Missing the Point… Again

Most conservatives agreed that the 2025 legislative session was extremely positive. As Ron Nate, president of the Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF), put it in April:

Are you tired of winning yet? The Idaho Freedom Foundation (IFF) isn’t. The Idaho legislative session ended a few days ago, and by most measures, it was one of the most conservative sessions in recent history. We had some big wins (tax cuts, school choice, health freedom, immigration reform, etc.). But we also suffered some hard losses. We will always have more work to do.

American Action Fund (AAF), the lobbying arm of Texas-based Young Americans for Liberty (YAL), has been fairly quiet since the end of the session. This was no surprise, since the organization had been preaching doom and gloom since last fall, calling even conservative legislators “traitors” for not supporting YAL’s priorities. They shot themselves in the foot again when legislators received canned emails from YAL that were clearly not from actual constituents—Rep. Rod Furniss even received one from himself. In its zeal to see the grocery sales tax eliminated, YAL came out against raising the grocery tax credit, even though it was, essentially, a tax cut.

In my own end-of-session recap, I explained how it was persuasion, not confrontation, that led to the most conservative session in recent memory. YAL’s hardline stance on grocery taxes and the legislative pay raise didn’t move the ball an inch; instead, it alienated nearly all the conservative legislators who had once stood with the organization in support of good policies. The work of passing conservative legislation came from lawmakers like Sen. Ben Toews and Rep. Jordan Redman, who put in the time and effort to build majority coalitions around their priorities, not from an organization sending text messages calling them traitors.

That time of calm and quiet came to an end this morning when AAF sent out a new email claiming that the “Boise swamp” was the true victor this year. (By the way, remember when “swamp” actually meant something? The first time I heard a politician say “drain the swamp” was when Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi led the Democratic charge against the Republican House in 2006, though I’m sure it’s been common parlance for centuries. Back then, several Republican leaders had been implicated in scandals, giving Democrats a platform on which to build their successful campaign. Besides, Washington D.C. is literally built in a swamp—that’s why the rhetoric works. Applying it to Boise, which is more of an oasis in the high desert, is just silly. Let’s be more creative from now on.)

Back to the email:

This header image is fun and evocative, but couldn’t they have taken the time to find a real picture of the House chamber?

Dear Brian,

This state legislative session was a disaster!

Idaho lawmakers TOTALLY blew it in 2025!

These politicians say one thing during the election when they want your vote, but they do the exact opposite in Boise during the legislative session.

Ron Nate said the session was “one of the most conservative sessions in recent history,” while Sulamita Rotante, AAF’s Idaho Field Manager, said it was “a disaster.” Personally, I’m with Ron on this one.

Let’s just read a couple snippets from the Idaho Republican Party Platform for 2024-2026…

“We believe the size and cost of government, as well as the national debt, must be reduced.”

“We believe the growth of government is unnecessary and has a negative impact on both the conduct of business and our individual lives. We endorse the review of all government programs and encourage their assumption by private enterprise where appropriate and workable. Programs which are outside of the government’s constitutional obligations, not cost effective, or have outlived their usefulness should be terminated.”

“We believe that tax reductions can be achieved by cutting spending on every level: federal, state, and local.”

“We believe that Idaho Citizens should not and or shall not be taxed for federally mandated health care.”

The Idaho GOP went so far as to pass a resolution back in January of this year calling for the Idaho legislature to:

• Repeal the Grocery Tax,
• Cut state spending significantly, and
• Reject Politician Pay Raises at taxpayer expense.

This is mostly correct. The latest version of the Idaho GOP Platform calls for large spending cuts, and a resolution passed the Idaho GOP State Central Committee in January called on legislators to reject the proposed pay raise. There were no specific resolutions regarding cutting spending or eliminating the sales tax on groceries, but 2025-13 regarding the salary increase called for a “conservative budget” and “eliminating the tax on groceries”.

That all sounds great, doesn’t it?

I think many would say the above is what they voted for in the last election.

According to the Idaho Poll commissioned by Mountain States Policy Center, 44% of respondents supported the 22% pay raise for legislators, while 48% opposed it. And 87% supported eliminating the grocery sales tax, so no disagreement there. On the other hand, a majority of respondents said we are not spending enough on public schools, showing at least some desire to increase government spending in that area. Your mileage may vary, of course. Even though we all believe our positions on the issues are the correct ones, other voters often see things differently.

One expects the radical leftist politicians to oppose common sense measures that reduce the size of government and improve our lives, but you’d think conservatives had the numbers that the liberals wouldn’t matter.

Unfortunately, many Republicans in the Idaho Legislature entirely dropped the ball.

• They voted for the size of government to INCREASE …..AGAIN!
• The budget is bigger and more bloated than ever.
• Continued Obamacare Expansion remains untouched and unaddressed.
• The Grocery Tax remains in place, despite a bill to fully repeal it having been filed.
• And they gave themselves a 22% raise at taxpayer expense.

Did they finally get serious about fraud or eligibility checks?

Absolutely not.

Let’s take these one at a time:

• They voted for the size of government to INCREASE …..AGAIN!

Government spending did increase, though not by nearly as much as in past years. Fred Birnbaum at IFF estimated that total spending (including off-book expenditures) rose by 4.8%. He concluded his article on a mostly positive note:

Idahoans should thank the many legislators who stood tall in reining in spending growth. This includes legislators who made a pledge to reject appropriations that added headcount, grabbed more debt-financed federal dollars, or other new spending beyond what was needed to replace vehicles and other items that wear out. There were also members of the Joint Finance-Appropriation Committee (JFAC) who fought tirelessly to squeeze budgets. It was a difficult task given that the majority of JFAC members view their role as largely giving agencies what they want. And we acknowledge the difficult position that the JFAC co-chairs were in, given the composition of the committee — they should be thanked for encouraging vigorous debates.

By the end of the session, 15 appropriations bills failed on either the House or Senate floors. Most of these were rejected due to the excessive number of new requests for ongoing spending. While we don’t know the total impact of killing these bills due to the lack of clarity on continuous appropriations, it appears that these bill rejections reduced the Governor’s General Fund request by over $30 million. While that is small in the overall context of a $14 billion-plus appropriation, it certainly was better than rubber-stamping the Governor’s request. Trimming spending is a herculean task at any level of government, hence why Congress doesn’t seem able to do it. It is our hope that the 2025 session sets the stage for an increased focus on spending next session and that Idaho can lead the way on fiscal conservatism.

• The budget is bigger and more bloated than ever.

This simply restates the first point with more dramatic language.

• Continued Obamacare Expansion remains untouched and unaddressed.

This is not true at all, and I would say this is the first outright falsehood in the email. While House Bill 138, which would have repealed Medicaid Expansion, didn’t get a Senate hearing, House Bill 345 enacted significant reforms, including work requirements. One can debate its merits, but it’s dishonest to say Medicaid Expansion was “untouched and unaddressed.”

• The Grocery Tax remains in place, despite a bill to fully repeal it having been filed.

The bill that was filed was a personal bill, which never had any chance of getting a hearing. One can rightly complain that House and Senate leadership refused to allow any such bill to be properly introduced, but the email distorts how it played out. Meanwhile, a bill to increase the grocery tax credit passed with overwhelming support, despite YAL’s opposition.

• And they gave themselves a 22% raise at taxpayer expense.

This might be the most egregious lie in the entire email. As readers of the Chronicle understand, legislative pay is set by a citizen’s committee made up of three members appointed by the governor and three appointed by the Idaho Supreme Court. This means that unlike Congress, which does vote for its own salary, in Idaho the other two branches of government exercise control over how much our lawmakers are paid.

One might claim that by tabling Sen. Christy Zito’s resolution to reject the pay raise, the Legislature “voted themselves” a raise. That’s tortured logic. Remember: this email isn’t trying to inform you. It’s trying to provoke you into signing up for more emails, and maybe—just maybe—sending them a few bucks in the future.

But they did add:

• $1,009,500 in total to the Endowment Fund Investment Board, including 4 full-time positions.
• $4,349,300 in total to the State Appellate Public Defender, including 27 full-time positions (1 new position).
• $44,988,700 in total to the Division of Financial Management, including 22 full-time positions.
• $39,955,500 in total to the State Board of Education for Agricultural Research and Extension Services including funding 341.76 positions (0.43 new — which is kind of weird).

Hundreds of new government jobs, millions in new spending—and you’re stuck with paying for it.

These are real increases. The public defender budget was expanded due to a court order, so that at least had to be done.

The claim of “hundreds of new government jobs” doesn’t hold up though. According to the legislative budget book, the governor recommended about 110 new full time positions in his proposed budget. I haven’t been able to find an exact count of how many actually made it through JFAC and the Legislature, but I believe it came out to just under 70 new full time positions.

Again, one can argue that even that is too much, but it’s not the “hundreds” that the AAF email claims.

And just when you thought they might stop the madness, they created another task force.

Yes, really.

These same lawmakers created House Bill 364 for standing up a token “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) to study their spending problem.

Let that sink in.

The same politicians who bloated the budget are now paying THEMSELVES full salary and per diem to come back and “investigate” the mess they caused.

They passed a DOGE bill while at the same time voting for another bloated government budget that conservative estimates say increased spending by $200 Million dollars, while other capital insiders estimate the budget growth this year could be over $600 Million dollars!

They want to sell this session as some sort of success story, but it isn’t.

House Bill 364 did not receive a hearing in the Senate, and therefore never went into effect, but AAF left out that important detail. House and Senate leadership did set up an informal DOGE committee, and time will tell whether it does any good. Remember when some Idaho conservatives mocking the idea of the interim committee on DEI? That committee led directly to Sen. Toews bill that has since been signed into law. So let’s wait and see.

And it is up to us to demand more from our elected officials. They will only go as far as we require them to. If we settle for crumbs from the table, that’s all they’ll ever give us.

Speaker Mike Moyle, Senate President Kelly Anthon and their Cabal of Boise Swamp politicians spent the whole session ignoring the principles they campaigned on.

Worse than that, however, they ignored people like you, who begged and pleaded for fiscal relief.

AAF is ignoring the fact that the Legislature passed more than $400 million in tax relief this session, four times the amount that Gov. Little offered in his State of the State Address. This is the tell of a demagogue—YAL refuses to give any credit that’s due. Organizations like that don’t want you to be thinking critically about what is really going on; they want you perpetually angry, and perpetually ready to sign checks in the belief that it will bring about the change you want. They can’t allow you to believe that we’re making progress, because that goes against their sky-is-falling narrative.

We mobilized tens of thousands of patriots, but according to Speaker Moyle, your calls for fiscal responsibility were nothing but fake news.

The Boise Swamp made a conscious decision to ignore you.

Did YAL really mobilize tens of thousands of patriots? How many of them were fake entries, like the one highlighted by Rep. Furniss? How many were actually from Idaho?

It’s time to tell every politician in Boise: You work for us. Start acting like it.

Who is “us”? Texas-based YAL?

This insanity must end!

The 2025 legislative session might be over, but that doesn’t mean we should stop working.

The political class in Boise NEEDS to hear from patriots like YOU.

Please sign your petition now telling Speaker Mike Moyle and his minions to cut government spending.

YAL really, really, really, hates Speaker Moyle. That organization and its allies spent hundreds of thousands of dollars last year in an attempt to oust him from the Legislature. I do not believe this debate is primarily about policy, but is instead a personal vendetta that a handful of activists have with Moyle. Debate his record all you want—that’s what we should be doing as engaged voters—but step back and realize that YAL’s campaign has been about personality more than policy.

For Liberty,

Sulamita Rotante

Idaho Field Manager

American Action Fund

P.S. If they had done their job this session, we wouldn’t need an Idaho DOGE.

But they didn’t. And now it’s up to us to hold them accountable.

Sign the petition to cut government spending in Idaho.

Of course, the real point of the email is to get people to sign the petition. Where does it go? Who knows. The real goal is to collect email addresses. They already have mine (and my home address, thanks to list sharing with allied legislators), but they’re hoping you’ll forward it to your friends and family too.

I don’t particularly enjoy spending my time shooting holes in YAL’s emails—even though lately their falsehoods have been fish in a barrel. But someone needs to correct the record when out-of-state organizations come in and try to dictate not only to Idaho’s elected representatives, but our state’s voters as well. Somewhere along the way, they’ve strayed from promoting liberty and are instead sowing division and impeding the real work of conservative reform in Idaho.

I prefer Ron Nate’s position: the 2025 legislative session saw many great conservative victories, but we cannot rest on our laurels. The point is not to say that the sky is falling; rather we should be building on our successes to achieve even greater heights.

Don’t take YAL’s word for it, and don’t just take mine. Do your own research. Listen to different voices. Most of all, talk to your legislators. Do their priorities match yours? Did they vote according to their promises? This is when you should be conducting your annual review of the legislators who serve you and your community. Do they deserve another term, or is time for new blood? Ultimately they work for you, not for me, and certainly not for an out-of-state organization that’s forgotten its place.

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