Governor Gaslights Us to Protect Predatory Republican Budgeting

Looks like Brad Little brought something back from his trip to Washington, D.C. last week: tips on how to distort the truth while keeping a straight face. 

On his Facebook page, he’s crowing about a “structurally balanced budget” that has slashed $155 million to accommodate President Trump’s tax grift for his fellow billionaires, and family. Little doubles down, saying he’ll “protect” public education, and public safety, and infrastructure.

What? We understand math! 

We know that you need more money, not less, to pay for food and rent inflation. We know that folks get sick and injured even when they can’t afford health insurance. We don’t stop caring about our kids–or our neighbors’ kids for that matter–because money got tight.

And we know that rich people don’t need our money–we need our money.

So, here we have Idaho’s Gaslighting Governor.

The bill that Little’s fellow Republicans have trotted out doesn’t just cut $155 million from the budget this year, it will be a $175 million reduction next year. Oh, and that’s on top of $450 million in cuts last year that Republicans can’t even blame on Trump and his bootlickers in Congress.

I am not going to get into the weeds here. Frankly “the weeds” are where all the snakes hide. But there’s no way Idaho absorbs all these cuts without slashing health care, infrastructure, public safety and public education. Next year, by the way, is when you will hear the Republican chorus about “living within our means” and “making hard choices” and lots of nonsense about “bootstraps.”

To be clear, these severe cuts do NOT harm everybody. These cuts only harm regular Idahoans working one or two jobs trying to make decent lives for their families. These cuts do not hurt wealthy folks–like billionaires, lobbyists, and grifters.

By the way, I think it’s a good idea to cut taxes on tips, seniors, and overtime. I’d like to see those cuts potentially offset by reconsidering the ones that only benefited the wealthy.

So, why criticize Brad Little for taking a taxpayer funded trip to D.C.? Glad you asked.

Let’s ignore for a second that he was there to help try to distract from the same release of the sex-offender Epstein files. And, that he was helping from righteous outrage over Trump’s private ICE army murdering Americans in Minnesota.

He was sitting with people who are experts at telling us not to believe our eyes. He’s learning from the best. 

But I want Idaho to know that if I were governor, right now, I wouldn’t be lying to you. I would not be cutting more. I would also revisit last year’s corrupt tax gifts for the rich. And I wouldn’t lie about protecting public education when I knew damn well that bad Republican decisions mean that Idaho will make the cuts next year–after the election.