National and state leaders participated in a Special Leadership Conversation on Friday afternoon in Idaho Falls.

U.S. Rep. Mike Simpson joined Gov. Brad Little and Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke, all Idaho Republicans, at the event hosted by the Greater Idaho Falls Chamber of Commerce at the Downtown Event Center.

The three leaders spoke about a variety of topics as America approaches its 250th birthday.

“It’s about what we do preparing for the next 250 years to make sure that the model, our constitutional republic, continues to thrive,” Little said.

As the Idaho Senate killed the state budget Thursday that would have imposed budget cuts on health and human services programs, Little addressed the work of the Legislature.

“We’re going to have a balanced budget guaranteed,” Little said.

According to Little, the slowdown in the economy started happening a year ago.

And tax cuts implemented in the 10th month of a 12-month schedule worsened the budget, Little said.

Then more tax cuts were added.

“Who doesn’t like a tax cut?” Bedke asked.

Little’s proposal of $100 million in tax cuts ended up at $600 million due to the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“The thing we committed to were tax cuts,” Bedke said. “I like them too, but our fiscal house got out of order. We’re trying to fix it.”

Bedke also addressed worries about the water situation in Idaho.

“There’s no snow out here,” Bedke said. “This will be a tough year. We’re well positioned to weather this storm much better than we were 10 years ago or 20 years ago. We have planned before the crisis. We’re as well positioned as we possibly could be.”

Another byproduct of the lack of snow is its impact on wildfires.

“I’m afraid we’re going to have huge wildfires this year with the amount of moisture we have out there,” Simpson said.

Simpson also addressed immigration and ICE.

“It’s accurate to say America is a land of immigrants,” Simpson said. “We’re trying to correct four years of an open border where 20 million people illegally came across the border, and we don’t know who the hell they are. We can argue about whether ICE is the right way to do it. We’re going to debate that forever. Shutting down the government doesn’t stop ICE from doing its job. All you’re doing is shutting down the other parts. That’s just nonsense.”

Simpson also said entitlement programs now consume 72 percent of the national budget.

“We’re not going to change anything for people who are retired,” Simpson said. “We’re not trying to take anybody’s Social Security or Medicare or anything else away. But we better change how it’s done.”