The Republican party needs to return to its populist roots, according to Sen. Mike Lee.
The Utah Republican joined MSNBC on Tuesday morning to discuss what he thinks Congress does wrong, how the Republican Party should act heading into 2016 and his new book, Our Lost Constitution.
The increasing power of presidents is a threat, regardless of political party — and something Congress needs to fight harder against, he said.
“Relegating more and more authority to the White House, that belongs to the people. … This is a problem that needs to be responded to by Congress each time this happens,” he said, citing President Obama’s November 2014 immigration executive action.
“It’s important for Congress to push back … [it] has an obligation to withhold funding when Congress believes that the president has overreached,” he said, calling it Congress’ “most effective tool.”
Turning to 2016 — Lee’s name has been floated as a potential candidate, but he has said he is focused on staying in the Senate — he said the GOP needs to focus its message “on upward mobility … helping the poor get out of poverty, on helping the middle class get ahead.”
The 2016 Republican presidential candidate needs to focus “on the needs of the common man. We’ve got to return to our populist roots in the Republican Party,” he suggested.
And finally, what does his new book Our Lost Constitution focus on?
“Our society and our culture within Washington, D.C. in particular, has been willing to hand over the Constitution as something that belongs to the courts, and to the Supreme Courts in particular,” Lee argued, citing President George W. Bush signing of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act even though he acknowledged there were constitutional problems with the law.
Lee, who many consider a rising conservative star, was elected to the Senate in 2010.
