Rep. Steve King Boasts Of GOP Leaders’ ‘Mendacity’

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Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) literally accused the Republican leadership of the House of being a bunch of big old liars on the floor of the House last night. But that isn’t exactly what he meant.

During a rant on the floor of the House about health care, King used the word “mendacity” — meaning untruthfulness — where he likely meant the opposite.

“As I deliberate and I listen to the gentleman from Tennessee, I have to make the point that when you challenge the mendacity of the leader or another member, there is an opportunity to rise to a point of order, there is an opportunity to make a motion to take the gentleman’s words down, however many of the members are off on other endeavors and I would make the point that the leader and the speaker have established their integrity and their mendacity for years in this Congress and I don’t believe it can be effectively challenged and those who do so actually cast aspersions on themselves by making wild accusations,” King said.

Watch the video below.

King also said that denying health care wasn’t a civil rights issue, but rather a simple business decision. It didn’t make sense for insurance companies to be forced to give just anyone health care, just like it wouldn’t make sense for them to be forced to give people fire insurance, King said.

“Couldn’t we then just, you know, set up our little Blackberry with an automatic send and wait for the fire alarm to go off and on the way down the steps to bail out of the burning house you could just click send, automatically they’d have to give you a policy so that your house could be rebuilt and — if it’s ever on fire,” King said.

[Ed. note: Errors in King’s quote were corrected after publication.]

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