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Time to end reign of GOP

by STEPHEN D. BRUNO/Guest Opinion
| March 14, 2014 9:00 PM

The typical (sometimes true and more often hopeful), chant of every sports fan is "We're number one!" "We're number ONE!"

As we approach another election and think about how our state is doing in various meaningful categories, such as education, the economy, health care and jobs, I'm having some trouble identifying what our celebratory chant should be. "We're number FIFTY?" "We're number FIFTY?"

Republican legislators from this county have been in power for some 25 years. Serving in the Legislature should be a labor of love for our great state. Instead it seems to have morphed into a labor of hate - of the federal government and our president. What has this zeal gotten us? What has been the fruit of this labor of hate?

Education: "We're number FIFTY!" "We're number FIFTY!" We are at or near the bottom in most meaningful categories that evaluate education: performance (Idaho ranks last in kids that graduate from high school and go on to complete a post-graduate degree), at or near the bottom in resources available to teachers and students, at or near the bottom in salaries, at or near the bottom in funding per student. This group of legislators still thinks that Common Core was developed by the United Nations and Obama. They've got Obama on the brain, a condition which apparently renders a person incapable of looking at facts. Common Core was developed at the state level. The idea is pretty straight-forward: raise standards while teaching kids how to think, not what to think. Maybe we need a similar program in adult remedial education.

Commitment to education is the key to a bright future for all of us. Without it we sentence our kids and grandkids to mediocrity. These legislators aren't going to change. In fact they want more of what has put us at the bottom of the barrel. Forget about which political party you identify with. The bottom line is this: We can't have it. We have to change it.

Economy: "We're number FIFTY!" Idaho ranks at the bottom in median income, but hey, we're number one in the percentage of people working for minimum wage. "We're number ONE!" This group of Republican legislators has turned Right to Work into the right to work harder for less. All this has done is put more and more pressure on programs to help the working poor, people who are clearly willing to work, but can't survive on what they make. Of course there is a connection here to education. When you rank last in commitment to education, sooner or later you're going to rank last in income. This should be a no-brainer moment for voters. When the economy works for workers it also works for business owners, because working people with money spend money, and they usually spend it in the communities where they live. This kind of reciprocal spending makes for a healthy economy. This is why raising the minimum wage is a good idea for both workers and businesses in Idaho.

Health care: People who actually work in health care see the benefits of the Affordable Care Act. They would say that although it isn't perfect, it's a major step forward. Ironically enough, the Affordable Care Act doesn't work as well as it might in Idaho because many people's incomes are so low that they would only be eligible for Medicaid. Our Republican legislators refused Medicaid expansion.

Right now your property taxes pay for the first $11,000 of care for people who have no coverage. If the care they need exceeds that amount the burden falls to the state catastrophic fund. Idaho taxpayers are paying for that. The impact of refusing Medicaid expansion is two-fold: it causes us to forego money that would relieve our county and state catastrophic fund of its indigent care obligations, and it creates a situation where our taxes pay for Medicaid expansion in other states, but not in Idaho.

Medicaid expansion dollars could free us up to actually lower property taxes! Or increase school funding! But no; our Republican legislators have become so immersed in anti-federal philosophy that we end up paying for Medicaid expansion in other states through federal taxes while also picking up the tab for state indigent care costs. This is the worst kind of double dip. This is what it means to cut off your nose to spite your face. In trying to hurt someone else, they are hurting us.

Forget for a minute about any sense of moral obligation to heal the sick. It is just plain fiscally irresponsible to turn down dollars that could result in a benefit to local property owners over a misbegotten fear and loathing of government in general.

Our Republican legislators have engaged us in a 25-year race to the bottom. We have arrived. We're number fifty. What are we as a community of people who are not defined solely by a political persuasion going to do about it?

These legislators are not going to wake up. WE HAVE TO!

We may never be number one. But I think Idaho can and should do better than dead last. For all the gun legislation this group has promoted over the years they sure have turned out to be the gang that couldn't shoot straight.

Stephen D. Bruno is a Coeur d'Alene resident.