Rep. Peter King (R-NY) urged Republicans this morning to try working constructively with Democrats on improving the recently passed health care bill.
“We Republicans, we can’t just pile on it, not just say, ‘we’re going to repeal,’ not just tear it apart. We have to be constructive,” King said on Imus in the Morning, breaking with prominent conservatives like Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), who continues to advocate outright repeal of the bill.
“We also have to avoid demonizing,” King continued. “Republicans tried that with Bill Clinton in 1998 during the whole Monica Lewinsky affair, and we ended up losing seats.”
Later in the interview, King praised some elements of the bill, such as protecting patients with pre-exisiting conditions from losing their insurance, but emphasized that he disagreed with the overall approach: “This is going to be, overall, a government-run plan, and that’s what we have to show.”
We should’ve worked within the system we have, and that’s the point we have to make.
Watch it:
