Craziest Republican of the Day: Steve King

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Certifiable GOP wacko Rep. Steve King (R-IA) -- who's been our CRD several times before (see here, here, here, and here, not to mention here) -- yesterday made what TPM's Rachel Slajda graciously called "an original argument... for why health care reform is unconstitutional."

Responding to Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO), who made the sensible and oft-made case that "health insurance counts as interstate commerce and therefore falls under the Congress's constitutional powers, King argued that there are people who never even use health care -- and therefore a law requiring them to buy insurance is unconstitutional." And just who are these people? "There have always been and likely will always be, babies that were born, lived and died within the jurisdictions of the individual states," he said, "who never cross a state line, access no health care and therefore do not impact interstate commerce."

Wait... what? Polis was confused, too. Just who are these people who as babies don't receive any health care at all? This is priceless in its craziness:

I hate to tell you but they show up in garbage cans around this country, sir,

said King.

Yes, that's right, the interstate commerce argument doesn't apply because of all those babies in garbage cans who manage to live and die without ever accessing health care.

"Polis was more or less speechless," notes Slajda. Can you blame him? This is just the sort of unsubstantiated claim, just the sort of insanity with a straight face, Republicans pass off as rational argument on a regular basis -- not just with respect to health-care reform but with respect to pretty much everything.

I realize that Republicans oppose the very idea of factual evidence, but here's the video: