Make money doing the work you believe in
Idaho and Beyond — Taxation and Cradle to Grave Care by the State. Questions NOT being asked about massive daycare fraud and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act giveaway for rural healthcare. Posted 01/01/26 (wow, we got the year-change right on the first try!)
Why are hard working American tax dollars being used to pay for stuff the government shouldn’t be doing in the first place? — Big E
An article, a press release, and a frustrated taxpayer walked into a Substack Note…
(Thanks, ChatGPT, for the beleaguered taxpayer image below.)
__________
📌 Article: Beyond the Somali daycare controversy. Let's take a look at a government grant program that reshapes society. By Wayne Hoffman (12/31/25): tinyurl.com/5evsra8z
Hoffman asks the key question: “Why is government involved in subsidizing daycare in the first place?” This is our question as well!
Summary (Grok ai, edited; image from article)
Hoffman uses the Minnesota Somali daycare scandal to question government subsidies for daycare nationwide, noting that subsidies through grants, payments, tax credits, and deductions reduce costs for parents to return to work early and enable them to place children in formal care. Results:
System encourages and normalizes early parent-child separation, benefiting employers with a larger labor force, suppressing wages, and increasing government revenue.
System becomes entrenched as families, businesses, and politicians depend on it.
System weakens informal community networks such as families, neighbors, churches, and charities.
Hoffman’s article highlights consequences for childhood development in institutional settings. Does subsidized early separation best serve society? He says no and suggests we get back to basics, with voluntary local support.
Imagining alternatives can be uncomfortable because they rely on voluntary action rather than centralized programs. In a different model, neighbors might know one another better. Communities might step in when families struggle. People would be free to help — or not help — based on judgment and capacity, rather than taxable obligation.
Such a society would be imperfect and uneven. But it would also be honest about trade-offs and grounded in choice, awareness of the problem, and of the people who are affected by the decisions.
The current system continues largely because it is familiar, entrenched, and rarely questioned. The real opportunity presented by moments of controversy is not merely to fix what went wrong, but to pause and ask the impact of the policy on our capacity for compassion and on our humanity. — Wayne Hoffman
💸 Taxpayer
The education of all children, from the moment that they can get along without a mother's care, shall be in state institutions. — Karl Marx
_____
Abolition of the family! … The bourgeois family will vanish as a matter of course … The bourgeois clap-trap about the family and education, about the hallowed co-relation of parents and child, becomes all the more disgusting.
— Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1848, Chapter II, Karl Marx & Frederick Engels. Source article: tinyurl.com/yyzr8tmb
Outside caretakers (including schools and daycares) undermine family, a chief goal of Marxist teaching. They also require massive government bureaucracy to manage these programs, adding to costs without providing real benefits.
Do we really want this for Idaho and America?
Childcare should be the responsibility of parents, not the state — unless you want a socialist/communist/Marxist system that views itself as the “village” (in Hillary Clinton’s words) that literally owns your kids.
We understand taking care of kids is expensive and posit something radical:
Have only the number of children you can take care of without asking government to pay or “help” you.
Do not have “extra” kids to game the welfare system (some parents do this).
All kids need basic necessities:
Food, water, clothing, sleep, shelter, exercise, play in dirt, and sunshine.
Sense of belonging, safety, and security.
Loving parents and family who teach right from wrong along with essential skills needed to survive and be good citizens.
Everything else is gravy (especially cell phones, tablets, social media access, vacations, and fancy toys).
Parents:
Please adjust your lifestyles to prioritize your children over “stuff.” As you become more financially stable, you can move to a fancier house in a better neighborhood. Add goodies if you can afford them, but start with the basics of taking care of your own kids rather than farming out the job to strangers in daycares and schools.
We know parents who are doing this (including homeschooling). They don’t have higher education or fancy homes. But they do have love and willingness to work hard to provide for their children and teach them essential life skills.
When we were growing up in the Mesozoic Era, our Moms took care of us while our Dads worked outside the home. We were not rich. We lived in modest subdivision homes. We didn’t have fancy clothes, toys, or vacations. There was no internet, just libraries. Other Moms in the neighborhood and grandparents pitched in if Moms needed a break. Moms didn’t work outside the home until kids were in school and reasonably self-sufficient.
Today’s parents — even those who work at home — often leave childcare to state subsidized daycares and schools. Unfortunately, many caregivers teach socialist/Marxist values and break essential bonds between parents and their kids.
Anecdote: Our school district’s voters passed a tax levy that provided free all-day kindergarten. Also provided: Free breakfast and lunch regardless of financial need. More state-sponsored care that parents used to handle! We voted against this levy, which also included other items we objected to, but were overruled.
That Idaho legislators never even discussed the wisdom of turning over young children to tax-subsidized day care workers who generally don’t love kids as much as parents do/should, is shocking. The program grows larger, more money sloshes, more waste and fraud ensues.
With less government and less taxation, parents might be able to afford to take care of their own kids. Shouldn’t that be the goal of a state like Idaho that claims to support family values?
__________
📌 Press Release: December 30, 2025 - Idaho awarded nearly $1 billion to improve rural healthcare access, affordability: tinyurl.com/56nabh62
Summary (Grok ai, edited; logo from Governor’s website)
Governor Brad Little announced that Idaho will receive nearly $1 billion over five years through Rural Healthcare Transformation grants:
$185.97 million annually from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
Part of a $50 billion national initiative funded by “One Big Beautiful Bill” Act.
Aims to improve rural healthcare access and affordability by addressing challenges in access, workforce shortages, financial sustainability, and distance from care via system-wide improvements.
Developed by Idaho Rural Health Taskforce, focusing on five [ED word salad] initiatives:
Improving rural access through technology.
Expanding innovative care models.
Strengthening workforce recruitment and retention.
Supporting prevention and chronic disease efforts.
Investing in rural health infrastructure and partnerships.
Governor Little: The investment recognizes rural challenges and strengthens local healthcare.
DHW Director Juliet Charron: Funding allows flexible, community-shaped solutions for sustainable care.
_____
💸 Taxpayer
The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government and I'm here to help . — President Reagan's famous and prescient quote from August 12, 1986 News Conference: youtube.com/watch?v=nCe…
While legislators ponder daycare fraud, may we ask that they also investigate what will happen to all the beautiful taxpayer money Trump's One Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) will generously gift to "help" Idaho's rural residents?
As rural Idaho residents, we can tell you that many do not want this "help," which likely will bring more people into once pristine, low-crime areas. Newcomers often demand ever more “citified” services that could destroy rural residents' environment, lifestyle, independence, resilience, and — yes — their health. (Of course, media, politicians, and others who control the purse strings will disagree vehemently.)
Throwing money at "healthcare access, affordability" — with or without accountability safeguards — will not provide healthcare access and affordability any more than throwing money into Obamacare and student loans made healthcare premiums and college more accessible and affordable. Instead, with government (i.e., taxpayer) subsidies, costs went up while access went down. And, of course, strings were attached.
Abuse is inevitable when government sloshes other people's money to bureaucrats, NGOs, health boards, etc. for redistribution to "the underserved." Lots of money gets caught in the middleman's net and often funds solutions that don't work.
🔥 Can't the legislature JUST SAY NO to federal dollars, pretty please?
P.S. We've watched meetings of Central District Health (CDH), which serves populous Ada County as well as more rural Boise, Elmore, and Valley counties. Many "services" provided are pure socialism or downright dangerous to health; the hearings quite appalled us. CDH meetings on YouTube: youtube.com/channel/UC4…
__________
Related:
Umbrellas, Community Schools, United Way & School Board Meetings: tinyurl.com/47amnyet
Health Freedom & Other Solutions for Idaho & Beyond: tinyurl.com/4mav9xv4
Idaho Central District Health Board Meeting (May 9, 2025) Updates: tinyurl.com/2f5b5zs7
