Idaho’s Republican legislators sell out the little guy in budget | Opinion

Even if you’re OK with giving millionaires and billionaires massive tax breaks.

Even if you’re OK with cutting Medicaid.

Even if you’re OK with the possibility of Idaho’s rural hospitals and nursing homes shutting down because of those cuts to Medicaid.

Even if you’re OK with cutting food stamps.

Even if you’re OK with cutting tax credits for “woke” green energy, such as wind and solar power.

Even if you’re OK with those clean energy jobs going away.

You perhaps can justify the Senate Republicans’ passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by saying that we little people get a little bit, too, by extending the 2017 GOP tax cuts.

Perhaps you support the bill because it gives deductions for taxes on tips and overtime.

The little guy will get to keep a few hundred dollars extra in his pockets, while the highest-income 20% of households — those making $217,000 or more — receive about 57% of the benefit of the tax cuts, according to the Tax Policy Center, while the top 5%, who make $460,000 and up, get more than one-third of the tax benefits.

Perhaps you’re OK that the Senate Republicans’ bill will most help someone like Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who just spent $50 million on his wedding in Venice. It would take 676 years of the median household in Idaho to afford Bezos’ one weekend in Venice. He’s benefiting from the One Big Beautiful Bill far more than any of us little people.

Perhaps you’re OK with the bill because it raises the amount of your state and local taxes you can deduct from your federal income tax to $40,000 (up from the current $10,000). Think about that for a minute: Are any of us little people going to benefit from a $40,000 tax deduction on state and local taxes? Who benefits from that? Only Idaho families making well over $200,000 a year.

Perhaps you’re OK with the One Big Beautiful Bill because you applaud more spending on the military and more spending on border security, border patrol agents, ICE agents and the building of the wall at the southern border.

Perhaps you’re OK with the bill because it cuts $1.6 trillion in federal spending, mostly Medicaid, SNAP and green energy credits, ignoring the fact that the bill adds even more new spending and hands out more tax cuts.

Perhaps you’re OK with the spending bill because it helps out our farmers and ranchers with increased subsidies.

Perhaps you’re OK with all of this.

But when you put it all together, this budget bill will explode the national debt.

All that extra spending would be all well and good — if Congress had some way to pay for it all, instead of some cockamamie scheme that their plan will supercharge the economy by 6% or 7% a year. It didn’t happen when Republicans passed the 2017 GOP tax cuts, and it’s not going to happen this time around, either.

It’s worth pointing out that many of the tax cuts, such as no tax on tips or overtime, expire at the end of Trump’s term, unlike the extended tax cuts for the 1%.

The Congressional Budget Office projects the Senate version of the One Big Beautiful Bill will reduce federal revenues by $4.5 trillion and reduce spending by $1.2 trillion over the next decade, resulting in a net increase to the deficit of $3.3 trillion compared to current law.

This is madness.

And U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, R-Idaho, know it, but they voted for it anyway because they’re more afraid of the wrath of President Donald Trump than they are afraid of you, the voter.

Same with U.S. Reps. Mike Simpson and Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho, who both voted for the House version of the bill and likely will vote for the final version when it comes back to them.

The impacts of the One Big Beautiful Bill won’t be felt right away. It may take a year or so for you to realize that the hospital in your small town closed or that the solar provider went out of business. Or that your neighbor died in the emergency room because they were kicked off Medicaid. Or that his kid is constantly hungry because their family’s food stamps were cut.

And you might watch the national debt clock at the top of Crapo’s website to see if it starts going in the opposite direction. You might watch it for a couple of years and wonder to yourself, “Why is it still going up?”

By then, though, it will be too late. Risch, Simpson and Fulcher will all be reelected, back in Washington, reaping the benefits of their bill, acting business as usual.

Don’t say we didn’t warn you.