The job of not caring what voters want

Don't let opinion polls keep us from pursuing the policy that levels up humanity

Before you read this article, watch Brian Almon of the Gem State Chronicle interview Mountain States Policy Center CEO Chris Cargill, or at least go to the 37 minute mark and watch the brief discussion about work requirements for medical welfare recipients, for which, according to Mountain States’ latest public opinion poll, there is broad support.

During the conversation, Almon referred my criticism that adding work requirements for welfare recipients is “boring.”

To refresh the readers’ memories, I wrote that Idaho legislators should aim to do much, much more, like get out from under Medicaid entirely or, at least, eliminate the prescription drug benefit that has thousands of Idahoans and millions of Americans hooked on pills. Both are plausible solutions under existing federal law that would actually lead to hundreds of thousands of fewer people …