COEUR d'ALENE - Congressman Raul Labrador is no fan of leaders. At least not those in Congress.

One week ago, Congress approved legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security through September. Labrador voted against it, and was criticized by leaders and some members of the Republican Party for being "irresponsible" and putting the nation's security at risk.

"It was leadership and the appropriators who got us into this mess," Labrador said Tuesday in an interview with The Press editorial board. "They're the ones who said that we should use the DHS bill as the fight."

Republican leaders wanted to use money for Homeland Security to undo President Barack Obama's executive action that extended deportation stays and work permits for millions of illegal immigrants.

When he voted "no" on funding Homeland Security, he said, he was only following leadership's plan. Then he watched them abandon their own plan.

The House went on to approve the funding, with 75 Republicans voting in favor. Idaho Congressman Mike Simpson and Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, of eastern Washington, were among them.

"Now it's leadership and the appropriators who are attacking (the conservative wing of the House) for wanting to follow the plan that (leaders) enacted in December," Labrador said. "That's insanity. It just doesn't make any sense."

Not only did leaders forget the plan, they forgot that they were warned the plan was a bad one by House conservatives, he said. Labrador is a founding member of the House Freedom Caucus, consisting of the chamber's most conservative members.

"We, as conservatives, said, 'This is a ridiculous fight you're getting us into,'" he said.

Separately, Labrador said annual deficits could start increasing after being reduced the past few years.

Congress must do something to reduce entitlement spending or reform the welfare system, otherwise deficits again will top $1 trillion annually.

The annual deficit is currently $450 billion, he said. That's a reduction from $1.4 trillion annually four years ago when Labrador started in Congress.

"I'm pretty proud of that," he said. "It's because of my efforts and people like myself who went back there to reduce the cost of government."

Still, because of the annual deficits, the national debt continues to grow.

Recently, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told Congress the nation will hit the debt limit on March 16, and asked that the limit be raised as soon as possible. Lew has some measures he can take to keep the country from default for a few more months.

Labrador doesn't know whether there will be another showdown over raising the ceiling, or whether congressional Republicans will be able to use the fight to extract more spending cuts.

"It seems like our leadership in Washington is unwilling to fight for anything," he said. "They're too worried about what Washington, D.C.,-centric media and New York City-centric media says about what's happening in Washington, D.C."

The Congressional leadership should be working on a strategy to gain some concessions on a future debt ceiling increase.

"We all know the debt ceiling has to be raised," he said.

In the recent past, some major reductions in spending have been a result of fights related to the debt ceiling. As an example, he pointed to the Budget Control Act, which cut and capped spending.

"But right now our leadership seems to be reticent to really use any of the tools that we have," he said.