COEUR d'ALENE - According to U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, Congress has done something it hasn't done for a while.

With Republicans in control of both houses this year following gains in the Senate in November, the two chambers have adopted budgets.

They are now going into conference on the versions.

"I have a high level of confidence that we will conference those two budgets and come out with a budget," Crapo predicted Monday. "Which will be the first time in five, six or seven years."

He drew a smattering of applause for that one.

Crapo was the Coeur d'Alene Chamber of Commerce's guest at a congressional forum at the Best Western Plus Coeur d'Alene Inn, attended by 110 businessmen and women. He spoke and answered questions for an hour.

The good news is neither chamber's version of the budget raises taxes, he said. There are spending controls, however.

"But only that part of the spending that we control in the budget, because we don't control entitlement spending," he said.

Government entitlements at the federal level include Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and programs for veterans. Entitlements make up two-thirds of the federal budget, when interest on the national debt is added, he said.

"We need to get at entitlement reform and we need to get at tax reform," Crapo said.

Reducing spending on entitlements won't be even close to easy.

In fact this month, the House, in rare bipartisan fashion, passed a bill that permanently blocks fee cuts to doctors who treat Medicare patients. The bill adds $141 billion to the federal deficit in the first decade, and the cost would increase faster after that.

So the Senate will have to consider spending more money on Medicare, or allowing doctors treating Medicare patients to get hit with a 21 percent fee cut starting next month.

Some members of the Senate have already been complaining about adding more debt and not doing something to reduce the cost of Medicare.

Congress has approved short-term bills 17 times to block the cuts in fees.

"The problem with doing it every year is it devastates the medical community, that's why half of them don't" treat Medicare patients, Crapo said.

So while he has been an advocate of permanently fixing the Medicare problem that would cut fees to doctors, he also wants to prevent adding to the debt.

"I'm trying to decide myself how to deal with this," Crapo said. "I just finished talking to you about the fact that we have a debt crisis in this country."

He said approving the House's bill could open the door to reforming Medicare, which could generate savings in the long run.

"It could far outweigh what appear to be the immediate costs of this bill," Crapo said.

The bill passed the House 392-37 with a lot of support from both Republicans and Democrats, so it's likely to be approved by the Senate.

Crapo said he still supports major tax reforms. Crapo worked with former Republican Sen. Alan Simpson, of Wyoming, and former Bill Clinton aide Erskine Bowles on a debt reduction plan that also proposed tax reform to raise revenue. The Bowles-Simpson presidential commission was formed in 2010 by Barack Obama.

Crapo argued that the country's tax code - which is complex, unfair, and expensive to comply with - is one of the nation's most significant hurdles to economic prosperity.

"Economists of all kinds said that if you'll fix this tax code, you'll see an economic resurgence in this country that will by far generate the extra revenue you need to deal with your national debt crisis," he said.