The amount of energy needed to refute a falsehood is an order of magnitude bigger than to produce it, says Brandolini’s law.
So if politician spouts horse hockey, it will take 10 times the effort to correct the distortions than it took to make them.
Another political campaigning technique is the “Gish Gallop,” in which a politician makes an interminable list of statements without regard to whether those arguments are road apples.
Combine Brandolini’s law (that it takes a lot of effort to refute meadow muffins) with the Gish Gallop, yielding a high volume of inaccurate or highly refutable statements all coupled together, and you get gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Bextel’s First 100-day plan.
The plan is full of inaccuracies, impracticalities and just general bovine guano. Her first 100 days contain so many prairie pancakes, it would be impossible, in a 750-word column to address them all.
But, just to illustrate, let’s examine just one of the planks in her plan.
Item eight: “Lower Transportation Costs.”
Bextel promises to “request a review of Wyoming's fuel tax and how its revenue is being spent. Her administration will identify waste and propose a responsible fuel-tax reduction that lowers costs for families, ranchers, and small businesses while maintaining essential roads and bridges.”
Despite the obvious and curated words of political pandering, what is Bextel actually trying to say here?
It looks like she is saying, when she is governor, drivers will have essential roads and bridges, but drivers will not have to pay for them. Everything for everyone.
But, if the users of the roads, the people who pay the fuel tax do not have to pay, who pays?
Road maintenance costs money. Lots of money. The money has to come from somewhere.
If the money does not come from the users of the roads, someone has to pay. Isn’t there a term for taking money from one group of people and giving it to someone else?
Redistribution of wealth… perhaps?
The 100-day plan also shows a complete ignorance of Wyoming Department of Transportation funding.
According to Darin Westby, Director, the Wyoming Department of Transportation faces a $500 million-dollar annual shortfall. Only three of the 25 most needed transportation projects in the state have construction funding.
Over the last 25 years, the transportation department’s funding has not kept up with inflation.
According to WYDOT, in 2025, surface treatments (fog seal, chip seal, small overlay) cost $210 thousand per mile for 2-lane roads, and $813 thousand for 4-lane roads. Resurfacing a highway, (2"+ mill and overlay) costs $840 thousand per mile for 2-lane roads and $2 million dollars per mile for 4-lane roads.
Total reconstruction, which means removal of all surfacing, subgrade repair and new surfacing costs $1.76 million dollars per mile for two-lane roads, $2.625 million for four-lane roads and $4.33 million dollars for four-lane concrete roads.
WYDOT estimates paved surfaces require resurfacing every seven to 10 years, and potential replacement every 20 years. According to a 2026 report, there were 218 bridges and 308 miles of highways in poor condition and in need of repair. WYDOT anticipates pavements in poor condition will increase by 21 percent from 2017 to 2039.
Two-thirds of Wyoming's highway funding comes from the federal government.
Bextel promises to divorce Wyoming from the federal government in her plank called “Defend Wyoming’s Sovereignty.”
To divorce from federal highway control, Wyoming has to give up those federal highway dollars.
Unless Bextel can find some other funding sources, the state will not be able to provide fuel tax reductions for families, ranchers and small businesses. Meadow muffins to them.
Stack this on the rest of her tax-cut promises and Wyoming has two choices: quit fixing roads or invent a state income tax.
No matter how much we like to pretend, the state has bills to pay. For generations, now, responsible legislators have scrutinized Wyoming’s budget, pinching pennies and saving as much of the taxpayers’ dollars as possible.
Highway funding is just one small example of wishful thinking in the Gish Gallop of a 100-day plan Bextel published. She also proposes adding new programs while promising to shrink government. She picks legacy industries to the exclusion of new development and promises to issue executive orders that are exclusively the jurisdiction of the Superintendent of Public Instruction.
So, as a political document written by a Jackson activist hacking out a run for office, it is a nice work of fiction.
As a plan by someone who is serious about running for the Chief Executive Officer of the state, it is a far cry from reality.
Wyoming voters deserve more than pasture pastries and promises of everything for everyone, free of charge.
Tom Lubnau served in the Wyoming Legislature from 2004 to 2015 and is a former Speaker of the House. He can be reached at: YourInputAppreciated@gmail.com
