Idaho Senator continues statewide tour with visit to valley
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DRIGGS — US Senator Mike Crapo swung through Teton Valley on the home stretch of his tour of 200 cities and towns throughout the state.
After his stop in Tetonia, and before meeting citizens in Victor, Crapo said his discussion in Driggs marked his 185th community.
He gave a short presentation in each community before taking questions. The questions varied from stop to stop, however Crapo’s message was consistent. The nation has a debt crisis and American’s freedoms are threatened by an “explosion” of federal regulation.
Crapo used the first few minutes of his speech, using calculations from the Congressional Budget Office on the national debt and the deficit, to answer the question: does America have a debt crisis?
“I believe we do, I believe it is one of the most significant crises we face and I believe it threatens the American dream,” he said. “That’s how serious I believe it is.”
At the Driggs visit, Vicki Motloch of Driggs asked, “Which programs would you cut? Which taxes would you raise?”
In response, Crapo brought up his participation on the Bowles-Simpson Commission, formally called The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, which was created by President Obama in 2010 and recommended several measures to cut the nation’s debt.
One of which was simplifying the tax code and removing most, but not all, deductions, thus allowing the underlying rates to be lower. It also proscribed wide-ranging spending cuts.
“You asked, what I would put on the table,” Crapo said, “the answer is everything.”
Local farmer and county commissioner candidate Mark Ricks** asked the senator if the immigration system could be reformed in a way that allows the US to get the workers it needs in order to harvest crops, mow lawns and do other jobs.
Ricks also expressed some frustration that a fix to the issue of immigration still hasn’t been found.
“The issue should have been resolved by Congress years ago,” Ricks said.
Senator Crapo responded that the sticking point in Congress has been the issue of “amnesty,” and whether immigrants who are currently here illegally should have a path to citizenship outside of the regular immigration process. Crapo said he favored a guest worker program, which would give these workers legal status, but not full citizenship.
Under all of the issues discussed, which ranged from public lands to the Secure Rural Schools program, the issue of who the government really listens to, and Congress’s seeming inability to tackle national problems, came up.
Crapo said there are indeed challenges, but that he believes the nation can solve them.
“It certainly is dysfunctional, but Congress does react to grassroots pressure, to votes, to elections, to public input,” he said. “What we need is for a much broader participation by the public in speaking out and voting and letting members of Congress know how they feel on individual issues.”
This article was originally published in the Teton Valley News. It is used here with permission.