Democrats have a tenuous relationship with the concept of private property. If you do business, they want to regulate it; if you make money, they want to confiscate it; if you have an idea, they want to expropriate it. Despite claiming they are not communists or socialists (well, most of them still deny it), it’s an article of faith on the left that your money belongs collectively to the people, and, as the voice of the people, they get to decide how to use it.
I was reminded of this when I read an op-ed in the Idaho Capital Sun over the weekend by Robert Huntley, a 94-year-old former Democratic legislator who also served on the Idaho Supreme Court in the 1980s. Huntley was the Democratic nominee for governor in 1998, losing to Republican Dirk Kempthorne 67.7% to 29.07%. In his piece, Huntley asserts that Idaho’s economy has been severely damaged by tax cuts, and he proposes a committee to decide how to raise them. He calls Idaho the “Mississippi of the Northwest” with regard to public school funding. He apparently has not heard of the “Mississippi Miracle,” in which student performance in that state has risen not because of additional funding, but because of policy changes regarding how students are taught, including a switch to phonics for reading instruction.
Huntley cites numbers from the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy (ICFP) which claim that state revenue was reduced by more than $4 billion because of tax cuts over the past few years. Longtime readers will recall that ICFP is not a disinterested nonprofit, as the Capital Sun implies, but one small part of a massive, multibillion-dollar NGO complex designed to divert your tax dollars to its own programs, most of which involve settling refugees in Idaho.
In December 2025, I wrote an article titled “The NGO Hydra Using Your Money to Reshape Society” about an organization named Jannus and its many heads, each working in tandem to separate you from your money and replace you with migrants and refugees:
So how independent is ICFP, which just released a report lamenting that the government “allowed” citizens to keep too much of their own money? Not very. It is one small part of a massive web of NGOs and nonprofits, all designed to convince the government to take more of your money and give it to them for their own purposes. While the mythical Janus had two faces, the modern Jannus is akin to the hydra, which had many.
One head of this hydra issues reports like this, claiming that we need higher taxes to support more government spending on social programs. Another head lobbies the Legislature to create more of these social programs and to appropriate more money—federal and state—to them. Finally, yet another head stands ready to apply for these new grants and distribute them as they see fit. Oftentimes, the purpose of the grants is to incorporate more people into government dependence. Refugees, for example—the primary focus of Jannus now—are brought here and immediately enrolled in myriad taxpayer-supported programs, all with Jannus acting as the middleman.
As IFF’s Fred Birnbaum said during testimony against an IVC-supported bill last year: “You know the old saying ‘All roads lead to Rome?’ Well, all government-created committees lead to the call for more government spending.”
This is not the first time that the Idaho Capital Sun has laundered ICFP talking points under the guise of objective news. Late last year, it published an article that was essentially a rewritten ICFP press release, announcing the $4 billion gap and urging the Legislature to reverse recent tax cuts. Yet the opposite happened during the 2026 session. Facing uncertain revenue numbers, lawmakers and Gov. Brad Little cut the budget instead, much to the consternation of Democrats, their friends in the news media, and a few confused Republicans like Sen. Jim Guthrie.
Last month, Kevin Richert at Idaho EdNews reported that Gov. Little and House Republicans were arguing over who deserved more credit for the budget cuts. What a welcome change from the way blue states—and blue outlets in red states like the Idaho Capital Sun—cover budgetary issues. Nearly every Republican in Idaho agrees that your money belongs to you, and that it is the government’s job to make do with as little of the people’s money as possible.
Republicans have traditionally believed that governments at all levels have certain roles to play in society, and that maintaining freedom for the people necessarily entails putting limits on the role of government. Just because a legislator, bureaucrat, or activist has what they believe to be a terrific idea (or, more likely, sees an opportunity to enrich themselves off the taxpayer) doesn’t mean it’s something the government should do. Most conservatives agree that the government is too big already, which means cutting budgets and programs should be on the agenda, rather than raising taxes and spending even more.
The worldview of people like Robert Huntley seems to be one in which government is the spoke in the wheel, at the center of all things, without which nothing is possible. Huntley (or whomever wrote his op-ed) assumes the premise that the economy is dependent upon government programs, and that anything “we can be proud of” is dependent upon raising taxes.
Huntley and his friends are always welcome to relocate to California, Illinois, or New York, where the rotten fruits of their presuppositions have become apparent. As for me, I’m happy to be in Idaho, where government is a necessary evil rather than the all-consuming center of our lives.
The Gem State Chronicle delivers daily analysis, op-eds, press releases, and Idaho Insider updates — free to your inbox.
Free newsletter · Unsubscribe anytime · View on Substack
About Brian Almon
Brian Almon is the Editor of the Gem State Chronicle. He also serves as Chairman of the District 14 Republican Party and is a trustee of the Eagle Public Library Board. He lives with his wife and six children in Eagle.
