Are We Repeating History?

“There is nothing new under the sun.”

King Solomon once said in Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun." While serving on the appropriations committee and watching us vote to increase wages and add full-time positions for state workers, my mind wandered to a time when government employees outnumbered those in the private sector—pre–World War II Germany. Many know about WWII, but few understand the events that led up to it. I recall that in the late 1980s, my grandparents shared how they were captured by the Germans and sent to Hitler’s work camps. They warned us that we must learn about Germany and Hitler’s history before WWII, before the mass destruction of the Jews and many others.

Are we repeating history? Did you know that the Idaho State Government is the largest single employer in the state? Did you know that the federal government is the largest single employer in the nation? When government workers outnumber private-sector employees, how can this be sustainable? They rely on tax dollars to pay their wages and benefits. As I research the history my grandparents told me about, I am alarmed by how much we are duplicating in America what Germany did from 1933 onward. I found a great link and will share some quotes from it.

After taking power, writes Prof. John Garraty, a prominent American historian, Hitler and his new government “immediately launched an all-out assault on unemployment … They stimulated private industry through subsidies and tax rebates, encouraged consumer spending by such means as marriage loans, and plunged into the massive public-works program that produced the autobahn [highway system], and housing, railroad and navigation projects.”

The “normal” work day for most Germans was eight hours, and pay for overtime work was generous. In addition to higher wages, benefits included markedly improved working conditions, such as better health and safety conditions, canteens with subsidized hot meals, athletic fields, parks, subsidized theater performances and concerts, exhibitions, sports and hiking groups, dances, adult education courses, and subsidized tourism. An already extensive network of social welfare programs, including old age insurance and a national health care program, was expanded.

“It is beyond argument that the Nazis encouraged working-class social and economic mobility.” To encourage acquisition of new skills, the government greatly expanded vocational training programs, and offered generous incentives for further advancement of efficient workers.

Click HERE to read in context.

This is very alarming to me, and it should be alarming to all of us. I have voted no on many appropriations and will continue to do so. Adding more government programs that require grants and subsidies—and in turn more full-time positions—is leading us to a point where our children and grandchildren will pay the cost. I half-joked with a friend who asked how things were going, saying, "Ignorance is truly bliss—the more I know, the more it grieves my soul."

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A few charts and spread sheets from our 2025 Budget Book:

I will vote yes on all maintenance bills except for Health and Welfare, as it is an estimated $5.3 billion maintenance bill that takes up 41 percent of our overall budget, relying more on borrowed federal dollars. While all maintenance budgets will pass, we definitely need to “DOGE” deeper into these budgets

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The enhancement budgets will increase the maintenance budget by an estimated $1 billion. What you all need to understand is that with the ongoing enhancements, those dollars will be added to next year's maintenance. I, along with the gang of eight, worked to set a clear line on how we will vote to spend your hard-earned tax dollars—a position I shared in a previous Substack, which you can read HERE.

I told a fellow JFAC member that if it were up to me, I'd freeze all extra spending and make every agency stick strictly to their maintenance budgets—like hitting the pause button on a shopping spree! Then, we'd all team up to trim the fat from the $12.8 billion maintenance budget. Next session, we’d only discuss enhancements that are truly necessary and work to wean Idaho off its federal dependency as much as possible.

One last thought from last Friday: When H306 passed through committee, it's a shame that we’re more eager to restrict Idahoans’ First Amendment rights than to address the growing budgets and expanding government.

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Bible Verse of the week: Psalm 22:7 The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is the slave of the lender.

Quote of the week: “There does not exist an engine so corruptive of the government and so demoralising of the nation as a public debt.”
-Thomas Jefferson, 1821

Song of the week: