Main Street Idaho Podcast Episode 1: Senator Kevin Cook's Fight for Efficient Spending
“Idaho is an incredible state. It it is. We’ve got lots and lots of good things going for us, and we just need to keep them going.”
Brennan Summers (00:00):
Welcome to Street Podcast, an opportunity to talk to I Idaho's elected leaders about the issues that matter to you. All right. Welcome. Welcome. We are here with Senator Kevin Cook part of the Main Street caucus. Been serving in the I Idaho Center for a couple terms now. Has a few sessions under his belt, which the turnover, you're now one of the senior guys. You're Top dog.
Senator Kevin Cook (00:28):
I, they gave me a chairman position this last last session. So I am the chairman over the converse and the Human Resource. So that was a shocker to me. And I have never served on that committee, so to never serve on it and then go to Chairman Wow. Has been a real huge learning curve. Had to
Brennan Summers (00:46):
Learn a lot. So, do you expect me to call you chairman throughout this whole thing, <laugh>? No. No. Okay. Good. Good. I know you as Kevin, but I'll slip in as senator every day.
Senator Kevin Cook (00:53):
Kevin is
Brennan Summers (00:54):
Fine. Just so I know my place. Yeah. Kevin, thanks so much for being on. Appreciate it. This is an opportunity for you to chat about some of the things you've been working on, but there's a lot of people out there new people to the community, people that maybe are just getting tuned into the political scene. They don't know you. So do you wanna take a minute and just kinda introduce yourself? Sure. Who is Kevin Cook?
Senator Kevin Cook (01:13):
Alright. well, I, I grew up in Spanish Fork, Utah in a little farming community, Spanish Park for those that like to make fun of that, but in a farming community called Lake Shore. And our farm went right out into Utah Lake. Okay. So we would haul hay when it was nice and hot. We would just wait out in the Utah lake and would fish and make rafts and, and swam. And, and in the winter we would ice skate graduated from public high school, went to Weber State University graduated in software engineering. And I'm a computer geek and I really enjoy it. I love what I do. I then met my lovely wife Sherry at Weber State University met her and then we came up to Idaho Falls to visit my brother on a 4th of July. It was during a parade and it snowed, and I said, nobody knew like mine would ever live in Idaho Falls. It, it snows on the 4th of July, and then three years later we came back and fell in love with it. And we moved here and we raised all our kids. We moved here in 99 and we raised all our kids through the public schools here and, and our last one just graduated from college yesterday. And so it's been pretty exciting time in the Cook
Brennan Summers (02:29):
Household. Fantastic. Yeah. And, and those that know Sherry, I mean, you may be chairman, but she's the real boss, right?
Senator Kevin Cook (02:34):
<Laugh>? Absolutely.
Brennan Summers (02:35):
Yeah. So we love Sherry.
Senator Kevin Cook (02:36):
Yeah. She is wonderful.
Brennan Summers (02:37):
Yeah. Five grandkids.
Senator Kevin Cook (02:38):
Yes. We got five grandkids and they're all in Idaho Falls.
Brennan Summers (02:43):
Yeah. Well, and those of us who were here on the 4th of July this year we, we thought it was gonna snow during the fireworks. Everyone was bundled up. It was cold. It was a cold 4th of July. So you you've had some experience working in eastern Idaho. You spent some time at the lab, is that right? Yes.
Senator Kevin Cook (03:00):
So I I work at, currently work at the Idaho National Laboratory as a software engineer. Originally came here to interview for a job in 99, didn't get the job, but went off on my own and did my own consulting business. And have done that off and on. Hired on an I N L for a few years, quit, went back to my own thing, back at I N L and so forth, back and forth. But currently, I, I work at the Idaho National Laboratory and, and they are wonderful to work with me as I'm serving as a senator.
Brennan Summers (03:32):
It, a lot of people, sometimes they'll look and they'll see their elected officials, and the first question is, how does one become a senator? Right. And as I've talked to some of your colleagues, some of 'em, you know, they spent a long time on school boards where others, you know, were serving in different routes. Your path, I think is really impactful of, of kind of how you got started. And particularly, why don't you walk us through where you saw some vulnerabilities in our public school system as you were spending time there. Okay.
Senator Kevin Cook (03:58):
Yeah. For the last I think probably eight or nine years well, I had a, I had a, a teacher at school at, at, at church, and she came up to me and, and said, Kevin, I asked her how school was going and how teacher, 'cause I, I, I mean, I enjoy education. I think that's the important part. My kids were, were in the school, and I just asked her how she was doing. She says, oh, you know what I really need? I really need somebody to just come in and just volunteer just one day a week or maybe one day a month. And I says, I'll do that. And she laughed. She says, all right. I says, no, I would love to do that. So for eight years on my day off at I n l I go in and, and read with a bunch of eighth graders.
(04:45):
And it has been awesome experience. Now she gives me the worst of the worst are those that are struggling. Not all the time, but the ones that are struggling. And so I get to see how our education system is doing, but I also get to see how awesome our teachers are. Yeah. And we got some incredible teachers that, that love These kids. Not only love, but they stretch 'em, they push 'em to, to get 'em to be better. But I saw some things that we could improve in, in education as over the last eight years as I've read with those kids. And just a lot of fun. If you're looking for something rewarding, go volunteer at one of our schools. They, they need you and they'll put you to work.
Brennan Summers (05:26):
And, and presumably that played a role, and when you decided there was a Senate seat you should run for?
Senator Kevin Cook (05:31):
Well, yeah, I, I was definitely in interested education, but I had, I had 13 acres at the time, and we irrigated flood irrigated and the ditch, I shared the ditch with the Senator Dean Warburg, and, and we're still friends, even though we shared water, it's just uhoh. But we'd stand at all in the ditch bank and we'd talk about politics, and I was always interested in politics. But, you know, it comes to a point where you, you keep complaining, so you either need to shut up or go do something about it. There you go. And Dean mentioned in passing that he was retiring. And I says, I wanna do that. So I, I went home, talked to the wife and the kids, and says, what do you think? And he says, I won't affect this. You do whatever you want. I says, oh, no, no, and it will affect you. Yeah. So we had a kind of a family council and we decided, yeah, let's go for it. So it's, it's been a, there's been days, I wonder why, why did I do this? But for the most part it's, it's been a great experience.
Brennan Summers (06:35):
What are some of the things you've been most proud of that you've been able to accomplish as a senator?
Senator Kevin Cook (06:39):
Oh, I think one of the big thing that, that that I've helped since coming there is, is my career in software, software engineering. You got all these agencies that come. So I serve on jac, which is the Joint Finance Appropriations Committee. So I see all the budgets from all the agencies, and I sit in there and these agencies will come and say, well, I need this software. I need this software package. And, and we're gonna write it, or we're gonna go purchase it, and for millions and millions of dollars. And I say, well, do you have a project plan? Well, no. I says, well, let's get a plan. Let's, let's make a plan before we just go out and appropriate money. So I've really worked hard to bring some of the expertise that I have learned in college and in the workforce of how to do a, a project in software and to cut the cost where we can, or cut the risk to, to help our agencies and, and make sure we're not buying the same thing for one agency and another agency instead of going after an enterprise license, which saves the state millions of dollars.
Brennan Summers (07:48):
Yeah. I mean, it's a wild concept. 'cause When we picture like a, an effective senator, you're thinking he's gotta be a constitutional scholar and an attorney and all that. And here we have a computer nerd, self-described, computer geek who's been able to come in and save taxpayer dollars by understanding the issue and asking the right questions.
Senator Kevin Cook (08:07):
Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's, it's just that asking the right questions you don't have to have any special training. We all come from different walks of life, and we all have our expertise, and we just need to learn to open our mouths and shine in the expertise that we bring. Now, I'm, I'm not a, a doctor, I'm not a engineer, so I, I don't help there. But the software I, I do know.
Brennan Summers (08:29):
Yeah. This last session was a bit of a wrestle at times. What are some of the things that came out of this last session that maybe frustrated you and then some of the things that you were proud to see that the conservative led Idaho Senate did?
Senator Kevin Cook (08:44):
I think one of the things that was really frustrating was my mobile device bill.
Brennan Summers (08:49):
This is an important thing that most people probably aren't aware of. Let's talk a little bit about
Senator Kevin Cook (08:52):
That. Okay. So this is, I, i, it, the parental rights protection act. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, in other words, it was to give parents some rights. That pendulum is swaying, swung so far. The other way that sometimes we forgot about the parents, you know, that they're the ones that are raising the children, not the government and, and not the businesses. It's the children. And so this one was basically, there's really a simple thing to this bill. It was if your mobile device was activated within the state of Idaho, then turn on the parental software filtering software that filters out pornography, adult content. And, and that was basically it. Now got a lot of pushback. First of all, I had a bunch of providers, Verizon T-Mobile, some of those come in with all their hands up there, and you can't do this, Senator.
(09:50):
And I says, well, wait a minute. Lemme explain this. This doesn't affect you at all. Has nothing to do with the provider. Provider doesn't do anything, has nothing to do with the retailer. So if you go into Verizon and buy your, your phone or, or was it frog or tot or wherever it is, you go in there and and buy that they could care less. They're just selling you a phone. They don't have anything to set up for you. Nothing different. What we were asking was the manufacturer, the one that creates the software, the operating system, we're saying when they activate the phone, and if it's activated within the state of Idaho, then by default turn on that filtering software and then ask. So, so we didn't specify how to do that. You know, we want, we didn't wanna do that. We wanted to do their own thing, but we, here's what the way I thought it should ask.
(10:44):
I activated my phone and it comes up and says, oh, the parental filtering device has been activated. Do you want to have it continue to activate it? Yes or no? No. But it turns off and I, there's no filtering easy enough. Or I can say, yes, I want it activated, and it will provide a passcode for me. Okay. And so I've got a passcode that I can use that passcode to turn it off when I want to, but I can then take that phone and give that to Junior and say, here's, here's your phone. Go, go do what you want with it. But the filtering software's on there. So it's, it is just a way to say, parents, we're gonna help you out. It's, it's a simple bill. It's a good bill, except we didn't get it passed. And there's a little bit of opposition about a very loud group that went off.
(11:39):
What was the concerns of the bill that's just supposed to help keep kids safe? Well they, they, they said, well, first of all, you're forcing, you're forcing these manufacturers to like iPhone. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> forcing iPhone to put on software on their phone. I says, no, it's already there. Whether you have a a, a Droid or a iPhone, the parental software is already there. Right. The other thing is, is well, you're going to force all these other manufacturers that are, that are creating filtering software, they're gonna go, by the way, 'cause they can't compete. I says, no, the software is already there.
Brennan Summers (12:17):
Right. So the concern from this group is that it's just too much government.
Senator Kevin Cook (12:22):
That's the only thing I can think of. But you look at their, their points, I, I sat down with them point by point by point. In fact, I even brought up each of those points on the on the floor. Yeah. In the, in the debate. And argued another one that says, you're gonna force 'em to index the whole internet so that they know which is bad. Which is good. I says, no.
Brennan Summers (12:45):
Right. It already exists.
Senator Kevin Cook (12:46):
It's already on. Yeah,
Brennan Summers (12:47):
Absolutely.
Senator Kevin Cook (12:47):
We're just not doing it.
Brennan Summers (12:48):
But what the, and the question may come, like, is there a need for this? Do pa have parents reached out to you? Or are you, are you hearing from your constituents, look, we gotta do something about this. Absolutely. Epidemic, the new drug is, is it's often called.
Senator Kevin Cook (13:00):
Absolutely. There, there is, this really sounds weird, but there is medical proof that a child with a developing mind, developing brain that gets involved with pornography at a young age, it affects the way the brain develops. And, and that's, that's a fact. You can go out and, and, and Google that if you want. It's also a fact that pornography is a gateway to greater crimes against children. Yeah. And, and women. And you know, there's a great show that's being shown at the the movie theaters right now about sex trafficking. Well, this, this plays a part of that. It's not all of it, but it does certainly play a part of it. So yes, this is a important bill, it needs to happen. You know, go ask your kids. Go, go ask your kids tonight. Do, do, where do you get your pornography?
(13:53):
And they are like, what are you talking about? I says, well, ask them, did you get it, the library or did you get it on your phone? And well, they, they get it on their phone. You know, pornography is pornography. We've had a, you know, growing up, pornography had to be behind the clerk's station. The cash register, right. Had to be in a sealed cell phone package, and it had to have a cardboard paper in front of the the cover page. And it had to be up outta the reach of, of kids who couldn't do it. And all we're doing is, Hey, let's do the same thing. But we're not even forcing it. We're just saying, give passage opportunity. And if you still want it, we're not taking those rights away from you. If you want your kid to see pornography, great. Or if you wanna see pornography, great. We're just saying by default, turn it on.
Brennan Summers (14:44):
So, so I know a lot of people come away from the movie Operation Freedom. Is that what they're calling? Yeah. Yeah. They come away from that, that film, and they say, I gotta do something. Want to help these kids. I wanna help stop human traffick. What can I do? Who do they need to call to help get your bill back in, in play?
