U.S. Reps. Mike Simpson and Walt Minnick say health care reform and the economy have obscured a bigger long-term problem: how to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent.

Simpson, a Republican, and Minnick, a Democrat, told more than 400 people at the Boise City Club on Monday that the solution for both programs is empowering a bipartisan panel to craft a plan and put it to Congress for an up-or-down vote, without amendment.

"It's going to cost higher taxes, reduced coverage and more stringent eligibility requirements," Minnick said.

A bipartisan deal is key, Minnick said, because "there's no way one party can take the political shellacking involved with supporting these proposals unless the other party has bought into it."

"You're right," Simpson replied. "That's the only way to get it done."

Other highlights from the best-attended forum in the City Club's 14-year history:

- Minnick supports public financing of campaigns, saying it would free officials to do a better job. Minnick, who was in Moscow last week, said, "I canceled a couple of appointments at the University of Idaho with important people on important issues because I hadn't done enough fund-raising for this quarter."

Instead, he said, he got on the phone seeking contributions.

Simpson agreed the campaign-financing system is flawed, but said he opposes public financing because taxpayers don't want to pay for campaigns and there are serious difficulties in administering such a law.

- The pair differed on earmarks, with Minnick arguing projects should compete openly for federal money and Simpson saying earmarks are vital to Congress's control of the purse.

"Right now you know everything that I request," Simpson said. "The idea that everything ought to be competitive and that no politics come into play if you give the money to the administration is just silly."

- Both called for financial reform, with Simpson urging antitrust legislation reminiscent of President Theodore Roosevelt's trust-busting in the early 20th century. "I'm really tired of 'Too big to fail,'" he said to applause led by Minnick. "When they get so large that the federal government has to say to the taxpayers, 'We gotta bail 'em out or our whole economy's going down the tubes,' we've got a problem."

Dan Popkey: 377-6438