I’m writing this in reply to an article run in the Idaho Statesman on January 21, 2017.
Marv Hagedorn hasn’t got a clue about the possible implications of a Constitutional Convention nor do any of the other legislators backing this idea. Mind you this is a man who wants to be Lt. Governor of our state in 2018 and doesn’t understand that if they balance the budget in Washington Idaho will be short 35% of their budget. Is he prepared to cut 35% off of our budget or raise taxes to cover the 35% we will lose? I seriously doubt it. I’m not sure what Senator Hagedorn has been smoking lately but it appears he has been sharing it with a number of our other legislators as they too don’t seem to realize that if the Feds don’t send us the money we have to raise taxes to cover costs.
We don’t need a convention to balance the budget we need honest legislators who actually want to pare down big government. Maybe Senator Hagedorn and House State Affairs Chairman Tom Loertscher need a Dave Ramsey course in Financial Management. The money problem starts right here in Idaho and what has Senator Hagedorn or any of the other crony establishment legislators done to solve the real problem, of big government right here at home. The answer is absolutely nothing. The Senator so far as I can remember has never fought to cut our state budget but I do remember him voting to raise our gasoline taxes by twice as much as was passed by the legislature.
Why does Senator Hagedorn have a battle cry now to have a constitutional convention to “Cut the Budget”? Could it be that he is and opportunist and is running for Lt. Governor so he wants to capture some press to get his name out in the public eye. This is the same man who I sent an e-mail to 4 weeks before the vote on the Idaho Healthcare exchange and asked him to vote “NO”. I never received and answer so I asked him in person the day before the vote. His comment was “I have hundreds of e-mails that I just never get to answer.” Now there’s a man taking care of business for his constituents who elected him as their representative. You can also thank the Senator for his vote to put in the Healthcare exchange that cost 105,000 Idahoans their insurance policies and new rates that have doubled and tripled since the exchange was installed. With such bad judgement, why would anyone vote for this man to be our next Lt. Governor?
I think that Senator Hagedorn should first work on straightening out our problems here in Idaho before taking on the problems in Washington. As for Representative Loertscher wanting to institute congressional term limits, and restrictions of federal executive and legislative powers, how about some term limits in our own state. By the way, Representative Loertscher is a 6 term representative so I presume that he will be resigning real soon to make room for someone who knows how to balance a budget. If term limits are good for Washington they should be good for Idaho Rep. Loertscher. Honestly, folks don’t any of our legislators think before opening their mouths. It makes you wonder how they keep getting elected year after year promising change and nothing ever changes. It’s time to drain the swamp in Idaho’s legislature and we can start in 2018 with the election of a conservative governor with some real business experience like Russ Fulcher.
I can’t believe that our legislators don’t understand that the money given to the states by the feds is borrowed money. If you want to cover the budget in Idaho you have to borrow the money on the federal level so they can give Idaho their 35% to balance our budget. We don’t need a Con-Con. What we need is some common sense legislators who understand that you can’t spend more than you take in. Its simple accounting 101 and they teach in high school. If they want to fix the federal budget then start right here at home and balance our budget by cutting the size of state government so we don’t have to be beholding to the Feds every year.
