{"id":1000,"date":"2019-03-27T23:24:48","date_gmt":"2019-03-28T06:24:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1000"},"modified":"2019-03-27T23:24:48","modified_gmt":"2019-03-28T06:24:48","slug":"hostages-leadership-and-the-bedke-rule","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=1000","title":{"rendered":"Hostages, Leadership and “the Bedke Rule”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The primary function of the Idaho legislature is to set the\nannual budget. Our dear representatives love to wax eloquent on policy issues,\nand that is well within their function. But this year the Idaho voters spoke up\non a policy issue the legislature has avoided for six years, Medicaid\nExpansion, and the Idaho House of Representatives is holding the Idaho voters\nhostage, refusing to address the budget for what is now Idaho law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Six budget bills were passed by the Idaho Senate weeks ago\nthat funded Medicaid Expansion. For weeks now, House leadership has refused to\nbring them up for a vote. Instead they have passed a \u201csideboards\u201d bill, sending\nit to the Senate despite overwhelming testimony in opposition. And realize,\nthis \u201csideboards bill\u201d will cost Idaho taxpayers millions more than the simple\nMedicaid Expansion bills sitting on the House calendar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, House Republicans signaled to the Senate they\nwanted the \u201cGag the Voters\u201d initiative-killing bill (SB1159) sent over so they\ncan approve it. House Republicans are puckered up on the lemonade they are\nmaking from what they see as a real lemon; the voter passed Medicaid Expansion\nInitiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

House Speaker Scott Bedke got hurt real bad in 2013, his\nfirst year as the leader, when he let the House vote on a state health\ninsurance exchange. He thought he had the majority of his caucus in support,\nbut two Republican House members switched their votes at the last minute and\nthe only way the exchange bill passed the House was thanks to strong Democratic\nsupport. He has vowed to never let such a thing happen again. The only way a\ntough bill comes to the floor of the Idaho House is with Speaker Bedke\u2019s\napproval and he will only allow such a vote if he knows he has the majority of\nhis caucus on board. That\u2019s the \u201cBedke Rule\u201d and it sucks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By holding the Medicaid Funding bills hostage Speaker Bedke\nis giving the already supermajority House Republicans (56) total power over the\nbody. He is negating the votes of the super minority House Democrats (14).\nBedke is letting partisan politics trump the will of the people and holding\nthem hostage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I understand the Idaho Republican Party feels stung by the\npeople\u2019s initiative. They took a strong official stance against Proposition\nTwo, even though many of their fellow Republicans, including former Governor\nOtter endorsed and voted for it. It makes partisan sense for them to now remove\nthe people\u2019s power of the initiative as they are doing with the \u201cVoter Gag\u201d\ninitiative killing bill SB1159. But if they were being honest they would just work\nto repeal the Constitutional power of the initiative, not make it impossible\nthrough a law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Idaho legislature has been on a power grab for years\nnow. The recent Constitutional Amendment to enshrine administrative rules\nreview took two tries and some substantial Farm Bureau funding to pass the\nsecond time. This was the legislature puffing its chest against the executive\nbranch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now they want to exert their power over the people. It\u2019s\nnot the first time. Every time voters have passed an initiative the\nRepublican-led legislature has voted to make the initiative process further\nfrom the reach of the voters. In 1997, after the term limits initiative the\nlegislature raised the bar. That was declared unconstitutional, so they quietly\nrepealed the statute. But when the LUNA Laws were repealed by referendum, the\nRepublican legislature reinstated the higher bar requirements, essentially\nignoring the judicial branch. Now they want the initiative process beyond\nreach, securing their power in what is constitutionally designed to be a\nbalanced system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaker Bedke\u2019s refusal to vote on the appropriations bills\nsitting on his calendar for the last two weeks is further bullying of the\npublic he and his fellow Republican legislators are sworn to serve. This is not\nleadership, it is tyranny. Good people must resist when they see tyranny,\nespecially in those they elect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The primary function of the Idaho legislature is to set the annual budget. Our dear representatives love to wax eloquent on policy issues, and that is well within their function. But this year the Idaho voters spoke up on a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1000"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1002,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1000\/revisions\/1002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}