JEERS ... to Congressman Russ Fulcher, R-Idaho.

Wednesday, for the second time in his congressional career, he chose to play politics with the economy, your jobs, your retirement investments, your Social Security checks, your Medicare and Medicaid coverage, your veterans benefits, your food stamps, your Payment in Lieu of Taxes and your Secure Rural Schools funding.

He voted against a compromise debt ceiling bill, putting him among a decided minority of 71 House Republicans who forced House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to rely on 165 House Democrats to pass the package worked out with President Joe Biden. Fulcher is continuing a tradition of 1st Congressional District extremism set by his predecessors Bill Sali and Raul Labrador.

“When I came to Washington, I condemned Congress’ habit of legislating by crisis — where serious work is delayed, leading to 11th-hour bills packed with unrelated policies — and vowed to fight that culture,” he said.

Talk about hypocrisy.

Where was that concern about spending when Fulcher voted for the Paycheck Protection Program in April 2020 or for the Consolidated Appropriations Act in the waning days of the Trump administration?

As a backbencher, Fulcher is free to play this game, allowing others to cast the difficult votes while he returns home to standing ovations from his allies such as the Idaho Freedom Foundation and the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.

CHEERS ... to Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and Congressman Mike Simpson, R-Idaho.

Wednesday, they voted for the McCarthy-Biden package, accepting the reality that undermining the full faith and credit of the United States was too high a price to pay to score some partisan points.

This isn’t out of character.

McMorris Rodgers voted twice to raise the debt ceiling while Donald Trump was in office.

Simpson voted three times to do so under Trump.

What that demonstrates is how people who have exercised responsibility — McMorris Rodgers once served in leadership while Simpson is a veteran appropriator — understand the concept of compromise. They knew how to say yes to White House concessions on Internal Revenue Service expansion, COVID-19 spending and caps on non-defense discretionary budgets — elements that were unacceptable to 46 Democrats who voted no.

“Raising the debt limit does not create new spending,” Simpson said. “Rather, it allows the federal government to pay back loans that were taken out in the past and ensures the government meets its obligations to bondholders, taxpayers, Social Security recipients, and the veterans and service men and women who have served our country faithfully.”

That’s not going to win Simpson accolades from the increasingly far-right fringe of the Idaho GOP rank and file. He’s already been challenged twice in Idaho’s rigged Republican primary election.

But as long as McMorris Rodgers and Simpson — along with 312 other Republicans and Democrats — are willing to take the heat, you can sleep more soundly at night.

JEERS ... to Rep. Mike Kingsley, R-Lewiston, and Sens. Dan “Don’t piss him off” Foreman, R-Moscow, and Cindy Carlson, R-Riggins.

Their Idaho Freedom Caucus advanced economic Armageddon by urging Fulcher and Simpson to vote against a debt ceiling package they call a “nothing burger of a deal.”

Who elected them to Congress? This group has enough trouble keeping up with the Idaho Legislature.

Maybe they cynically believe holding their own constituents hostage is worth drawing the attention and support of a narrow radical political base.

Even worse, they could be sincerely out of their depth. If you asked them to write an essay about the debt ceiling, would they be able to get past the first sentence?

JEERS ... to Lewiston Mayor Dan Johnson and the City Council.

Lewis-Clark State College President Cynthia Pemberton spent a lot of time last week justifying a waiver from the city’s lawn watering ban not only for Harris Field but her own residence as well.

There’s no small amount of entitlement here. But Pemberton only asked. She didn’t make the final decision.

Likewise, you can’t blame Lewiston School District, the owners of the Nez Perce Plaza shopping area or even 10 residents with special circumstances for seeking permission to irrigate their lawns.

The city had the authority to say yes — even as ordinary residents are being told that operating their automatic sprinklers will threaten a water delivery system that’s been weakened by the failure of the city’s High Reservoir in January.

Making the policy seem incoherent was this statement public works Director Dustin Johnson gave last week to the Lewiston Tribune’s Eric Barker: “I don’t have answers to make this fair and equitable for everyone.”

Nor should he.

Dustin Johnson is an appointed administrator whose chief responsibility is to protect the community’s infrastructure.

Why has the buck been passed to him?

Only the elected officials answer to the public. Only they can explain the policy and encourage a spirit of shared sacrifice — if they can.

CHEERS ... to Idaho Business for Education President and CEO Rod Gramer.

He’s blowing the whistle on the outside special interests responsible for a billboard campaign aimed at Rep. Lori McCann, R-Lewiston, as well as House Education Committee Chairperson Julie Yamamoto, R-Caldwell.

Both were instrumental in blocking attempts to raid Idaho’s still inadequate public school resources to subsidize the private education of the state’s economic elites.

“Both billboards send a clear message that would-be candidates would have support if they decided to run against Yamamoto and McCann,” Gramer wrote in a column this week.

As Gramer documented, the group responsible for the billboard is the Citizens Alliance of Idaho, which last year spent $354,000 toward electing lawmakers who were willing to pass voucher legislation. Dig a little deeper as Gramer did and you’ll learn that Citizens Alliance of Idaho drew much of its cash from the Ohio-based Citizens Alliance Super PAC as well as Idaho Freedom Foundation board members Doyle Beck and Bryan Smith of Idaho Falls.

“Now they want to defeat good people like Yamamoto and McCann with the same trickery,” Gramer wrote. “If they succeed, the real losers will be the public school students in Idaho.” — M.T.