On Hugh Hewitt’s radio Thursday, National Review columnist Mark Steyn gave a scathing rebuke to the U.S. federal government on the heels of its reopening on earlier in the day.
Steyn, author of “After America: Get Ready for Armageddon,” told Hewitt it was understandable that Republicans like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and his allies in the U.S. Senate would call for Republicans in the House of Representatives to use the power of the purse to pursue certain policy positions.
“Well look, you know, in my book when it came out, whatever it was, a couple of years ago, it had a very simple point, that the question was whether the governing institutions of the United States of America were capable of meaningful course correction,” Steyn explained. “And I think we’ve just seen, whether you fall on Jonah [Goldberg]’s side or on your side, the net result is that we keep telling the world that we’re not capable of serious course correction. And that’s a problem. And I well understand why people like Ted Cruz get impatient with it. They’re right to be impatient with it.”
“Right now, the governing institutions of the United States are utterly repulsive and disgusting,” he continued. “This bipartisan bill agreed yesterday includes $175,000 dollars to the widow of the late senator, Frank Lautenberg, because apparently, it’s the tradition of the Senate to give significant six-figure payments to the widows of distinguished senators. Why is that in this bill? It’s nothing to do with this bill. And that’s why government, more spending, more debt, another trillion dollars as we float free of the debt ceiling, we’re telling the world that this is just the way it is now. No serious course correction can be mounted by America’s governing institutions. That’s a hell of a message.”
Steyn also commented on President Barack Obama’s remarks from the White House following the reopening of the federal government. Steyn slammed him for calling on members of congress to change the way Washington works and not give in to influence from lobbyists or bloggers.
“I resent this coming from a guy like President Obama,” he said. “The only day job he’s ever had was as a professional activist, as a so-called community organizer. You know, the thing he said just after that, where he said you know, you have to stop using shutdowns and all the rest of us, and have to learn from now on that the way to do it is to win the election. I found that very interesting, because the Republican Party in the election for the House of Representatives won the election. They won that election. They’re the majority party in that house. And either that means something under the United States Constitution, or it doesn’t.”
“He was talking, it was fascinating to me, in that moment, he revealed that he saw this country as a presidential republic somewhat closer, to be polite, to France’s, or at worst, to Latin America,” Steyn continued. “In other words, there’s the president, and nobody else matters. He won the only election that matters, and the rest of you are just lobby fodder, and should demonstrate no independent initiatives of your own. And again, he’s saying, he’s saying that essentially what has happened is that the United States Constitution now has become so deformed, that it is no longer operating as it’s meant to.
