going on at Boise State, the University of Idaho, Lewis-Clark State College have been eliminated. They’re still there,” Hoffman said. “Why? Because they think they can get away with it. So here’s where you come in. Next legislative session, there is going to be an effort to cut $20 million from the college and university budget. Did you hear that number? Twenty million dollars. And we’re going to make sure they do it. And if they don’t do it, we’re going to run ads in every legislative district where people are holding out.”
Should he prevail, Hoffman would erase about four years of general fund budget increases that barely covered inflation during a time when the state’s colleges and universities imposed a two-year tuition freeze.
Hoffman freely admits this won’t happen as long as the Senate remains hostile to the agenda he and his acolytes in the House embrace.
But that could change considering the vacancies created by retirements and redistricting along with the edge right-wing ideologues enjoy in Idaho’s closed GOP primary.
“Now I’m just going to throw this out for imagination purposes. Not that I’m proposing this policy tomorrow, but I want you to think about what can happen if we were to have a conservative House and a conservative Senate with the belief that big government is destroying our families,” Hoffman said.
Yes, do think about it as next spring’s Republican primary election approaches.
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