Idaho Congressman Russ Fulcher joined us today from his office in Washington, DC, to discuss various issues of importance to Idahoans. Congress is back in session, including the two committees that Congressman Fulcher serves, Energy and Commerce and Natural Resources. 

He began explaining the current divide between people of faith and others who believe in the power of government controlling their lives. The congressman explained how Americans need to remember their Chrisitan faith and the country's Christian roots.

"It was it was founded on Christian principles. There is a blatant connection between, say, the US constitution and biblical tenants. You just can't deny have is because of that inspiration. And slowly but surely, we have strayed from that, not just America, but other countries as well and the farther you stray away from those guidelines, then the least prosperous you tend to be and the more conflict you tend to have."

The Biden Administration has continued to mandate regulations that eliminate American consumer choices from grills, cars, to washing machines. The congressman told us that his committee is looking into the mandates and fighting for the right to own whatever consumer product that you wish.

"That's a lot of the agenda both for natural resources and the other committee of the executive order work that this administration has done. The executive order works that this administration has done, not just gas-powered vehicles, but the sources of energy focusing heavily or in my opinion, almost solely on wind and solar, which is extremely expensive."

Clean Energy Isn't Clean

Congressman Fulcher continued by explaining how something that may be considered 'clean energy' is damaging to the environment.

"It's extremely difficult for the environment when you consider the entire lifecycle of energy production, where the windmills and solar cells come from, and how much earth has to be turned to create all that metal and the silicon necessary to do that. And so, we spend much time trying to reverse what this President and his administration have done."

Joe Biden Wants Your Washing Machine

The congressman explained that the President's team wants to determine how much water you use in your washing machines.

"This last within the last two weeks we were running legislation to say stop regulating how much water can go into your washing machine, stop regulating how hot you can turn up your clothes dryer, because this is where they've gone."

Republicans Need to Become Big Tent Party Again

The struggle for control of the House continues to dominate the headlines. Speaker Johnson has been under pressure by Congresswoman Margerie Taylor Green. Could he be replaced like former speaker Kevin McCarthy? Could the Republicans lose the House to the Democrats.

He recalled the challenge of electing a speaker after the last one was challenged.

"We rolled through multiple people who were willing to put their name in the hat and dutifully did equivalent of a firing squad on each one of them and shot them down one at a time because we couldn't agree on who the speaker should be. And that was a long, very painful experience."

"And if this were to happen again, I think everybody realizes that that's right where we would be back in the middle of all this again. So I don't think there's going to be the support to do that with the current speaker, but clearly there is a difference of opinion on how things should go. I also disagreed with how the speaker handled this last scenario."

Congressman Fulcher took us behind the congressional curtain of Congress.

"We go behind closed doors on a routine basis multiple times a week and try to grind through some of the disagreements of what we have. You take you take me, for example, versus one of my Republican colleagues from New York State. We don't look at the world the same way and it's not just me of course."

"We take typically a conservative from a more rural state or, generally speaking, more in the west or Midwest versus, you know, a highly urbanized district or state where you've got republicans and democrats as well. But the vantage point is just different, and the issues are different and how those issues are solved in terms of practice are different to those people. It was Ronald Reagan that called the big tent."

Upcoming Idaho Republican Primary

Congressman Fulcher has been involved in Idaho politics for several decades. He came very close to beating Republican Governor Butch Otter in a very close primary fight in 2014. He says that there's a right way to win an election in Idaho.

"Go after the issue, don't go after the person. Raise the target, point out what you really what you what you really stand for, but point out the bigger picture is here's why my positions are better than this other individual who's in my same party. That's a that's a very legitimate process, and I think it's that's where we missed the mark because we go after the individual directly and that typically leaves carnage and hurts the overall effort."