The Republican Party needs to return to its core value — fiscal restraint — if it wants to retake Congress in 2010, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said in a speech to ASU’s College Republicans on Thursday evening.

“If we stick with fiscal discipline, we’ll have the wind at our back next year,” he said.

Flake bemoaned the health care reform bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives Friday as “the worst piece of legislation I’ve ever seen,” which he said will end up costing taxpayers massive amounts of money in entitlements.

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He added that the party has strayed from its core message in recent years, calling the $1.2 trillion Medicare drug benefit legislation passed by the Republican-majority Congress in 2003 “the second worst” bill he had ever seen.

“When we were in charge, it was tough to tell who was who,” he said.

Others echoed Flake’s sentiments at the meeting, who said they were disappointed by the amount of spending and entitlement programs under the Bush administration.

Political science junior Matt Collins said he admires Flake because he focuses more on fiscal issues and government intervention than on social issues like gay marriage and abortion.

The party’s shift away from focusing on social issues, Collins said, has helped bring many conservative, or “blue dog” Democrats, to the Republican side throughout the health care debate.

“If Republicans want to be the majority party again, they have to focus on fiscal [conservatism],” Collins said. “With us focusing on the fiscal side of things, there are a lot more individuals willing to cross party lines.”

Mechanical engineering junior Chad Ripley said the Republicans’ losses in 2006 and 2008 helped steer the party back toward economic and budgetary concerns.

“I think the Republican membership is getting the message,” Ripley said. “They need to focus on fiscal values right now because we’re going through a financial crisis.”

Flake addressed the concerns of the audience of about 50 people in a question-and-answer session, including topics like foreign policy, the media and his weeklong stint on a desert island last month, which garnered him national attention when it was publicized in The Washington Post.

“I didn’t want the press to know about it, but word started to spread in Congress,” he said, adding that he wanted to break the news before it spiraled into an outrageous rumor. “So I went to The Washington Post and they ran an article — next thing I knew, TMZ was following me around the airport.”

Most of all, though, Flake stressed the strategic need for Republicans to provide people with a clear alternative to the Democratic majority in Congress.

“We are the party of limited government,” he said. “If we ever abandon that, we’ll get beat.”