Idaho reps cut benefits for poor, give tax cuts to wealthy, widen deficit | Opinion

If you were putting your faith in President Donald Trump and this Republican Congress to do the right thing for you, you’ve been sold a bill of goods.

The proof is in the latest budget passed this week, which included “yes” votes from Idaho Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher, both Republicans.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday passed (217-215) a federal budget that includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in spending cuts.

Forgive us for being slow on the math, but with a budget that already has about $1 trillion more in spending than revenue every year, this plan isn’t going to cut it.

And don’t give us that baloney that these tax cuts will boost Gross Domestic Product and more than pay for it.

That’s the same load of malarkey the GOP provided back 2017 when they passed the GOP Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

And it didn’t work out.

The Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Tax Policy Center and the Government Accountability Office all concluded that the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act increased the federal budget deficit by $1.9 trillion and failed to pay for itself through increased economic activity.

Plus, just like this House budget will do, the 2017 tax cuts primarily benefited the wealthy and corporations, with limited benefits for middle- and lower-income households.

The House Republican budget extends the 2017 tax cuts, in which households in the top 1% received an average tax cut of more than $60,000, while households in the bottom 60% received an average tax cut of less than $500, according to the Tax Policy Center.

This House budget is rinse and repeat, but it’s even worse.

It makes drastic cuts to Medicaid, which could hit small-population states like Idaho particularly hard, and food stamps, which could affect 54,000 Idaho households.

So unless you’re in the top 1%, you’re not going to see much benefit.

If you are in the top 1%, congratulations, you’re going to get even richer under this plan. You probably are getting what you paid for.

“I am encouraged that House Republicans have taken the first crucial step in this reconciliation process,” Simpson said in a press release. “I have long sounded the alarm that our nation’s debt is an existential threat, and change is necessary to get America’s fiscal house in order.”

He must not be listening to his own alarm. If Simpson thinks cutting revenue by $4.5 trillion and cutting expenses by $2 trillion is going to solve this existential threat and put our fiscal house in order, he’s got another thing coming. (Well, you’ve got another thing coming; Simpson will be fine.)

Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the only Republican to vote against the budget, put it bluntly.

“If the Republican plan passes, under the rosiest assumptions, which aren’t even true, we’re going to add $328 billion to the deficit this year, we’re going to add $295 billion to the deficit the year after that, $242 billion to the deficit after that,” Massie said. “Why would I vote for that?”

Yes, why?

So the House Republicans’ plan is to make the federal budget deficit bigger while cutting the social safety net for those who need it most in exchange for tax cuts for those who don’t need it.

You’ve been sold a bill of goods by Trump and his followers once more.

We have nothing against tax cuts (we like the idea of not taxing Social Security, for example), but tax cuts should be targeted for those who need them the most and help the most number of Americans, not the top 1% who are picking out their next yacht or private jet.

And you can’t cut taxes based on the debunked notion of trickle-down economics, which has never, ever worked.

We have nothing against cutting waste, abuse and fraud from the federal budget. We’re sure there’s plenty to be found in, say, the $900 billion Pentagon budget.

But cutting benefits from the “blue collar” workers you Republicans supposedly championed during the election is a slap in the face to the people who backed you.

The budget proposal now heads to the Senate, and the best we can do is call on Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch to demonstrate some common sense and courage.

Hopefully, they’ll remember the little people who put them in office.

But don’t hold your breath.

This story was originally published February 27, 2025 at 4:00 AM.