Republican Steve King Voted Against Mandate to Delay Obamacare
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Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) is part of the Tea Party Caucus - the major component to the Congressional squabble that has led to most of the federal government shutting down.
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King is an outspoken conservative hailing from Storm Lake, Iowa. He attended Northwest Missouri State University before dropping-out to establish his own earth-moving company, King Construction.
King first ran for the Iowa Senate in 1996 and defeated Democrat Eileen Heiden. His tenure lasted until 2002 when Iowa redistricted. He then ran for the U.S. House of Representatives and won a seat in Congress that he still holds today.
King is known for his incredibly conservative ideologies, which led him to join the Tea Party Caucus after its establishment in 2010. Despite his conservative ideologies, Rep. King surprised many when he voted against passing the measure to delay Obamacare's individual mandate.
Even with his vote against his fellow Conservatives, King supported the Conservative stance on the issue. A New York Times article states:
"What gives House Republicans the idea that they can triumph in their push to repeal, or at least delay, the Affordable Care Act when so many veteran voices in their party see it as an unwinnable fight?'Because we’re right, simply because we’re right,' said Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, one of the most conservative of House lawmakers. 'We can recover from a political squabble, but we can never recover from Obamacare.'"
While Steve King condones the actions of his party, and his fellow Congressmen - namely Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) - continue to delay the inevitable, 800,000 people sit at home without pay and the economy will lose about $1 billion a week.
"I do not support Obamacare," stated a small-businnes owner from Iowa, who wished to remain anonymous. "But I support a government shutdown even less, and I think that is why [Rep. Steve King] voted against the delay."
Rep. Steve King was not the only Tea Party Caucus member to vote with House Democrats. Paul Braun (R-Georgia), Phil Gingery (R-Georgia), Joe Barton (R-Texas), Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) and, founder of the House Tea Party Caucus, Michele Bachman (R-Minn) all voted against passing the measure to delay Obamacare.
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