Welcome to the Cato Daily Podcast for Wednesday, February 21st. This is your host Anastasia Glova.

In conjunction with the release of the new Cato Book Leviathan on the right, the Cato Institute hosted a book forum to discuss the issues raised

by its author Michael Tanner. Freedom Works Chairman and former House

majority leader Dick Army, who was one of the panelists at the forum, joins us today in this podcast to add his two cents to the debate

over what happened to the ideals of the Republican Revolution.

Let's begin with, what did you think of the book? It's a sad but true story. I mean it's chapter and verse

The fact the matter is I've said the Republican Party in office has lost its way now

What I tried to say today is real people outside of office holders

have to correct the behavior of people in office.

That's the way you resolve the problem.

What I'm worried about because I've had the same

temptation myself is to just throw up your hands in despair and say, the heck with the Republican

Party, I washed my hands of it. Bob Barr did that. Bob Barr announced that he left the party. Well, that was coming

under the heading a little notice and no long remembered. Or do you stay and you recognize you got a choice? You can either try to rehabilitate the Republican Party into the party of Reagan or you can just let it be Democrat Light and just concede that there will now be no difference in public policy.

It won't make a difference whether you vote for Republicans or Democrats.

But can either party be rehabilitated if both are heading towards the same direction which is bigger more bloated government?

Well, no, you see the problem is the Republican Party has to once again and this fight was fought in the late 70s and early 80s with the Reagan president

the whole effort of getting Ronald Reagan in the White House was the fight was is this going to be the party of small government or is it not?

And this party has to have that fight again.

And what I'm telling the Republicans in office who want to be back in the majority,

want to be committee chairman, so on. If you guys ever want to be back in the majority, want to be committee chairman, so on.

If you guys ever want to be shining again in the eyes of the voters, you had better get back

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