COEUR d'ALENE - Idaho Senator Mike Crapo, an 11-year veteran of the U.S. Senate, has seen both sides of the coin.

He was there when Republicans held power, during the George W. Bush years. He was there when the towers were attacked, when the wars began, when the economy showed its first troubling signs.

And he's there now, at the midpoint of Barack Obama's first term, a young president who has spent a great deal of money, signed groundbreaking health care legislation into law and has tried - however effectively - to face down the gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression.

From his seat on Capitol Hill, Mike Crapo has watched this country, its presidents and its Congress, change. And he doesn't like where things are going.

"We're looking at next Tuesday (election day), and I'm just moving across the state, and the focus for me is where I've started - Washington's broken," said Crapo, 59, at a Monday meeting with the Press editorial board. "Congress' answer to running out of money is 'We need to tax more.'"

Crapo shared a surprising statistic: The federal government's budget has grown 21.4 percent over the past two years. It has taken over large corporations like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, he said, meddled with the auto industry, implemented sweeping, federally-controlled health care reform and nationalized the student loan program.

"At a family or individual level: You have your mortgage, your car, your health care - more and more and more, it's the federal government," Crapo said.

In regard to the economy, he said, there is money out there for small businesses, but federal policies are preventing owners from taking advantage. Look at banks, he said: Many have good liquidity, good assets to loan, but average business owners don't want to risk incurring debt - they're too nervous about an unstable tax structure, credit access and the financial effects of state-sponsored health care.

He added that he had recently spoken with many small business owners.

"The (regulations), the taxes that are coming, is causing them to sit back," Crapo said. "To a person, they said they want to engage, but they can't justify it in this environment. And that is what is standing in the way of jobs in this country: It's the policies of this administration."

Fifty percent of all small business income, he said, resides in the top two tax brackets. That 50 percent represents 750,000 businesses, and over 25 million jobs.

"The problem is, the government doesn't create jobs," Crapo said. "If we don't deal with it, taxes will go up."

On the local front, Crapo is against the Environmental Protection Agency's decision to support Washington's cleanup plan for the Spokane River and, in effect, the Coeur d'Alene Basin. The problem, he said, is the EPA's approval of Washington discharge standards, which could hurt North Idaho.

"I strongly disagree with the EPA's approval of that action," Crapo said.

The senator will face Democrat challenger Tom Sullivan in the Nov. 2 midterm election. Crapo said the political climate during this election season has been especially volatile, largely because of a growing dissatisfaction with the government's policies.

"I think (people) see the America they know changing, and they don't like it," he said, predicting a large voter turnout next Tuesday. "I believe that the strong majority around the country wants to see a new direction."

Many political analysts are predicting a Republican takeover of the House of Representatives, along with additional GOP seats in the Senate. Were Republicans to gain control of Congress, Crapo said, his party would try to repeal the health care bill, if possible.

However, conservatives would be open to some facets of the bill, he said - but only the ones that make sense.

The focal point of the GOP agenda, though, would be a decrease in federal spending.

"Assuming that Republicans gain seats in the Senate," Crapo said, "and control the House, I think you can be pretty much assured that we will stop digging the hole deeper, that the spending free-for-all in Washington will become under control."