Leaders with Ginni Thomas: Rep. Steve Southerland

Rep. Steve Southerland, 46, left his funeral home business to run for Congress nearly two years ago. He won a tight election in a Democratic-leaning district in 2010 and joined 87 other freshmen Republicans who flipped the balance of power in the House. Today, 11 months into the job, Southerland stands out as a real leader with clear vision and strong faith that is tested regularly in the nation’s capital.

As the first Republican to represent his district since 1882, Southerland is one of 20 whom the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has pledged to defeat in 2012. The Daily Caller’s Ginni Thomas sat down last week with him to hear what makes him tick.

In this interview, this Freshman says and sees what many others don’t:

While America is clearly broke, the Obama Administration is “redistributing our wealth” to other nations, according to Southerland, through the Federal Reserve and the IMF.
Southerland derides the wealth and “money flowing like honey” around Washington, D.C.’s power centers, evidenced by nine construction cranes visible from the U.S. Capitol. He would be hard pressed, he said, to find nine in the entire state of Florida.
He describes “standing as a sentry” on behalf of the fishermen from his district who are just trying to make a living. Southerland describes an entire way of life squaring off against excessive regulations from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries office — part of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Why have we not seen bolder spending reductions from Congress?