Former House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s Virginia constituents surprised the entire Republican establishment by dumping Cantor and voting in an economist in last June’s primary with a compellingly principled message.

Since Cantor passed on serving out his term in favor of “cashing out” to go to Wall Street, Dave Brat has a heads up on seniority compared to all other freshmen elected in November for the 114th Congress that starts in January. Sworn in on November 11 to serve out Cantor’s term, the economist will now be able to vote during the “lame duck” 113th Congress.

In this exclusive Daily Caller video interview, Brat was asked whether the Congress should fight or fund President Obama’s executive amnesty when Congress has some leverage when the government funding bill expires on December 11.

He said he hopes the Republican leadership doesn’t “abandon the power of the purse” by saying there would never be a government shutdown. “I don’t think our leadership would want to give up their leverage over the entire U.S. economy. I hope that’s not where they are moving.”

If President Obama shuts down the government instead of accepting a short term government funding bill that bridges to the new Congress in January, Brat says Republicans will need to improve their messaging efforts to speak to America.

To Brat, the mandate of the November election was simple. It was to stop President Obama’s fundamental transformation of the country. In discussing a talk by New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to freshmen last week, Brat says, “[Political leaders] are not taking charge of the country and the people feel ill at ease. They are frustrated, they are not at peace.”

Brat ran for office on six Republican principles, he tells us – “free market, equal treatment under the law, fiscal responsibility, adherence to the Constitution, strong national defense and belief in God.” He suggests what is missing in Washington to make the right decisions come down to “political courage.”

Commenting on Obamacare and the infamous economist, Jonathan Gruber, whose recently exposed videos demonstrate fraudulent packaging to market Obamacare, Brat says as a fellow economist it’s “a sad day for the profession” since Gruber “reverse engineered” economics to sell central planning. Brat says the economic term is “fatal conceit” — that government can plan for 300 million people better than they can plan for themselves.

Brat hopes Congress will rein in welfare fraud as they end the corporate version in coming months. On Common Core, he found that both parents and teachers object to the top-down curriculum. Brat says, Common Core “violates the teacher-pupil relationship, just as Obamacare violated the doctor-patient relationship.”

For more on Congressman Dave Brat, go to his website.

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