The Child Support Issue

The Child Support Issue #FilltheStateHouse

When the legislative session closed without addressing Medicaid expansion, I was heartbroken. Thousands of Idaho’s working poor would again face the reality of life without access to medical care.  But when I read about Idaho’s refusal sign the child support treaty bill into law, I was furious.  It seems that Idaho enjoys kicking its working poor while they are down.

                More than 150,000 Idaho families utilize the Idaho Child Support system.  The majority of those are single working mothers—a part of the same demographic that is affected by lack of Medicaid expansion—who may now lose child support that is vital to their survival.

If that scenario isn't bad enough, it gets worse.  Idaho’s refusal to sign has further consequences, “Federal officials told the state Health and Welfare Department on Monday that Idaho’s child support bureau will lose $16 million in funding within 60 days without reversal… Without a child support program in place, the state also stands to lose $30 million in temporary assistance to needy families, which covers such programs as Head Start as well as child care assistance for low income families.”

Thousands of Idaho children who utilize Head Start will have nowhere to go and working parents who depend on ICCP will have no means with which to pay for daycare.  It is thought that Idaho’s refusal will touch the lives of 400,000 Idahoans—those with active child support cases, those who have pending cases, Head Start attendees and workers, ICCP clients and the daycares  and providers who accept that subsidy, those who are employed by the Idaho Child Support offices. 

I am one of those 400,000 directly affected. If this comes to pass, I will lose my childcare business of 20 years--my family’s sole source of support.  All of my daycare clients participate in the ICCP program. The five families I provide care for will not be able to continue to work and children I have helped to raise since they were tiny will be gone from my life. The only silver lining in this cloud is that once we are destitute my husband and I will qualify for Medicaid.

The New York Times recently ran an article about the whole mess saying, “A major factor seems to be Idaho’s ornery streak, the part of the state’s identity that does not like the federal government — or, worse still, foreign governments — telling it what to do.”  The article backed up this idea by quoting Ryan Kerby, a Republican, first term representative as saying, ““You need to sign it, and if you don't we're going to beat the crud out of you,” Mr. Kerby said, paraphrasing the pressure he felt (from the federal government). “They were incredibly rude.”

I could not then nor can I now fathom how a dislike of federal control could be a deciding factor on an issue that touches so many Idahoans.  The Idaho legislature is acting on principle but those principles have devastating effects on real lives. 

Idaho’s law making body is behaving like a spoiled child balking under parental control.  It is ridiculous behavior with horrendous consequences and further proof that our governing body does not make decisions based upon what is best for its constituents, but rather on how ornery it feels on any given day.  The working poor cannot afford Idaho’s petulance.