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This winter, more than one thousand pieces of legislation will be written in Boise. Here are just twelve ideas that many freedom-loving Idahoans believe merit consideration: 1. Cut taxes. There is no greater antidote to economic malaise. Lower taxes requires not a single extra government bureaucrat to administer. It merely requires faith in people and […]

1st  Congressional District Representative Walt Minnick said it's time for Congress to debate immigration reform and that Democratic leaders will likely wrap up health care deliberations in the next two weeks. Minnick, a Democrat, said he favors new immigration policy with tighter borders and expanded temporary work programs in some fields. As for health care, […]

Idaho will get $64,000 dollars back from a cholesterol drugmaker in a national settlement over blocking competition from generic drugs. The money reimburses government purchases of the drug TriCor by the state for programs like Medicaid. Attorney General Lawrence Wasden worked with 25 other attorneys general on a $22.5 million anti-trust settlement against the drug […]

The Idaho Transportation Board will shave off almost $20 million from its Grant Anticipation Revenue Vehicle (GARVEE) bonding request for next year due to lower construction costs and lower bids on projects. Instead of the $45 million the board approved for in October, $26 million will be bonded through GARVEE. Much of that savings comes […]

Elected officials across Idaho are coming out against the federal health care reforms that passed the Senate early Thursday morning. None of Idaho's Congressional delegated voted for the plan that's passed the House last month and the Senate on a party-line vote on Christmas Eve. The health care plan now heads to a joint panel […]

Idaho has a law that prevents the state’s residents from shopping for the lowest possible health insurance premiums. The restriction is simple: No one can sell insurance in Idaho without being authorized by state regulators to do so, even if that insurer is already legally recognized to operate in another state. Our statute is mirrored […]

Barriers to entry are anything that gets in the way of starting a business or entering a trade. Most arise through a natural process, mainly the need to raise the necessary capital required to successfully conduct a business. For example, if one wanted manufacture steel, one first needs to build a steel plant, or buy […]

The play is the thing that exposes the idiocy of federal stimulus. There are now 14.7 million Americans out of work. The unemployment rate in the Boise metro area is in double digits. In Canyon County, unemployment has climbed to 12.2 percent - the highest in the state and the highest level since 1983. Ah, […]

Ronald Reagan once quipped that a government agency “is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth.” Government just doesn’t contract as readily as it grows, even in the face of adversity, competing demands or changing times. Government bureaucrats and the elected officials who employ them would rather add programs or […]

Supporters of a new tax for Canyon County property owners love libraries about as much as I love ice cream, and their argument in favor of creating a new library district was about as compelling and intricate as my argument for fudgy sundaes. More than three quarters of voters objected to the library district proposal […]

The defeat of several tax increases at the California ballot has to cause people to stop and think. Could the same thing happen here in Idaho – a state that had a really strong turnout from tea partiers and where Gov. Otter couldn't get a tax increase through the House of Representatives? Enter an election […]

Perhaps you're at a loss as to how a legislative session can possibly last 113 days. You might be unaware of the arduous restrictions and mandates of Idaho law that make it so. Our state's founders insisted on a thoroughly deliberative process by writing into the constitution in 1889 the requirement that each bill "shall […]