Steve King: Showdown coming on health care

WASHINGTON — Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, doesn’t shy away from talk of a possible government shutdown next year.

“If the president wants to shut down the government, that’s his call,” King said in an interview.

King fully expects a showdown with President Barack Obama over health care in 2011.

In a Republican caucus brimming with critics of “Obamacare” — his party’s derisive name for the new health care law — King, 61, has made a name for himself. From the start, he has been among its most strident critics, and he was one of the first to introduce legislation to repeal it.

He’s gathered 173 signatures so far on a petition that would force a floor vote on his proposal. He needs 218.

He even has the signature of one Democrat, Rep. Gene Taylor of Mississippi, and he is trolling for more. Many of the conservative Blue Dog Democrats who protected themselves politically by voting against the health care bill, he said, need to show where they stand on repeal.

“Let them sign the discharge petition. They need to show they’re serious,” King said of the Blue Dogs.

It’s likely that King’s efforts are a dry run for January. If Republicans retake the majority, repealing the health care law will be the first order of business, the Iowa congressman vows. House Republican leaders also signaled as much when they recently unveiled their Pledge to America.

To achieve repeal, Republicans also will need control of the Senate, something no longer considered a long shot. Yet even if that happens, King said, he knows Obama can stop a repeal with a veto.

That, he said, sets the stage for the next act.

If Republicans control the House, he said, they can “de-fund” the health care bill by not including money for it in spending bills. All spending bills have to originate in the House, he said, so control of the Senate wouldn’t matter. If the president vetoes spending bills that don’t contain health funding, the government could shut down, as it briefly did in late 1995 and early 2006.

“We’re not going wobbly,” King said of Republicans’ determination to derail Obama’s signature accomplishment.

Stephen Wayne, a political scientist at Georgetown University, said that if Republicans want a fight, they will get one.

“The president regards health care as an important part of his legacy. He will fight for it tooth and nail,” Wayne said.

The key to who wins, Wayne said, is likely the economy. If the economy improves, it will lift the mood of Americans, giving Obama more wind at his back as he defends the law.

But if the economy deteriorates further, he said, and Obama’s approval rating drops below 40 percent, “he is really going to be on the defensive.”

Wayne said he expects Republicans to focus their attack on derailing the most unpopular parts of the health care law, such as the mandate that all individuals buy insurance.

“That’s seen as going against individual freedom,” he said.

King said he knows the current health care system needs improvement. But better steps than Obama’s bill, he said, would be to allow purchasing policies across state lines, tort reform and making health insurance tax deductible for all — not just those who get it through their employers.

By Paul Barton, Capitol News Connection