Senator Kevin Cook (14:59):
Your representatives, your senators. Yeah. Get 'em all. Call 'em all to tell 'em. And, but, but don't, don't be mean about it, because I've got lots of meeting texts and, and stuff that just say, Hey, this is a concern. I believe pornography doesn't have a place for children. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And in fact, the state of Idaho in, in our, in our Idaho code states that it's harmful for children. And so we're just trying to live up to what it's, but call your representative. Call your senator. Call your legislators. Call your call the mayor. Call any of the associations around here and say, Hey, would you get on board with Senator Cook's mobile device bill? We need firemen. We need policemen. We need the mayor, we need engineering. We need doctors. All of them get on those associations and ask 'em to help out.
Brennan Summers (15:48):
Fantastic. That, that's a heavy, real topic that needs to be addressed. Let's lighten it up a little bit and talk dinosaurs.
Senator Kevin Cook (15:55):
Dinosaurs,
Brennan Summers (15:55):
Dinosaurs. So we've heard a lot about this dinosaur thing, and I think you played an active role in it, but I'm, I a lot of people might not be aware of what's going on there. Why don't you walk us through the process of our, our new dinosaur. First of
Senator Kevin Cook (16:06):
All, you gotta see my dinosaur socks. I don't know, can you bring, can you show that <laugh>? You gotta see the dinosaur socks
Brennan Summers (16:13):
Very on. Brand sadder. Very unbrand <laugh>.
Senator Kevin Cook (16:16):
But anyway, so what happened it's been a, probably a year ago, we had Mr. Walton from Pine White, pine Elementary School. We had representative Poorman and myself, we got a big old package that had probably about 50 letters, handwritten letters from each of the kid. A and they were good handwritten, very best handwriting they had. And they focused on this subject that says, Idaho does not have a dinosaur. State dinosaur.
Brennan Summers (16:49):
State dinosaur. Okay.
Senator Kevin Cook (16:49):
And we need one. And we believe it should be the ROMs dinosaur. And this is why. And they spelled out the reasons why they believed it, and it was in their own language. So it wasn't something that Mr. Walton put up on the board and said, copy this. It was there. Did it. So we got all those letters, and then we read through those, and the next thing we heard, we got a phone call from Mr. Walton says, we'd like you to come to the school. So Representative Corman and myself shows up to the school, and they show up at the front door, and these kids of wind the hallways and are cheering, I mean, just screaming. And, and they walk us down to their classroom. We get in their classroom, they have dinosaur punch, dinosaur eggs, dinosaur solid, I mean, everything that, just incredible. They had doctor, I'm gonna say Dr. K 'cause I can't say his lap. That's
Brennan Summers (17:39):
Okay.
Senator Kevin Cook (17:40):
Dr. K was there from I S U, and he had a replica of the erectile dinosaur there. And and they es escort us up the front of the class, and the kids talked to us about it. They told us about the dinosaur. And then we had actually had, in preparation for this, we actually had the bill written up. And so it hadn't been passed yet. No, we had seen it. They still an rs We had it written up in this three foot by six foot thing, and we put her on the board and we read through it. And, and they, it just, I have never been lobbied like a bunch of fourth graders in my life. Yeah. These were incredible. But then we got that and I was real excited about it and represented Horman was, wasn't quite as excited about. I couldn't figure that out until the session started.
(18:26):
And they were talking about property taxes and all these important things. I wanna run a bill for a dinosaur <laugh>. Right. And then I understand why Representative Warren wasn't too excited. So I was like, okay, I think we can just put it under the carpet and forget about it until it was halfway through the session. One of the tincture showed up at my office and said Senator Cook, I'm, I'm so and so. I was in the classroom. When you come, you and a representative, hoer team, and talked about the dinosaur said, do you, where's the bill at? And
Brennan Summers (19:01):
Busted <laugh>.
Senator Kevin Cook (19:02):
So we ran and Bill, we got kids all across Idaho though. It just went like wildfire. Yeah. We had kids from Boise and Coeur d'Alene Caldwell, and here that testified of it. And we now have a state dinosaur. And
Brennan Summers (19:19):
Say the name one more time.
Senator Kevin Cook (19:20):
It's a Rick Domus. It's about the size of a golden lamp. Oh. It's a, and and here's some things why they said the, the kids taught us this. Why it's a good dinosaur. It is, it is unique to Idaho. Only a very, very small corner of Montana is it found, but it's unique to Idaho. It burls on the ground. So on on the debate for this bill, one of the senators says do you think a bur on the ground to eat potatoes <laugh>? And he says, I think there's a marketing point. And we should have the commissioner of potatoes outta potatoes with the er drones them do that. It's a family dinosaur. So families are huge in Idaho. It's a huge priority and it's a family dinosaur. But there's a lot of attributes that, that make it unique to Idaho and why we should do it. So
Brennan Summers (20:14):
It's, it's interesting because you're wrestling with these complicated J fac bills and you've got your chairmanship and you got all these things going on. And it may not have been the most important issue at the time, but it was important to those fourth graders.
