After months of playing a GOP pundit in Washington, Steve King made an appearance in Iowa today, sticking to his usual outrageous rhetoric and again failing to discuss any ideas that strengthen families in the state.

Appearing in Urbandale, which incidentally isn’t in the new 4^th Congressional District or in King’s current 5^th District, he let loose on issues ranging from the Fair Tax and turned a convenient blind eye to the groups supporting him.

Tax policy shifts the burden to middle class families

During today’s speech, King said he has been a supporter of the Fair Tax since 1980 and warned that Iowans would be hearing a lot more about it during this campaign. Unfortunately for middle class families across the 4^th District, there couldn’t be a more disingenuous name for the policy. Here’s what the Washington Post had to say about this plan:

“Finally, the FairTax would hit the middle class the hardest. Consumers would receive a monthly “prebate” on expenditures up to the federal poverty level, providing a cushion and probably even a modest benefit for those with the lowest incomes. The top earners, those with incomes greater than $200,000, would see significant tax cuts. So who makes up the difference? It’s likely that taxpayers with incomes in the middle range — about $40,000 to $100,000 — would pay more. And they call that a FairTax?”

Dirtiest campaign? Steve King should take a look at those supporting him

Steve King thinks that this will be the dirtiest campaign in state history because of Democratic groups, but is failing to take a look at those who have already come out in support of his campaign.

The Club for Growth, which endorsed King in early May, is known for outrageous ads and mailers, including a 2010 mailing against a Democratic Congressional candidate which directed recipients to a phone sex line as part of a last minute smear campaign.

The American Future Fund endorsed King in April, and became known across Iowa in 2010 for running some of the most deceptive and outrageous ads, spending millions in support of Republican Congressional candidates in the 1^st and 2^nd District.

Will Steve King denounce these tactics or continue to turn a blind eye?

What sticks out from King’s appearance today is that he would rather ignore the facts than address issues that matter to Iowans. His lack of results is evident across the district as even some Republican business leaders are showing their support for Christie Vilsack, confident that she will finally bring the results that Iowa deserves.

Taking the stage at CPAC today, Steve King outlined his priorities. Unfortunately, he failed to mention any ideas for creating jobs, strengthening the middle class, supporting education, or protecting the environment. Instead, he chose to spend his time comparing Capitol janitors to Stasi troops, and attacking energy efficient shower heads.

Here’s reaction from news outlets across the country to King’s latest:

Johns Stanton, Roll Call (@bigjohnrc): Steve king just called janitors in the capitol nancy pelosi’s “stasi troops” for using energy efficient lightbulbs #cpac

Sam Stein, Huffington Post (@samsteinhp): Steve King says his interns would come back “in tears” when they couldn’t find a regular Edison light bulb. #weirdoffice

Alex Koppelman, NewYorker.com (@AlexKoppelman): At CPAC, Steve King just compared janitors who work for Congress to the East German secret police. No, seriously.

The Hill: King compared the Capitol Hill janitors who replaced the lightbulbs in his office with lower-energy bulbs to the East German communist secret police, describing them as “Nancy [Pelosi]‘s stasi troops,” and complained of a water-saving showerhead in his shower.

“I drilled it out and now my 12 minute shower is now a three-minute shower and I have nine minutes every day to beat up on the liberals,” he said to strong cheers and laughs from the highly partisan crowd.

Huffington Post: “I would screw them out and send the interns out to get me some of those good Edison lightbulbs,” he said, the crowd cheering. “And those interns would come back sometimes empty-handed in tears, because they couldn’t come up with a regular Edison light-bulb.”

He said he finally decided it was “cruel and inhumane” to send the interns on that task, so he went to find “black-market” lightbulbs himself. He then was faced with a decision: buy a recyclable bag, which he at first said no to, or pay more.

“Whenever I need to put a lightbulb in the lamp, I reach into this green back and I screw it in there and I smile,” he said. “A little bit of my liberty back, a little bit of my freedom back.”

Des Moines Register: King, a Republican congressman from Western Iowa, railed against “leftists that are deconstructing America on a daily basis” – with rules about calories in Happy Meals, how deep you can dig a moat around a sand castle, where you can toss footballs on the beach, showerheads, flush toilets and lightbulbs.

Once again showing his level of commitment to good government and a focus on the issues that matter to Iowans, Congressman Steve King has hired a Heritage Foundation Lobbyist to direct his legislative agenda in Washington.

Legistorm.com reports:

Maggie Lyons has made a second trip through the revolving door, this time back to Capitol Hill to become legislative director for Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa).

The former aide to Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) has spent the last year-and-a-half at the Heritage Foundation’s sister organization, Heritage Action for America.

Once again Congressman King is standing by an extreme agenda that doesn’t benefit Iowans. Unfortunately, he’s still not willing to get to work.

Follows Presidential Candidates to New Hampshire

DES MOINES – Steve King has made it clear over the past months that the Republican presidential primary is his only priority. Now, just days after the Iowa Caucuses, King continues his roadtrip in New Hampshire, where he served as a keynote speaker at the “We the People Freedom Forum” last night.

Thanks to Jennifer Horn, I will be in Manchester tonight to be a keynote panelist on “We the People” Forum at Southern NH University.

— Steve King (@SteveKingIA) January 5, 2012

“If anyone thought that Steve King would focus on the needs of Iowans now that the caucuses are over, they’re in for a surprise,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky. “Congressman King has spent the last several months playing a full-time pundit instead of talking to Iowans and getting to work.”

King has previously traveled to Texas and South Carolina to moderate Tea Party debates and spent days campaigning for Republicans in Michigan. Meanwhile, he has failed to listen to the needs of Iowans as he stands by his opposition to disaster aid and a tax break for working families.

“Steve King isn’t willing to work for Iowa. If he enjoys playing pundit more than doing the job he was elected to, we would be glad to send him on his way,” added Dvorsky.

Refuse to pass bipartisan payroll tax cut extension 

DES MOINES – Iowa Congressmen Steve King and Tom Latham today voted against working families in Iowa by failing to pass an extension of the payroll tax cut. Even Iowa Republicans agree that their inability to put working families ahead of politics will increase the burden on these families when the current cuts expire next month.

“Steve King and Tom Latham have once again shown Iowans that they will bow to Tea Party extremists, instead of standing up for Iowa families,” said Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky. “This was an opportunity to do the right thing for Iowa families. Unfortunately their vote will stick Iowa families with a $1,000 tax hike in the New Year. It’s unacceptable that this bill, which passed the Senate with widespread Republican support, has been abandoned by Iowa’s Republican Congressmen.”

Prior to today’s vote, Iowa’s Republican Senator Chuck Grassley told Radio Iowa, “If it doesn’t pass the House today, there’s a chance the payroll tax holiday of two percentage points, which on an average family, that might be close to $1,000 a year more spending money, they may not have that spending money at least starting on January the first.”

Source:

- Radio Iowa, “Sen. Grassley fears House may reject payroll tax cut extension,” 12/20/11

- Roll Call Vote 946