For over 30 years, the National Journal has rated members of Congress on their conservative records, and Idaho Senator Mike Crapo has been ranked third in the U.S. Senate for his voting scorecard in 2011.  The respected publication determines ratings based on select roll-call votes from previous years to create an ideological scale for Congress, including votes regarding economic, foreign and social policy issues.  The publication gave Crapo high marks for his leadership on issues such as deficit reduction, tax reform and health care/News Release from Mike Crapo's office. More here.

• Idaho's Jim Risch 7th most conservative (full list here)
• In House, Mike Simpson is ranked 137th, Raul Labrador 174th (full list here)
• Idaho House delegation 9th most conservative (full list here)

Question: Any of these rankings surprise you?

Sen. Mike Crapo is the only member of the Idaho delegation so far to sign on to an effort for members of Congress to sit with a lawmaker from the opposite party during the president’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night. There’s no word on which Democrat that Crapo will be sitting with and, unlike many members of Congress, he’s kept it low key. Congresspeople from other states have been sending out press releases touting their participation in the bipartisan seating arrangement, a sign that the partisan atmosphere in Congress has become so poisonous that it’s reached the point where it’s considered a big deal where people sit. Alaska Sen. Murkowski is the main Republican championing the bipartisan date idea in the Senate, while Colorado Democratic Sen. Mark Udall is doing so in his party/Sean Cockerham, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Do you like the idea of Democrats and Republicans sitting together tonight to here President Obama's State of the Union speech?

Amidst the noise that passes for discourse these days, the role of Idaho’s “Two Mikes” as national leaders on deficit reduction hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson are abandoning GOP orthodoxy to join hands with Democrats to find the only realistic solution: cutting entitlement spending and reforming taxes in a way that means new revenue. Crapo was a member of the 2010 deficit commission that built a framework for a lasting solution and has tirelessly sustained the effort as a member of the bipartisan “Gang of Six.” Simpson came later to the game, but his partnership with Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C., persuaded 100 House members last month to touch their political parties’ third rails. Wise men — from Secretary of State Ben Ysursa to political scientist Jim Weatherby — could cite no previous example of two members of Idaho’s tiny congressional delegation playing leading roles on the major issue of a generation/Dan Popkey, Statesman. More here.

Thoughts?

Three of Idaho's four GOP members of Congress — Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch and Rep. Raul Labrador — had 100 percent voting records this year, according to Family Research Council Action and CitizenLink. The trio won “True Blue” status for their perfect voting records. There were eight senators and 44 House members with 100 percent scores. Idaho's fourth national lawmaker, Rep. Mike Simpson, scored 80 percent. He differed with Labrador on two votes. … FRCA is the political action committee affiliate of the Family Research Council, a leading opponent of the health care reform law, abortion and gay rights/Dan Popkey, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Reaction?

Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch have chosen to play “partisan games” over supporting a bill that would have created some 6,200 jobs in Idaho, the state Democratic Party said today. The Republicans voted against bill Thursday to funding teaching and first responders' jobs. “It is pretty obvious that the Republicans don’t want to do anything to improve the economy before the 2012 elections,” state party chairman Larry Grant said. “But the only way we are going to help the people of Idaho is if our lawmakers do the job they were elected to and fund education and infrastructure. Idahoans don’t need political games, they need jobs”/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here.\

• I got my Obamacare premium hike/Adam's Blog
• Welcome to a different type of National League, Jimmy Farris/Dennis Mansfield
• Martial unlaw in New York City, and: Meme-o-rama/Fort Boise
• Rural Idaho faces doomsday scenario/Daniel Oppenheimer, ICL
• The race is on: Farris to challenge Labrador/Idaho Conservative Blogger
• At what cost does Idaho kill convicted killer, 24 years later/Kevin Richert
• Slippery Slope: Ultimate act of imperial presidency/The Johnson Report
• 2-fer: The cost of executions, and: The Rhoades execution/Political Game
• Romney's Christianity should be beyond dispute/Carlson Chronicles
• Review: “Cecil Andrus, Idaho's Greatest Governor”/Randy Stapilus
• Idaho Legislature takes comments on 2012 Energy Plan draft/Rocky Barker

Question: Do you agree/disagree with the position that Idaho's U.S. senators took on jobs bill?

Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch are deeply concerned about new guidelines from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) that would drastically reduce the use of potatoes in school lunches.  The Idaho Senators are joining Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Mark Udall (D-Colorado) to introduce an amendment to the Senate Agriculture Appropriations bill to prevent the USDA from requiring schools to cut the amount of potatoes served in school meals.  This proposed rule would cost the federal government $6.8 billion over five years while discriminating against a vegetable with more potassium than a banana/U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, news release. More here.

Question: Are you as persuaded as Sens. Risch & Crapo that potatoes should be kept in school lunches at the current levels?

A Priest Lake couple is headed for the U.S. Supreme Court over a land use dispute with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that should have never occurred, according to Members of the Idaho Congressional Delegation.  Mike and Chantell Sackett were in Washington, D.C., today as part of a forum convened by Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and attended by Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, Idaho Senator Jim Risch and Idaho Representative Raúl Labrador. “This is what happens when an over-zealous federal agency would rather force compliance than give any consideration to private property rights, individual rights, basic decency or common sense,” Crapo told the Sacketts.  Crapo is a member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW), with oversight of the EPA.  He said when Congress wrote the Clean Water Act, it was never intended to authorize actions against citizens such as those that the EPA has engaged in against the Sacketts/U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, news release. More here. And: Pacific Legal Foundation take on the case here.

• Back Story: High court takes on Idaho property case/Becky Kramer, SR

Question: Do you agree/disagree w/Idaho delegation re: this case involving a Priest Lake couple?

Recent immigration policies enacted by the Administration undermine the rule of law, say Idaho Senators Mike Crapo and Jim Risch and a group of Republican senators in a letter to the President urging to remand the proposals. The directives in question call for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to perform case-by-case reviews, focusing on criminals and public menaces, while closing the books on those not considered a threat.  Additionally, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Director John Morton recently directed the agency to use its “prosecutorial discretion” in deciding which of the pending 300,000 federal deportation cases should be prosecuted.  If DHS determines that a particular individual is not a criminal threat, they could be granted conditional permanent residency. In a letter sent to the President yesterday, the senators ask that DHS rescind the proposals dealing with increased use of prosecutorial discretion and abide by existing immigration laws/Mike Crapo news release. More here. (AP file photo: An supporter of tough immigration laws protests in Arizona)

Question: Who do you trust more to deal with immigration policy — congressional Republicans or the White House and congressional Democrats?

Go big. That's the message from a bipartisan group of 34 senators, including Idaho Republican Mike Crapo. The senators are urging a House-Senate “supercommittee” to go beyond its assignment to find $1.5 trillion in deficit reductions. Instead, say the senators, the supercommittee should seek a bipartisan agreement to cut at least $4 trillion over a decade. It's no surprise to see Crapo on the list (although his colleague, Idaho Republican Jim Risch was not a co-signer). Crapo was a member of President Barack Obama's deficit task force, which last year identified a $4 trillion plan. Crapo also was a member of the Gang of Six, a bipartisan group of senators that proposed $3.7 trillion to $4.7 trillion in cuts/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Do you agree with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo that Congress needs to “go big” with deficit reduction of at least $4 trillion over the next decade?

President Barack Obama's engagement in job creation is “welcome,” Sen. Mike Crapo said this week, and it's time for Congress and the White House to get past its “tired, back-and-forth political battles” and produce results. But in his weekly guest opinion to Idaho newspapers, the Republican senior senator staked out his side on what could be Capitol Hill's next “back-and-forth political battle.” He rejected what has emerged as the centerpiece of the $450 billion Obama jobs plan: financing job programs by increasing taxes on upper-income groups. “The misguided talk of some in Washington in favor of tax hikes at a time when the economy cannot stand it is incomprehensible,” Crapo wrote/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here. (AP file photo)

Question: Should taxes be raised on upper-income groups to finance job programs?

Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo and five other senators unveiled their $4 trillion bipartisan deficit-reduction plan Tuesday to praise, if not immediate support, from both President Barack Obama and a number of senators from both parties. The so-called Gang of Six proposes to immediately cut $500 billion out of the federal budget, impose spending caps on federal agencies and eliminate many tax breaks in exchange for reduced income tax rates and dropping the $1.7 trillion alternative minimum tax — along the same lines of the 1986 tax reform measure signed into law by President Ronald Reagan. The deal calls for cuts to everything from Social Security and Medicare spending to the Pentagon, and eliminates $1 trillion in tax breaks over the next 10 years/Rocky Barker, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Are you impressed that Idaho's U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo is one of the Gang of 6 that's trying to lead Congress & President Obama out of debt ceiling wilderness?

President Obama's 2011-12 budget proposal continues down an “unsustainable path” of spending too much, taxing too much and borrowing too much, Idaho senior Sen. Mike Crapo said this morning. “This budget simply moves the money around, with no measurable reduction in the overall size of government,” said Crapo, R-Idaho, a member of the president's bipartisan commission on the debt and the deficit. “This is not only out of step with the priorities of the American people, but it fails to recognize the realities that the president’s own colleagues in Congress have begun to recognize.” According to the Associated Press, Obama's $3.73 trillion budget calls for a $1.65 trillion deficit this year and another $1.1 trillion deficit next year/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Do you agree/disagree with U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo that the deficits President Obama proposes in the next two years are 'unsustainable'?

Idaho's senior lawmaker is the subject of a story in Friday's Wall Street Journal, which says Crapo is working with three other senators who joined him in voting for the deficit commission's recommendations in December. “We are beyond the point of gridlock,” Crapo told the Journal. “We can't simply allow parochial interests or other narrow interests to prevent action. We need to start taking major steps to address our debt problems.” The Journal's Corey Boles writes that Crapo has been drawn “into the limelight from what had previously been a low-key congressional career”/Dan Popkey, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: We haven't discussed U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo much at Huckleberries Online. What's your impression of him and his work for Idaho?

Congress delayed an increase in the estate tax — but Congress should use this two-year reprieve to repeal the tax entirely. In a guest opinion sent to Idaho newspapers today, Sen. Mike Crapo calls for a repeal of the so-called “death tax.” “High federal taxes should not prevent a family farmer, rancher or other business owner from passing the business they developed onto their children and grandchildren,” writes Crapo, R-Idaho. “Penalizing productive heritage undercuts efforts to maintain small businesses and local jobs. We must utilize the next two years to eliminate the Death Tax and advance some tax certainty and fairness for the betterment of families, communities and the U.S. economy”/Kevin Richert, Idaho Statesman. More here.

Question: Should the death tax be eliminated altogether?

Jeers … to Idaho Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch. You hear a lot of talk from these two Republicans about fighting budget deficits. That is, until it means standing up to Idaho’s richest 1.3 percent taxpayers. Saturday they joined with 35 of their Republican colleagues to preserve Bush-era tax cuts for individuals earning more than $200,000 or couples making at least $250,000 a year.  Washington Democratic Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell voted to end the high-end tax breaks. The Senate vote followed the Dec. 2 House action, where U.S. Reps. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Walt Minnick, D-Idaho, also supported continuing payoffs for the rich. Washington Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers didn’t vote/Marty Trillhaase, Lewiston Tribune. Full Cheers & Jeers column here.

Question: Should tax cuts continue for everyone, including the richest 1.3% in the country?

Item: Risch, Crapo co-requesting $818 million in 213 earmarks/Jay Patrick, Idaho Reporter

More Info: Sens. Jim Risch and Mike Crapo say they’re all for ending earmarks, but while the maligned funding method remains in place the two are requesting away. For 2011, the senators are co-requesting 213 earmarks worth $818 million. Brad Houglun, a Risch senior policy advisor, said the senator would rather do away with earmarks, but “at the same time he’s reconciled to the fact states are getting money,” and will continue putting in for Idaho’s share.

Question: Doesn’t it make sense for Risch & Crapo to try to get as much money as possible for Idaho via earmarks when everyone else is doing it for their states?