NEWS

Sen. Ben Sasse: Conservatives Don’t Need a ‘Republican Barack Obama’

Kelsey Bolar •   February 3, 2016

Sen. Ben Sasse issued some tough love today at the Conservative Policy Summit in Washington, D.C.: Electing a Republican president, he said, won’t solve America’s problems.

“The idea that a ‘strong man’ can save us isn’t true,” Sasse, R-Neb., said. “What America needs is a constitutional recovery, not a Republican Barack Obama.”

If Sasse disappointed some members of the Republican Party, he didn’t shy from the task at hand at the summit hosted by Heritage Action for America, the lobbying arm of The Heritage Foundation.

Joined in the morning session by House Speaker Paul Ryan, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, and Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C.,  Sasse called for a return to limited government, where government’s role isn’t so much “creating jobs” but creating a “nurturing environment” where jobs can be created.

Sasse mapped out the economic issues that conservatives plan to take on in the 2016 legislative year, which includes addressing why, according to The Heritage Foundation’s 2016 Index for Economic Freedom, “America’s economic freedom has been on a declining path over the past decade.”

“We should do some real hard soul-searching [about] why that is,” Sasse said.

He pointed to the growing costs of occupational licensing requirements, which he said burden the most vulnerable members of society.

“In D.C., if you want to trim someone’s hair or beard, licenses and permitting takes 2,000 hours. Guess who that hurts? That hurts the poor citizens in Washington, D.C.,” Sasse said, adding:

The people who can afford to hire their lobbyist, they’ll be fine. But the poor—the ones who need economic freedom the most—they’ll suffer.

Addressing this issue is just one of many regulatory reforms needed to “fix what is broken,” Sasse said.

The Nebraska Republican blamed many of the country’s economic challenges on bureaucracies like the Environmental Protection Agency, whose rules and regulations are unaccountable to voters through Congress.

“The rule of experts is insulated from democracy,” Sasse said, spurring applause from the conservative audience. “We believe in … the rule of law.”

To fix such problems, Sasse called on conservatives to look beyond Washington, a common theme throughout Heritage Action’s Conservative Policy Summit.

“Government is about securing freedom from lots of bad stuff in the world;  government will never bring you freedom to [do anything],” he said. “That is your neighbor, that is your spouse.”

Oneil The Woketopus book cover

Read the first chapter of The Woketopus right now for FREE

Today, even with President Trump’s victory, leftist elites have their tentacles in every aspect of our government.

The Daily Signal’s own Tyler O’Neil exposes this leftist cabal in his new book, The Woketopus: The Dark Money Cabal Manipulating the Federal Government.

In this book, O’Neil reveals how the Left’s NGO apparatus pursues its woke agenda, maneuvering like an octopus by circumventing Congress and entrenching its interests in the federal government.
You can read the first chapter of this new book for FREE in this eBook, The Woketopus: Chapter One using the secure link below.

Kelsey Bolar | Contributor
Kelsey was a senior contributor covering education reform and social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage. Send an email to Kelsey.

Follow on X kelseybolar