Rep. Salmon to Tony Perkins: House Republicans are 'the last bastion of freedom'

An Arizona congressman on Monday told Family Research Council President Tony Perkins that Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives had a duty to stop President Barack Obama because they were "the last bastion of freedom."

"We cannot let President Obama keep advancing his agenda," Rep. Matt Salmon (R-AZ) said during an interview on Perkins' Washington Watch radio show. "We have got to stop it at every turn."

"You are the last bastion of freedom for this country, and we’re counting on you. So, use every tool in your toolbox," he added.

But Perkins observed that "Republicans tend to be too concerned about keeping the majority than using it."

"You know, if that’s where we’re at then you will lose it," the Arizona Republican agreed.

Salmon compared Republicans who refused to use all the power of their office to oppose Obama to the parable of the the talents in the Bible, where a servant was rebuked and cast out for saving his master's money instead investing it.

"The one that buried up his talents, was afraid that he would lose them, lost everything in the end," the congressman warned.

Earlier this year, Salmon told CBS News that it was "about time" for another government shutdown.

"I think it drove Bill Clinton in a different direction, a very bipartisan direction," he said of the 1995 federal governor shutdown. "In fact, we passed welfare reform for the first time ever, and we cut the welfare ranks in the last decade and a half by over 50 percent. These are good things."

Listen to the audio below from the Family Research Council, broadcast March 19, 2013.

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(h/t: Right Wing Watch)