King's Fight Against Gov't Shutdown Falls Short

Rep. Peter King has never been one to mince words and with the government headed toward its first shutdown in nearly two decades Monday, his harshest words were directed at his fellow Republicans. 

King, R-Seaford, was one of only five House Republicans to vote against a final hour spending measure Monday night that was doomed to fail in the Democrat-controlled Senate because it defunded the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. 

King did not lay down without a fight, however, as he spent Monday attempting to lead a moderate coup against the Republican leadership, according to a Daily Beast report. 

“It’s going nowhere, there’s no endgame,” King told fellow Republicans before the vote, referring to the standoff, the report says. “It’s bad for the Congress. It's bad for the government, bad for the country.”

King said the effort to dismantle Obamacare "goes against the whole spirit of the Constitution," the report says. 

In the end, though, House Speaker John Boehner sided with the hardline Republicans, including Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, whom King has called "a fraud," according to a New York Times article.

King, in a phone call with Patch Tuesday afternoon, said that while media reports have been referring to him as "moderate," he considers himself a "commonsense conservative." 

He is also no fan of Obamacare. He just doesn't like how members of his party are going about attacking it. 

"I think it's crazy shutting down the government of the United States of America trying to in effect repeal a law that we passed," King said, adding that if Obamacare is to be repealed, it should be through conventional means. 

"I want to repeal it, then you do it the right way," he said. You repeal it in the House. You repeal it in the Senate. You have a president sign it. And to do that you have to elect more Republicans to the House, more Republicans to the Senate and a Republican president. 

"That's a legitimate way to do it," he added. "You don't try to shut the government down if you don't get what you want."

 Do you agree with Peter King that attempts to defund Obamacare goes against the spirit of the Constitution? Sound off in the comments section below.