Mr. and Mrs. Thomas have been married for about two years and have a baby girl. Both work. Relatives share child care duties. They want to buy a house, but they run short every month. The parents earn too much to qualify for Medicaid or SNAP, so they live paycheck to paycheck. With family to watch their daughter, they are among the lucky ones.
Affordability is a top concern for Idahoans this election season. Yet our Legislature seems determined to make life harder for people on the margins. If you feel worried, angry or at a loss, that is a rational response to irrational times.
In Idaho Falls, 43% of households can’t afford the basics. Only 11% are below the poverty line. The other 32% are working families who still can’t cover housing, child care, food, transportation and healthcare. Statewide, 42% of struggling renters spend at least half their income on rent and utilities. These are numbers from 2024. Inflation has only made it worse.
Start with SNAP, our food assistance program. Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” now makes states pay 75% of SNAP’s administrative costs, up from 50%. The Legislature didn’t budget enough to cover the shift. Then it made the program harder to use: tighter asset limits, more citizenship paperwork and more frequent re-certification. Idaho runs one of the most restrictive SNAP programs in the country. More red tape will hurt families and strain the people who serve them. No one should go hungry in a land of plenty.
This is a pattern. The Legislature also adopted work requirements for Medicaid expansion, starting January 1, 2027. Adults must report 80 hours a month of work, community service, school or training, or earn at least $580 a month, which is 80 hours at minimum wage. They must re-verify twice a year, and new applicants must show three months of compliance before approval. About 85,000 Idahoans are on expanded Medicaid, and most already meet these requirements. Yet the Urban Institute and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation estimate 20,000 to 34,000 could lose coverage by 2028, mostly to paperwork.
Meanwhile, the Legislature wages needless culture wars. It is asking voters to write English into the constitution as Idaho’s official language, though state law already does. It passed the bathroom bill, making it a crime, and a felony for repeat offenses, to use a restroom that doesn’t match the sex on your birth certificate. The Legislature fiddles while Idaho smolders.
Our Legislature chooses to make life harder for many of us regular folks. We should be angry. The anger isn’t what’s broken. The politics are.
If you’re angry about how the current supermajority has run our state for the last three decades, vote. Election Day is November 3. Hold your elected officials accountable. Learn how they vote, and challenge them to build a fairer, more supportive state.
The Thomas family wants to buy a house. That future feels far off. We can do better, Idaho.
Todd DeVries works in mental health and is the Bonneville County Democratic Central Committee’s state committeeman.