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CNS News...
Rep.
Steve
King Says Obama Is Governing Like a ‘King’
By
Elizabeth Harrington
July 2,
2012
(CNSNews.com)
-- Pointing to the Health and Human Services regulation that will
require
virtually all health care plans to cover sterilization, artificial
contraception and abortifacients for free, Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa)
said that
President Barack Obama is governing like a “king.”
The
mandate, which goes into effect on Aug. 1, requires nearly all health
insurers
to provide sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortifacients free of
charge.
President Obama announced the finalized rule on Feb. 10, during a press
conference at the White House.
“The rule
that was published by [HHS Secretary] Kathleen Sebelius directed even
our religious
institutions that are health care providers to provide abortifacients,
sterilizations and contraceptives free of charge as part of every
health care
policy that they would offer, even though it violated the deep
religious
convictions, especially of the Catholic Church, but many others as
well,” Rep.
King told CNSNews.com.
“And when
[President Obama] took two weeks of heat over that and realized that he
had
earned the enmity of the entire Catholic Church and many other faith
organizations -- when they read the letter of the bishops in my church,
which
said, ‘We cannot, we will not obey this unjust law’ -- the president
then held
a press conference at noon on a Friday about two weeks from the time
this rule
was issued.”
President
Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.
(AP
Photo)
“They
didn’t change the rule at all,” he said.
“Not a single letter, not an ‘I’ dot or
a ‘T’ crossed differently, the
same rule exists today that existed when they first ruled it out. The
president
then stepped up at noon on a Friday and he said, ‘I’m going to make an
accommodation to the religious organizations and now I’m going to
require the
insurance companies to do this for free.’
And he repeated himself, ‘for free.’”
“But what
got missed by much of the media was this is the first time that I know
that the
president of the United States had attempted to and may have succeeded
in
legislating by press conference,” he said.
“Press conference.”
“The edict
of the king: ‘I have spoken. So
be it,’”
said King.
“You know,
I can speak about kings with great criticism since I happen to have
that for a
name, but that is an outrageous and an arrogant reach into the history
of our
country, the traditions of our country, the very clear lines that are
there in
the Constitution itself and the separation of powers,” said the
congressman.
“And a
president who takes an oath of office, not just to preserve, protect,
and
defend the Constitution of the United States to the best of his ability
so help
him God,” said King, “but
also -- and as
not just implied but it’s specific in the Constitution -- that that
oath
include that he take care that the laws be faithfully executed.”
“He’s
faithfully executing laws, all right, but not in the fashion or the
definition
that was understood in the Constitution,” said King.
“He’s just shooting them down
willy-nilly one
after another by presidential edict.”
As part of
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare),
Secretary
Sebelius announced in August 2011 a mandate that requires all health
insurers
to offer sterilizations and FDA-approved contraceptives, including
those that
induce abortion...
Read the
rest of this and other articles at CNS News
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