Senator Kevin Cook (20:26):
Right. It, it was. And, and, you know, you get out on the floor and they get in some debates, and sometimes they get a little bit heated up. And we had that particular week we had done that, we had some caucus meetings where, you know, things were brought up. And, and so there was, there was some lines being drawn and to bring up that dinosaur. Everybody had just fun, fun fourth grade level questions. I mean, if, if, and, and we had people watching it, schools watching it. They had zoomed in to watch this thing. But it just brought everybody back together and reminded us that we're, you know, we can still have fun and enjoy it and enjoy what we do and, and do something for our fourth graders who, you know, we always talk about how do we get our youth engaged in the political process. And, and here we got a bunch of fourth graders across the state engaged with the political process. Yeah. It, it was awesome experience. It really was.
Brennan Summers (21:26):
Well, it's a case study in democracy, right. The idea that those fourth graders didn't have to write fat campaign donations to get you to come and say hi to 'em. It's how, it's how government's supposed to work. Yeah,
Senator Kevin Cook (21:36):
Right. We, we sl the governor came down, Uhhuh <affirmative> signed the bill in front of the, the fourth graders. They had the, they had their whole school show up. So this was at Yukon. He had since switched to Yukon. So we had the kindergartner first all the way through fifth or sixth graders in this thing. And governor shows up and signs it, talks to the kids and did a wonderful job. It was good.
Brennan Summers (21:58):
Fantastic. So we're talking cell phones. We're talking dinosaurs. As you get leading up to this next session, dinosaur one's done. We're gonna fight for the cell phone bill again. What else is on your to-do list?
Senator Kevin Cook (22:10):
Oh, well one of the budgets that I did carry is the Medicaid budget. Okay. And it is $4.5 billion. Oh,
Brennan Summers (22:20):
It's a big
Senator Kevin Cook (22:21):
One. It's huge. Yeah. Now, the very biggest percent of that, huge percent of that is federal. It's not, not the state. But still, how do we do, how do we cost, contain that? Well, there was a, a house concurrence resolution passed that said, we're gonna have a task force. And so I was a member of that task force committee, and we've been meeting a couple times a month. And, and that, that bill was, or <inaudible> was, was to study managed care organization. And managed care basically says you've got department of Health and Welfare here, and then you've got all your providers and you've got Medicaid patients going to the providers, the providers bill the department, the department pays them. 'cause Medicaid is a, is a state, basically social insurance. So they wanted to do look at a M C O, a managed care organization that would fit right smack in the middle of it.
(23:18):
So you got a middleman, a third man. And we were, the thing was to look and see, can we save some money by having the M C O in there? And so we've had had a lot of people come and talk. In fact, I, I had two meetings here in Idaho Falls where we providers come in the first night, I think there was 50 the next night, I think there were 25. We talked for about two and a half hours nonstop. Wow. And they were just full of information. And, and then plus the committee meeting at the in Boise, we were there for all an all day meeting from 10 to, I think three 30. We had people coming in and presenting why we should do M C O, why we shouldn't do M C O. And, and so I don't think M C L is the golden egg that's gonna save Medicaid.
(24:09):
I really believe it's, it's the little bites we're gonna take around the edges. And, and, and these providers, these doctors that are, they're the experts. You know, a lot of times we think we get voted in and I'm a legislator and by George, I am now the expert. I can, I can fix everything. And, and that's just not the case. And so it was important to get with these providers. In fact, I have a, another meeting next week in Pocatello with a bunch of physicians to go over the same kind of stuff and gather information. But they're the ones that are giving us information about MCOs. We also have a V C O, which is a valued care organization. Took 10 years to set it up. We've only been running it for one year. So we don't have a lot of data on it yet. Sure. But the data that I'm hearing that's coming back from the providers, the V Cs are saying, we're going to save you millions of dollars. So, wow. I, I don't, I don't know if it's really good to say, oh, bag V C O and go to M C O, let's give it some while. But my thought is give it some while. Yeah. Let's see what's gonna do. Right now it's looking really good.
