This is not an Onion story. Its authors meant it without sarcasm. It appeared on Rep. Steve King’s government website in September shortly after the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) bestowed this ultra-conservative recognition on him, Michelle Bachmann and a host of other extremely anti-worker legislators.
Context is everything. And in Upside-Down World, opposing workers’ rights to the benefit of corporations is pro-worker according to CEI.
What King accomplished this year with labor
Congress set up this agency to create some form of labor peace just as the masses of depression-era poor were revolting at the workplace and in the streets. The labor tension that existed makes Occupy Wall Street look like a walk in a very democratic park. Yes, the NLRB exists to protect workers against exploitation by powerful employers. That’s why it was set up. But this year has seen King’s Republican caucus do everything from threaten to defund the agency, refuse to allow Obama to appoint anyone to fill vacancies so it may operate, and even suggest to can the agency altogether.
Had this passed 1.2 million young adults who are now receiving health care through their parents’ plans would have lost their coverage. 2.7 million seniors would be paying much more in drug prices. 44 million seniors would have lost free preventative services that help with early detection and treatment of diseases and help keep overall health care costs down.
Oppose All Funding to Planned Parenthood:
None of the money the federal government gives to Planned Parenthood funds abortions. Rather, the funds from the federal government give low-income working and poor women access to services like early cancer detection, pap smears, and treatment for gynecological issue, as well as family planning. Wonder if there is a group out there ready to declare Steve King 100% Pro-Woman based on this record.
Steve King thinks we are a nation of “whiners” or “slackers” and is opposed funding the social safety net and has voted against extending unemployment benefits numerous times over his illustrious career. King believes that these slackers and whiners somehow should all be able to fit in a job market that currently has one job for every five applicants. You try to explain the one.
This doozy came out just this past June, when King said a worker is nothing more than a commodity like corn or soy. My question is, but how does he feel about GMO People? And come to think about it, corn has more rights to cross borders than workers, so King better re-think this analogy.
Bonus Quote from REP. STEVE KING:
“United States of America borrows money and hands it to people and tells them, you don’t have to work for this. You don’t have to produce anything for this. We just want you to spend it. That’s your patriotic duty, to take the money that we borrowed from the Chinese, and the debt burden we put on our grandchildren, and put it in people’s hands and say it’s a patriotic thing, take your food stamps and take your rent subsidy and heat subsidy and your unemployment check, and go engage in commerce, that’s patriotic. Um, no? What’s patriotic is, carry your own weight. I mean, John Smith said clear back then in the 1600s, No work, no eat. That also’s part of the New Testament, where he lifted that from I believe is Galatians, He who would not work would also not eat…”
Sources:
workplacechoice.org/scorecard/
steveking.house.gov/king-honored-for-100-pro-worker-voting-record
issues2000.org/House/Steve_King.htm
dailykos.com/Steve-King:-Unemployment-in-America-caused-by-a-nation-of-slackers
Tracy Kurowski has been active with the Labor Movement since 1997 when she became a member of AFSCME 3506 which represents Adult Educators and Coordinators at the City Colleges of Chicago. She has since served as AFL-CIO Community Services Liaison in the Quad Cities Area and most recently is working as a WIN Organizer for the Iowa Federation of Labor.
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