"We cannot fix our current situation by spending cuts alone,” freshman 1st District Congressman Raul Labrador told the Boise City Club today. Instead, he said, the nation must “grow our way out of this economic mess.”

Labrador is addressing the City Club today, nine months into his first term in Congress. He promised the crowd of several hundred “an open and honest conversation on an issue facing not only the Treasure Valley and Idaho, but in fact all Americans, and that issue is the economy.” He said, “I think for too long politicians have been afraid to have an honest conversation” about the nation's finances, “just plainly be honest about the problems that are facing our nation.”

Labrador said, “The debt is at $14.5 trillion and climbing.” He said, “Democrats would love to blame all of our current problems on the so-called Bush tax cuts, and Republicans would love to believe that all of our problems magically appeared one day when President Obama took office. The truth is obviously … somewhere in the middle.” He said, “Clearly policies of both parties have been responsible for our current situation.”

The Eagle Republican said he recently wrote to President Obama suggesting that he work with Republicans on three areas: “regulatory reform, spending cuts and reforming the tax code.”

Labrador acknowledged that he's “stridently anti-tax,” and said, “I know that not everyone in this audience is as conservative as I am, I'm just taking a guess.” But he said people of all political persuasions should be concerned about regulatory overreach and its effect on the economy. He also said he would "like to enact a massive overhaul of the tax code, replacing it with a system that is flatter and fairer."

The congressman said, “When people scream about Republicans unwilling to raise taxes on the rich, they are partly right. We don't want to raise taxes on anyone. … It is fundamentally unfair ... (that) companies like GE are making huge profits and are paying no taxes. … We just can't cut our way out of this mess, no nation has ever cut its way to prosperity, and we certainly can't tax our way to prosperity either. We must cut spending and reform our tax code while eliminating burdensome regulations .. to allow our economy to grow."