Lest We Forget

I have only met Brad Little a few times. He is a gentleman and a good family man. He has grown a family business and made a home for he and his children and grandchildren. These are all great accomplishments that are far more important than anything one can accomplish in the world of politics. We do have pretenders to His Majesty’s thrown in Idaho. Raul Labrador, Russ Fulcher, and Mike Moyle. Any of these three would be a great Governor and carry with them similar bona fides regarding their families and their businesses. Any one of the three would make a great governor. I have been encouraging all three to run for governor in the Republican Primary next year. No one but Tommy Alquist seems interested—though he apparently doesn’t know if he is a Republican or Democrat.

After last week, I decided to go back to the current (REAL GOVERNOR) of Idaho—Brian Whitlock. We all know Brian for his role on the Governor’s Covid Advisory Board. He was one of the first to warn us of the evils of Dr. Ryan Cole. Apparently the advice of an Air Force Academy Grad, Graduate of Georgetown Medical School, and a Mayo Clinic trained pathologist with a special certificate in virology doesn’t count for much, when one’s loyalties are aligned with a hospital administrator who retires with his last paycheck for his last year of service to his patients and profession listed on IRS Forms 990 at $16million per year. In my opinion that seems like a large amount to pay for “service”, especially from a non-profit hospital system that is also a Health Insurance Company, a Commercial Real Estate Company, and a Bank.

If the Department of Health and Welfare and the large hospital systems in Idaho are addicted to the Federal Medicaid trough, Mr. Whitlock metaphorically speaking, is their drug dealer. And who doesn’t want a drug dealer to be Governor of Idaho? I saw Mr. Whitlock walking around the capital for the past two weeks with a large smile on his face. Arm in arm (please at least leave room for the Holy Spirit Mr. W), with Melissa Wintrow and Ilana Rubel—metaphorically and metaphysically speaking; separated not by political philosophy but joined together by gnostic virtue signaling. Dr. Frankenstein and Roy Eigeuren would be proud of his puppet mastery of legislators that gave the citizens of Idaho nothing and several of the largest hospital corporations in our State everything.

Medicaid spending is on an upward trajectory to hit 60% of the State budget in 2 years. The people living on the margins who Medicaid was designed to help, will be the ones most hurt when their access to providers becomes even more limited than it is today. They will be hit hardest when their access to medications and services becomes more limited—Let’s see if the CEOs of these large hospitals or their lobbyists will have to take a pay cut. My guess is when that POOP needs to be SCOOPED up, they will retire to their second homes to enjoy the view and reminisce about The Good Old Days when IACI/IHA/IMA/and IEA really ruled the State.

When The Governor vetoed the Medical Freedom Act, Senate Bill 1023, it became obvious to me that special interests still “rule the roost” in Idaho.

Whatever happened to the $150 million lost by the Idaho Health Data Exchange? Why did Alex Adams leave so quickly?

The Gov. is the gov. But what about our Representatives in the Idaho Senate and House? Are they more interested in the over $100 million in the Governors campaign fund to support their next campaign? Or maybe the cost for their souls is only a ticket paid for by the IMA/IHA to The Governor’s Cup, or lunch or breakfast. Maybe it is just time for us to acknowledge that Idaho is in fact run by government lobbyist/bureaucrats who jump from the private to the public sector every few years. The real issue being fought out by Elon Musk as DOGE confronts the reality and costs of the deep State in Washington DC, is every bit as bad at the State level in Boise. Nobody knows this better than the lobbying/ establishment old line Republican class in Idaho. The only place where Democrats and Republicans are working together in a bipartisan fashion, is in their resistance to those who are fighting against big government and big government spending, waste and malfeasance.

Let’s not forget the four issues that the people of Idaho wanted to be addressed before our legislature was convened in January:

1. Grocery tax repeal.
2. Audits of the Idaho DHW and large non-profits receiving over $100 million of government transfer payments that would be used to assign future monies to those institution based on their audits—financial and operational.
3. Outside Audits of LUMA—where is the press on this one—maybe someone paid for their tickets to the Governor’s Cup.
4. Outside audits of the Idaho Health Data Exchange with both operational and financial audits. Where did $150 milliion dollars go? Ans. The same place that the LUMA money went!

I will vote for whatever candidate who comes out earliest and hits the hardest on these issues. Mr. Whitlock should certainly know better than anyone else where the bodies are buried and where the money has gone! Who better to clean up his own mess? I can think of a few.

The issue for the upcoming Republican primary isn’t who is the nicest guy—but who will govern the best and confront the corporate-lobbyist classes the hardest. Just like Donald Trump and Elon Musk are doing in Washington D.C.