Brennan Summers (25:19):
So that, that data, those budgets, not the sexiest item. I'm not gonna pull any headlines, but it's important 'cause it's expensive and it is. It's how we, we can save some taxpayer dollars if we do it the right way. Yeah. So you're doing the hard work of attending those multiple hour meetings, digging into this stuff so that somebody can know, all right, what's the worst policy moving forward?
Senator Kevin Cook (25:39):
Yeah. You, you know, you're going back to Senator Dean Morman when he told me he really should go do this. He says, it's just three months. I said, oh, okay. I think financially I can swing it three months, I'll lose some money, but I can do it for three months. Well, I haven't been in Boise two, three times every month. Yeah. And then meetings at home. And, and so it, it is very busy trying to figure out Medicaid. And Medicaid is humongous. It's, it's like onion. You pour one, pull one level back and you've got, you know, 60 more to go through. So it's, it's big. There's a lots of little pieces I think we can do to, to help fix Medicaid around the edges. There's a lot of people say, well just get rid of Medicaid. Well, that's not our option. Right. Medicaid is demanded, is, is, is required. It's a federal required insurance, social insurance plan. So we might not like it and we might want to get rid of it, but it can't be done at our level. It's gotta be done in Washington DC Yeah.
Brennan Summers (26:41):
And what we can control is, let's see how conservative, fiscally conservative we can. Yeah, sure. Well, whether somebody votes for you or votes against you, one thing they cant anize you do do your homework and you do listen to the experts and constituents. You know, there are some of your constituents who think you're far too conservative and some that think you're far too liberal. Right. <laugh>.
Senator Kevin Cook (27:00):
Yeah.
Brennan Summers (27:00):
Well, what's your message out there to those who don't agree with your stance on certain issues?
Senator Kevin Cook (27:07):
You know what? I don't think there's anybody that's gonna, I'll bet there's a lot of differences between us. There's no way it's gonna be a hundred percent. But come and talk to me. Yeah. Tell me, tell me why you're against it. Just don't yell and scream and tell everybody how terrible I am. And maybe I am terrible, but come and communicate. I am open. I do not have all the answers. And that's why I've met with these doctors on this this Medicaid stuff. I really, really do try to reach out to people to figure out what is best, how do we, what's the best answer? How do we move forward? And so if you disagree with me, then come and talk to me. Educate me. I, I don't have all the answers.
Brennan Summers (27:51):
Yeah. No, I think your openness has been a reason why you've been elected and reelected. And we're hoping that that trend continues as you dig into some of these issues. Final words as we're closing up. As you think of your five grandkids now, right?
Senator Kevin Cook (28:06):
Yes.
Brennan Summers (28:07):
What are the issues that you're saying? Okay, as I think about my grandkids this is where Idaho needs to be so that they can have what I had.
Senator Kevin Cook (28:15):
You need to have education. I, we gotta have the best education out there. And there, there's problems education across the nation. And, and we have some problems here. But be very, very careful to paint. Use a very broad brush and paint all educators that way. So get it, get your information. Don't just take one person's word for it. I don't I, I, many times I'm guilty of asking questions and then I like, you know what? I gotta go see for my own eyes. And I, I did that with the library bill. I wanted to see for my own eyes what, what books were in the library. I want to hear from providers what's happening with, with Medicaid. I want to hear from Dennis. And, and, and so go get your information. Idaho is an incredible state. It it is. We've got lots and lots of good things going for us, and we just need to keep them going.
(29:16):
And it's gonna take all of us to, to do that. It's not just one person. It's not just your legislators. And, you know, I was they had a, an Idaho prayer Idaho State prayer meeting. It was January, I think. And, and Dean Mor invited me to it, and I wouldn't have went to it. But Dean says, oh, come on and go. They had a guy there that used to play for he was an executive with Chick-fil-A and he, he was a, a professional football player. Guy was Ong. But he stood up and he just left me with a message. He says, how do we change America? Or how do we change Idaho? Or how do we change Bonneville County? And he says, it starts within three feet of you. Change three feet within you. First, make the changes that you have control over and, and then start working out from there. And so I think that's what we often
Brennan Summers (30:16):
Do. And what a great thought. So from Frozen on the 4th of July to computer geek to digging in these medicating budgets chairman and senator, thank you so much for joining us. You keep making that change. We hope you come back on 'cause we got a lot more issues to talk about. We appreciate your time today.
Senator Kevin Cook (30:32):
Love too. Thank you
Brennan Summers (30:33):
So much. Thanks. Have a fun. Appreciate it.
