Senator Jim DeMint joined Glenn on radio this morning to discuss his decision to resign from the Senate and accept the position as the President of the Heritage Foundation. Senator DeMint, a long time favorite among true conservatives in the Republican part, explains to Glenn that he took the position to expand the influence his Constitutional principals can had on growing the conservative base.
Senator Jim DeMint discusses who his possible replacement will be in the Senate, the future of the GOP, and the future of the country.
GLENN: We have Senator Jim DeMint joining us now and Senator, you are leaving ‑‑ tell me about Tim Scott and who are you pulling for to replace you?
SENATOR DeMINT: If I said, that would probably be the last person to be selected. So I don't want to show my hand. Actually I feel very close to the Republicans in our delegation and most of them were elected in 2010 and very principled people. So ‑‑
GLENN: So whoever?
SENATOR DeMINT: They are all good. Maybe I have a few favorites in there but ‑‑
GLENN: I understand that.
SENATOR DeMINT: I don't want to say. But I trust Governor Haley to make a good decision here and so I feel comfortable I'll be able to support whoever she selects.
GLENN: You were pretty outspoken about John Boehner here in the last week or so and the Republicans, the progressive Republicans are trying to tell the Republican Party that they've got to move left and they have to compromise all of their values, et cetera, et cetera.
SENATOR DeMINT: Well, Glenn, we have to separate what they consider political realities or political expediency from what our country really needs. What the president has been talking about is neither a plan or a solution. His increase in taxes in the top 2% is a drop in the bucket for our deficit and is likely to cost a lot of jobs and result in less revenue because of the way our tax system works. But we will have historic levels of revenue this year in our country, tax revenues. And the thought that if we take more money out of our economy and give it to incompetent, wasteful politicians and bureaucrats, that somehow that's going to help the middle class is completely irrational. The president wants a political trophy and what he is proposing won't solve any problem. So for Republicans to concede that we need more money in Washington when what we really need is less government for our country is just a, it's a bad mistake I think politically but it's certainly bad policy. We cannot concede that we can't cut spending, and what the president put on the table through Geithner was a real joke, it was a slap in the face to any American who is thinking, and Republicans should call it that. And we should have put it on the floor of the House and forced a vote on it so the Americans would see that not even Democrats would vote for what the president's talking about.
GLENN: Correct.
SENATOR DeMINT: But ‑‑ so I understand political realities. I've been there a long time. The president won the election. But the fact is the president can't get anything unless the House passes it, and he's asking for an unconstitutional blank check to create more debt when the congress is there as a backstop so the administration can't keep borrowing money.
GLENN: So why doesn't the House just pass exactly what he's asking? I mean, this is what Rand Paul said. Give him it. Give it to him. Give it to him. Do you agree with that?
SENATOR DeMINT: Well, it wouldn't pass. And two years ago the same situation, same economy. The president said, we can't raise taxes on the 2%. They are the job creators. So the president is feeling his oats from the election when really all we got was a status quo. And the reason he won was not because his policies are good but it was because Republicans didn't talk about what we believed in, in terms that people could relate to. So we tried to make the election about Obama's bad policy instead of making it about our vision for the future.
GLENN: So ‑‑
SENATOR DeMINT: It didn't work.
GLENN: So do you agree with Rand Paul that we should give him what he wants?
SENATOR DeMINT: Well, probably ‑‑ ultimately he's going to get one way or another what he wants and if we did, he couldn't continue to try to blame Republicans for his own policies. The fact is we've already gone over a cliff. We just hadn't hit the bottom yet. So people don't know it. But the policies that are in place through ObamaCare, the spending, the debt, the printing of money to pay for our own debt. As Mitch Daniels said this week, it is inevitable that our country is going to be brought to its knees in the next few months or years. So what we have to do is make sure that the alternatives to that, the solutions for that are in place at least at the state level so that we can pull our country back up.
GLENN: Amen. Let me ask you about Egypt just a bit. Egypt, the people are on the streets. They are protesting again because of another dictatorship. This is, the president is doing exactly what he did in Iran. He's saying nothing. This is the ‑‑ these are the people that are standing up against Sharia law and dictatorship again. And the only thing this administration is doing and with the help of the Senate and the House, we are being silent except with our checkbook. We are sending a Sharia law Muslim extremist dictator money. Why?
SENATOR DeMINT: It's really frustrating if you know anything about history. I visited a lot of the former Soviet republics a few years ago and so many people were thankful for Ronald Reagan just for being their beacon of hope by criticizing the totalitarian government that they were under. And that kept them going. And the fact that we don't have leaders of the free world speaking out in favor of the people who are fighting for the things we advocate. And I'm proud of the people of Egypt. I thought maybe, you know, they overthrew one dictator and they were just going to be happy with another.
GLENN: They're not.
SENATOR DeMINT: But they're not. That means that they have in their hearts the same thing we do, is just a hope for freedom. And they need people who are part of the free world to be advocates for them because we don't have to intervene militarily to embolden them and strengthen them with our words. And it's certainly a deadening silence coming out of Washington.
GLENN: There were people that were in the crowd who were Germans who never thought that wall would come down.
SENATOR DeMINT: Right.
GLENN: Until Ronald Reagan said Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. And when he said that people on both sides of the wall thought, "My gosh, that's a possibility. I never even thought of that being a possibility. "
SENATOR DeMINT: That's the kind of hope we need to instill, not a false hope of government compassion and security but the real hope of freedom. And when you instill that in the heart of a person, they believe it can happen. And once they believe it, it will happen.
GLENN: Senator, I want to thank you personally for giving so many Americans hope. You have been there saying the things that so many have. You've been standing and fighting the hard fight when nobody else would. You have been maligned and made into the ‑‑ made into the guy who brought on the recession all the way to a hate monger racist, you name it. Many people across the country have been made into the same thing. I mean, you're not experiencing anything that we haven't experienced on a smaller scale, no matter where we live in the country. But you've done it and you've done it with class and with honor and we have oftentimes said to each other, "Well, at least there's Senator DeMint. We appreciate your service, sir, and we look for not a ride off into the sunset. I swear to you I'm going to hunt you down myself if you go away.
SENATOR DeMINT: I'm not going anywhere. I'm raising the level here. Glenn, I have to thank you and all the Americans who covered my back through a lot of this, is what keeps me going. Everywhere I go people say thanks for fighting, and it makes me want to jump back in the arena. But I'm still in the arena and I frankly think that you and me and folks outside of congress can do more good than those who are sitting in those seats.
GLENN: Well, anything that you need, Senator. We need your voice and you have our back. So and I mean, we'll put our back into, you know, the direction that you think is important. We'll be with you side by side. So let us know.
SENATOR DeMINT: Thanks, Glenn. Good to be back on your show. See you soon. I'm going to bring a few buses to your Christmas party. I'll see you then.
GLENN: You got it. Thanks a lot. Senator Jim DeMint.
