President Barack Obama's claim that all Americans would be able to keep their healthcare insurance under Obamacare is "the biggest lie of my lifetime," and it will haunt the administration for the remainder of Obama's second term, Rep. Steve King tells Newsmax.
The Iowa Republican also warns that immigration reform would be the "most divisive" issue for GOP House members and that he would enthusiastically support Chris Christie if he wins the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.
Urgent: ObamaCare Is About to Strike — Are You Prepared?
Elected in 2002, King is a member of the Judiciary and Agriculture committees and the Tea Party Caucus.
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Former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Obama's "fundamental dishonesty" on the Affordable Care Act has "put in peril the whole foundation of his second term."
In an exclusive interview with Newsmax TV on Monday, King was asked if Obama's second term is slipping away.
"It looks like it at this point," he said.
"Look at some of the presidents over history. Richard Nixon lied to the American people to cover up a break-in at Watergate, but he didn't know about it when it happened. He only found out about it afterward. That's one.
"George H.W. Bush was accused of lying by Democrats when he said, 'Read my lips: No new taxes,' and he took the deal that was offered to him — some tax increases for significant spending cuts. And of course, what he got was tax increases and not the spending cuts.
"Then George W. Bush got accused of lying in the State of the Union address when he said we'd recently learned from the British that the Iraqis were seeking uranium in Africa. That was a true statement. He got accused of telling a lie and beaten up by Democrats every year thereafter.
Urgent: ObamaCare Is About to Strike — Are You Prepared?
"Well, we go through all of that and we see this is the biggest lie in my lifetime, the biggest lie by a president in my lifetime. The president, if he didn't know, he was duped by his own staff and he didn't fire any of them, so I'm going to say he knew.
"And for him to say that if you like your doctors you get to keep them and if you like your policy you get to keep it, period — those two statements will haunt his administration for the duration of his time in office, and they will be how the Obama presidency is characterized 100 years from now."
As for Obama's decision to delay Obamacare's employer mandate for a year, King asserts: "He has no legal authority to change the laws that have been enacted already.
"Some of this starts back in the passage of Obamacare, when President Obama and Nancy Pelosi made a deal with [former Democratic Michigan Rep.] Bart Stupak and the Stupak Dozen and said to them, 'If you will vote for this legislation that included funding for abortion, the president will change the language after it passes by executive order.' That's breathtaking to think that a president could do that.
"Multiple times he has legislated by presidential edict, by press conference even, and now the president announced some months ago that he would delay the employer mandate for a year when the Obamacare law says the employer mandate shall commence in each month following December 2013. That's the law. The president can't change it.
"Congress writes the law. He takes an oath to take care that the law is faithfully executed," King said.
But Republicans in Congress are not holding hearings on what is being called Obama's abuse of power because "the will to do this among the majority of Republicans just doesn't exist," King says.
"They don't want to fight the president over something that's popular like delaying the employer mandate. They want to delay the individual mandate because that's what pleases their constituents.
"Republicans generally want to delay the employer mandate, they want to delay the individual mandate, they want to delay all of Obamacare, and then eventually drag it out and repeal it. I agree with all of those policy pieces but I take the stand that it's a constitutional issue first, and that's where we need to put up our fight."
Asked to assess House Speaker John Boehner's performance and the possibility he could be replaced before the next election, King observes: "John Boehner has been stronger throughout this partial shutdown and the debt ceiling than most everybody thought he would be. He did serve to unify the conference better than I thought.
"We'll have to see how the future issues play out. For example, if immigration comes before the House, it would be the most divisive thing that could be brought up by Republicans in the House. Then I would have a different answer to that question.
"Obama has tried to link Republican Ken Cuccinelli, who is running for governor in Virginia, to the recent government shutdown and paint him as a tea party ideologue more interested in religious and social activism than governing.
"They try to demonize people in whatever way they think is the most effective, and it's pure, raw politics," King says. "It diverts the topic from Obamacare, which is a huge topic in Virginia.
"Cuccinelli would be an outstanding governor for the state of Virginia. The real demon in Virginia is Obamacare. That is the subject in Virginia right now and how a state will deal with the federal mandate that is pushing more people off the roles than it's putting on."
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who some Republicans say is not conservative enough, also is facing an election Tuesday as he seeks a second term.
"I like Chris Christie," King tells Newsmax. "He is a friend, and if it takes a different style for each governor in each state, that's part of the laboratory experiment that we have.
"Chris Christie is a strong leader who leads without hesitation. He doesn't check the political winds or check the polls before he makes a decision. He makes bold, strong, executive decisions.
"And what it takes to be elected in New Jersey, especially by large numbers, which we anticipate, is different than Virginia. It's different than Iowa, it's different than it might be in any of the very conservative states."
King says it would be "interesting" to see how Christie might fare if he runs for president and campaigns for the Iowa Caucus.
"He has a lot of personal magnetism. The activists in the Republican Caucus are, generally, more conservative than at least Chris Christie is now considered to be. On the other hand, let's see what might happen. People are attracted to the dynamism of Chris Christie."
Asked if he would support Christie if he got the nomination, King responds: "Well, of course. If he won the nomination I'd be enthusiastically in support of Chris Christie, and I'm looking forward to it. If he's looking to run for president, I'd like to see him in Iowa, and I expect that will be the case."
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