While Mitt Romney remains under scrutiny for his comment that 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government, Congressman Steve King has his own version. King has proven time and time again that he does not support the middle class and instead, believes that those Iowans looking for work are part of a “nation of slackers,” and has even suggested that everyone should work until they’re 74.  

The truth is, Congressman King has been making the same type of comments for years. Perhaps Mitt Romney is just following his lead:

King said unemployment benefits have created “a nation of slackers”

Speaking on the House floor, King made the disparaging remarks towards unemployed Americans:

“The 80 million Americans that are of working age but are simply not in the workforce need to be put to work. We can’t have a nation of slackers and then have me have to sit in the Judiciary Committee listening to them argue that there’s work that Americans won’t do, so we have to import people to do the work that Americans won’t do, and borrow money to pay the welfare of people that won’t work. That is a foolish thing for a nation to do. We’ve gotta get this country back to work and get those people out of the slacker rolls and onto the employed rolls.” [Congressional Record, 9/15/11]

During an Ames fundraiser, King defined working age as 16-74

According to the Ames Tribune:

“King decried welfare programs, saying they prevent people from seeking jobs. He cited his own research as proof, noting that roughly 100 million Americans of working age are not currently working. King defined working age as 16 to 74. 

“’I took it out to 74 because Walmart hires at 74, and we pay unemployment at 74,’ King said.” [Ames Tribune, 7/17/12]

Appearing on CNN King said that those not in the workforce should “feel some guilt” and that allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for the wealthiest Americans is “class envy”

Appearing on CNN, King called plans to let the Bush tax cuts on the highest earners expire “class envy” and when speaking about Americans not in the workforce, added, “I like an America where people feel some guilt about that and they want to step up and help and carry their fair share of the work.” [CNN, 7/10/12]

During the same CNN interview, King said Americans are guaranteed a “middle-income standard of living”

“It’s almost a government guarantee from a middle income standard of living from programs. I like when Americans feel guilt about that and want to step up and carry their fair share of the work. There are too many Americans not contributing to the gross domestic product in the United States today.” [CNN, 7/10/12]

Speaking on the House floor last year, King said “growing dependency class” is “not as productive” as the rich

KING: They [Pelosi and Obama] were working on their vision of America which is transfer payments, tax the rich, transfer those payments to other people that aren’t as fortunate, or I—I’ll say not as productive, they may not be as fortunate.

While this is going on, the deficit was growing, a dependency class was growing and that was what was going on. There was a concerted effort to borrow money from the Chinese and transfer that money over into the pockets of a growing dependency class to create a bigger dependency class because that was the political base that was supporting the Democrats and still does. [PoliticalCorrection.org, 3/3/11]

This isn’t the type of representation Iowans deserve. They deserve someone who will stand up for the middle class and work productively to do the right thing for the 4^th District.