U.S. Rep. Raul Labrador praised his former colleagues in the Idaho Legislature for not avoiding difficult decisions and issues during speeches to the Senate and House on Wednesday.

"You don't have the luxury of dodging the tough issues. You cannot punt on the hard choices and hope someone else cleans up the mess later on. You do it every day. You have to do it," Labrador said, contrasting state lawmakers with the federal government. "You've been making hard decisions for more than two years. You have cut spending and not raised taxes and I thank you for that."

Labrador, an Eagle Republican, won his Idaho District 1 seat during November's elections and is part of a large freshmen Republican class. He said he is applying lessons learned during his four years in the Idaho Legislature to his new job in Washington, D.C.

"I want us to make the tough decisions in D.C. that you make here on a daily basis," he said.

He focused his comments on the national debt, saying that he ran for Congress because of the way the federal government "can borrow and borrow and run up the debt."

Read the complete story at idahostatesman.com