Republicans have responded to passage of the health care law by promising to build a new movement to repeal the measure. Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Rep. Steve King (R-IA) and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) introduced legislation to rescind the law, but with financial reform debate heating up, Republicans have put the repeal effort on the back burner. And, they’ve become anxious about replacing some of reforms popular provisions.
On Thursday, King appeared on the Scott Hennen Show to express his frustration with his party’s reluctance to support a full repeal and register his disapproval with all parts of the law:
KING: And this should have happened almost instantly and spontaneously. And instead it’s going slow because there are Republicans who are arguing they don’t want to have to be opposed to every component of ObamaCare. They want to nuance this a little bit. And whenever you get nuance, you get divided by the enemy. And they scatter you across the battlefield and take you apart. We’ve got to stand on this thing as a central square. And our leadership has been pretty good. Mike Pence has signed on to the bill and he’s been very clear in where he stands. I don’t have John Boehner signed on yet. I don’t have Eric Cantor signed on. A number of the other people in leadership have not.
King is so universally opposed to ObamaCare that he declared his opposition to a provision that would allow younger Americans to stay on their parents’ policies until they turn 26. King awkwardly recalled an allegory about ordering grown-up children to dig up an iron pen once they turn 18. Listen:
“If we wait and see, we will see an Obama juggernaut take over this country and we’ll never get our freedom back,” King said. He also hinted that he could leave the Republican party if he can’t convince his colleagues to support the measure. “If we leave any component of it in there, it has, it’s just become a malignant tumor that’s attacking our liberty and our freedom and it’s diminishing our aspirations and it saps our overall productivity as a nation,” King said. “If we can’t come to that conclusion, then I want some new people to come help me.”
For all their uncertainty, Republicans still seem intent on running on some kind of repeal. Earlier this month, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said repealing this bill “has to be our No. 1 priority.”
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